post box

Wall-mounted cast-iron post box, erected c. 1925, having ‘Post Office’ in raised lettering over projecting letter flap and ‘Carron Company Stirlingshire’ foundry mark to the base. Set into rendered wall of corner-sited building to the centre of Killybegs.

This simple post box is an appealing, if subtle feature in the streetscape to the centre of Killybegs. The modest design of the post box is enhanced by the raised lettering, which enlivens the appearance of this otherwise functional object. Its survival is testament to the quality of its original design and manufacture. It was cast at the Carron Company foundry (est. 1759, and was the largest iron foundry in Europe for a period during the first half of the nineteenth-century) in Stirlingshire, Scotland, and represents an interesting artefact of mass-produced cast-iron work. It is unusual in that it doesn't have a royal cipher or later Irish insignia. It is perhaps a pre-Independence era post box with the royal cipher removed after 1922, and therefore represents a subtle form of cultural reclamation. It is located at a corner site, which is a logical location for a post box for obvious reasons, but it may have been moved to its present site from another location in Killybegs.