prison/jail

Detached seven-bay four-storey former prison, built c.1740, with advanced end bays. Now in use as outlet centre with living apartments to third floor. Modern extension to rear and modern three-storey roofed walkway linking main building to modern cylindrical four-storey stone-clad stairwell tower. Internally, jail has been largely renovated, although front block has been retained. Tiled roof is concealed by castellated parapet wall with stepped rendered chimneystacks. Random coursed limestone walls with tooled quoins and window surrounds to front elevation. String courses above second and third storeys. Niches and loops-like windows to towers. Stone and rendered walls to rear and side elevations. Label mouldings to windows of three central bays. Segmental- and pointed-segmental-arched door openings to centre and end bays. Hood moulding to central entrance, leading to arcade of shops. Replacement timber sash windows. Cast-iron gates to main entrance. Structure is street-fronted and situated in a prominent position at the northern end of Market Square.

This former prison, built by the Roscommon landlord, The Earl of Essex is reminiscent of late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century fortified houses as seen at Portumna and Rathfarnham. The impressive stone edifice is locally attributed to Richard Cassels and has had a chequered career. Having served as a jail for less than a century, it subsequently became a lunatic asylum, then a refuge for smallpox sufferers, a market house and later a private house. Stone Court Centre was opened in 1999.