Overview
Retreat House — Barrack Road is recorded as house in Kildare. Archival Description [Demolished 2013]: Detached five-bay two-storey house, extant 1778, on an L-shaped plan single-bay (three-bay deep) two-storey lower return (east).
Why it was built
The saved account records: Archival Description [Demolished 2013]: Detached five-bay two-storey house, extant 1778, on an L-shaped plan
People and work
The saved account records: single-bay (three-bay deep) two-storey lower return (east).
How it changed
The saved account records: Renovated, ----, to accommodate alternative use.
What survives
The saved account records: Set in redeveloped grounds with roughcast stepped boundary wall to perimeter having concrete coping.
Why it mattered
Retreat House — Barrack Road matters for the exact reasons given in its official assessment, rather than merely because it is an old structure. The source records: Archival Appraisal [Demolished 2013]: A house representing an integral component of the domestic built heritage of Ballitore with the architectural value of the composition suggested by such attributes as the compact plan form centred on a somewhat featureless doorcase; and the slight diminishing of the widely spaced openings on each floor producing a graduated visual impression. NOTE: Occupied (1778) by Richard Shackleton (1726-92) and Elizabeth Shackleton (née Carleton) (1726-1804) and mentioned by their daughter, Mary Leadbeater (1758-1826), in her diary (1779): "My parents and their three daughters were now… This explains what the place adds to local life, the street or the surviving built history.
History checked 15 August 2026 against the named sources below.
Places near here
- Moated site in Ballitoremonumentunder 0.1 miles
- building misc — Ballitorebuildingunder 0.1 miles
- Mary Leadbeater House — Ballitorebuilding0.1 miles
- tannery — Ballitorebuilding0.1 miles
- house — Ballitorebuilding0.1 miles
- water pump — Ballitorebuilding0.1 miles
- The Hall — Ballitorebuilding0.1 miles
- E. Butterfield — Ballitorebuilding0.1 miles
- bridge — Ballitorebuilding0.1 miles
- O'Connor — Ballitorebuilding0.1 miles
- Kelly — Ballitorebuilding0.1 miles
- The Corner House — Ballitorebuilding0.1 miles
Add the human story, a picture, a first-hand message or a missing place.
Earn 5 points after the picture is checked and accepted.
Add a pictureAdd its storyTalk or ask a questionAdd a new placeThis official record and map point do not grant access. Most recorded buildings are privately owned; view them only from public ground unless the owner allows entry.
Conversation about this place
Questions and messages sit beneath the source record. They are checked before appearing.
No questions or messages yet.
Ask a question or join the conversation