Overview
Roscommon County Library — Galway Road is recorded as hospital/infirmary in Roscommon. Detached three-bay three-storey over basement former infirmary, built 1783, with entrance breakfront and two-bay flanking wings to north and south and central square-profiled tower. Pitched and hipped tiled roofs with carved stone eaves brackets, rendered chimneystacks and finial to tower.
Why it was built
The saved account records: Detached three-bay three-storey over basement former infirmary, built 1783, with entrance breakfront and two-bay flanking wings to north and south and central square-profiled tower.
People and work
The saved account records: Pitched and hipped tiled roofs with carved stone eaves brackets, rendered chimneystacks and finial to tower.
How it changed
The saved account records: Rendered walls with limestone plinth course, quoins, continuous sill course to first floor windows and frieze and cornice to central tower.
What survives
The saved account records: Basement bounded by plinth wall surmounted by cast-iron railings.
Why it mattered
Roscommon County Library — Galway Road matters for the exact reasons given in its official assessment, rather than merely because it is an old structure. The source records: This impressive public building, once used as an infirmary, was built by Mrs. Walcott, sister of the Lord Chief Justice Caulfield in 1783 for the poor of the county. It stands as a prominent edifice with the central block, large tower and flanking wings out-scaling all surrounding buildings. Its balanced and symmetrical design is enlivened by elaborate fenestration and dressed stonework, resulting in a structure of architectural and technical merit. 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
- The Lodge — Galway Roadbuildingunder 0.1 miles
- Burial in Ardnanaghmonumentunder 0.1 miles
- Roscommon Christian Brothers Monastery — Galway Roadbuilding0.1 miles
- The Abbey — Abbeytownbuilding0.1 miles
- Convent of the Immaculate Conception — Convent Roadbuilding0.1 miles
- Indicated — Ballypheasanmonument0.1 miles
- Roscommon Railway Station — Galway Roadbuilding0.1 miles
- Graveslab in Ballypheasanmonument0.1 miles
- Architectural fragment in Ballypheasanmonument0.2 miles
- graveyard/cemetery — Circular Roadbuilding0.2 miles
- Mapped graveyard — County Roscommonmemorial0.2 miles
- Abbey — Ballypheasanmonument0.2 miles
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