Store or warehouse in Rathmelton, County Donegal (40800412)

Attached three-bay three-storey former store\warehouse, built c. 1800, having central gablet to the main elevation (north) and with single-storey red brick outbuilding to the north-east corner, added c. 1900. Formerly also with attic storey. Formerly in use as storage for a public house (Sweeney's Bar) since c. 1962. Now disused. Pitched natural slate roof with projecting cut stone eaves to front (north) and rear (south) elevations, clay ridge tiles, and with replacement rainwater goods. Pitched natural slate roof to gablet. Random rubble stone walls with flush roughly squared stone quoins to the corners. Hand-painted signage to east gable at first floor level reading ‘River Entrance, Sweeney’s Bar, est. 1795’; modern metal sign above carriage-arch to the front elevation (north). Square-headed window openings to front elevation (north) having rubble stone voussoirs, rendered surrounds, modern concrete lintels, wrought-iron security bars, and with two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows at ground floor level and with battened timber shutters over at first and second floor level. Square-headed former loading bays to central bay at first and second floor level having rubble stone voussoirs, cement rendered surrounds, and with battened timber double-doors; loop hole over loading bay at second floor level having red brick infill with wrought-iron hook for lifting mechanism. Shallow segmental-headed carriage-arch to the centre of the main elevation having rubble stone voussoirs, roughly squared rubble stone block-and-start surround, and with battened timber double doors. Road-fronted a short distance to the west of to the centre of the quayside at Ramelton, and a short distance to the north of the centre of the town. River Leanne adjacent to the north. Yards to the rear (south-east) and to the south-west side. Sweeney’s Bar to the south, single-bay single-storey addition to house to the south-west attached to the west gable end.

This impressive and imposing former warehouse\stores forms part of an important collection of buildings of this type aligning the historic quayside at Ramelton. Although out of use for a considerable period, it survives in relatively good condition. Its integrity is enhanced by the retention of salient fabric such as the natural slate roof and battened timber doors. The timber sliding sash windows at ground floor level are probably later replacements but are in keeping with the fabric. It is robustly constructed in rubble stone masonry, a feature of the surviving warehouses at Ramelton. This building is one of the earliest surviving former warehouses at Ramelton (depicted on Ordnance Survey first edition six-inch map of c. 1837), and it possibly dates to the end of the eighteenth century; many of the other warehouses to the north-east are later additions, c. 1860. The loading bays with metal hook mechanism over are indicative of its original use. It serves as an historic reminder of the town’s industrial and maritime heyday during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Ramelton prospered during the eighteenth and nineteenth century as a major port with trade with Britain, Norway, America, and the Caribbean, particularly important (there are accounts of ships from the Caribbean anchored in Lough Swilly and unloading exotic cargoes at Ramelton in exchange for linen, corn, meat and fish). Ramelton had the most important linen works in Donegal and many fortunes were made in the locality in its trade. The Watt family ran the largest linen works in the area by the start of the nineteenth century and were heavily involved in its trade (Samuel Watt moved to Jamaica in the early 1800s and began importing linen from Ramelton, with his brother James as agent). Corn was another major commodity in the area during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with a number of large mills still surviving in the area. The surviving warehouses, particularly aligned along the north-east end of the quay, attest to the level of trade and commerce in the Ramelton area. Slater’s Directory of 1846 records that ‘vessels of up to one hundred and fifty tons burthen can come up to the quayside [at Ramelton] at high water, and others, almost of any tonnage, can approach within half a mile of the town’. The town and port declined in importance towards the end of the nineteenth century, and the establishment of a railway line to nearby Letterkenny in 1909, with no rail link being built to Ramelton, hastened the decline. This former warehouse\store forms part of an important collection of industrial structures that contributes substantially to the almost unique character of the town of Ramelton, and is an integral element of the built heritage of County Donegal.