Letterkenny - Architecture

Architecture

Main article: Architecture of Letterkenny See also: Public art in Letterkenny

Many of Letterkenny's more notable buildings were built in the early 1850s—or earlier. These include educational and ecclesiastical buildings. The town's tallest building is the Cathedral of St. Eunan and St. Columba, which was completed in 1901. The Cathedral was designed by William Hague from County Cavan. It is built in a light Victorian neo-Gothic version of the French 13th-century Gothic style. Located opposite the Cathedral, at the junction of Church Street with Cathedral Square, is Conwal Parish Church, parts of which date from the 17th century.

Another dominant building in the town is the historic Saint Eunan's College. Saint Eunan's is a three-storey castelated structure with four round towers at each corner of the building. It was constructed in the Edwardian version of the neo-Hiberno-Romanesque style. Other architecturally notable buildings can be found at Mount Southwell Terrace, which is located at the top of the Market Square, just off Castle Street. This Georgian-style terrace of red brick was built in 1837 by Lord Southwell. The terrace contains five of the most distinctive examples of Georgian houses in Letterkenny and also served as the holiday home of Maud Gonne who stayed here while on holiday in Donegal. St. Conal's Psychiatric Hospital is a large Victorian neo-Georgian structure located on the Kilmacrennan Road in the town. One of the most notable buildings in West Ulster, the oldest parts date from the 1860s. The hospital's chapel was built in the neo-Norman style in the 1930s.

The Donegal County Museum is housed in the old workhouse and is located on the High Road. It was built in 1843 in the neo-Tudor style typical of this kind of building.

In more recent years, Letterkenny has seen more unusual architectural development. The new Letterkenny Town Council offices, known locally as "The Grasshouse", were designed by Donegal-based MacGabhann Architects. One of its most notable features is its distinctive sloping grass roof situated above a broad band of aluka matt cladding although it is also noticeable for its runway-like ramp to the first-floor concourse. It is said to be a building of international interest.

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