Paint out at Leixlip with PEBV

This saturday we meet near Leixlip for coffee at the Orchard Garden centre - we have a new market in the village on saturdays so parking is diffuclt there. It is a short drive to the Wonderful barns in Leixlip or the canal, village or river Lifffey.. 

In 1740-41, famine spread across Europe following a great frost – the so-called ‘Black Spring’. Rivers froze, and water-powered mills that ground grain into flour stopped working. This led to a flour scarcity, hoarding by wholesalers, exorbitant pricing and theft of grain. To avoid a repetition, the government decided to build large, secure grain stores.

The ‘Wonderful Barn’ was commissioned by local landlord, Katherine Conolly, widow of William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. It was built in 1743 by John Glin (of a long line of Dublin builders). Glin lived at the site of Glebe House, Main Street, Leixlip.

The five-storey, conical structure has five vaulted chambers. The walls are some 60-90 cm thick; the interior is limewashed English bond red brick, the exterior rendered cut-limestone. It was protected from the prevailing south-west rain by slates affixed to the exposed side. The Barn is 22.25 metres high and affords views over the surrounding countryside from the top, including nearby Castletown House. The battlemented viewing platform is reached by a spiral staircase up the outside of the structure. Two smaller copies of the Barn (dovecotes) within the site were used
to house pigeons which fed off spilt grain. They were slaughtered for their meat (‘squab’) in winter.