McKee Irish
Army Barrack

The conservation roofing project at McKee Irish Army Barracks Dublin attracted a huge amount of interest across Ireland.

The architectural heritage building was designed by Lt Col. J.F. Marsh (The Royal Engineer’s department). The original architects have been named as Thomas Edmund Hudman and Robert Martin Barklie. Opened in 1888 the scale of the building is awe inspiring. 

The original barracks building (formerly Grangegorman / Marlborough Barracks) took 4 years to complete, at a cost of 80 thousand pounds and had capacity to house a phenomenal 862 NCOs, men and their horses. 

Built by the British Army it was later transferred to the ownership of the Irish Defence Force. 

LBS supplied 124,000 new Dreadnought clay roof tiles on time to complete this project!

The original roof on this prestigious Irish heritage building used a naturally pigmented single camber clay tile that was typical of tiles manufactured in the late nineteenth, early twentieth century in the UK. To have used artificially coloured or stained clay tiles for the re-roof would have been a disservice to the rich architectural heritage of this building, and as such, the architect chose to use naturally fired Dreadnought Country Brown clay tiles. 

Dreadnought established in 1805 manufacture clay roof tiles in a traditional way and achieve a wide variety of colours and finishes using only kiln temperature to achieve the desired colour during the firing process. 

The Country Brown tiles look stunning against a traditional red brick facade.

Architect Eamon McCarney (Taylor Architects – Castlebar). Conservation accredited.
Builder Brian Bourke (Bourke Builders – Ballina) Restoration Roofing Contractors