elphin local area plan 2009 - 2015 - Roscommon County Council

Chapter 6: Built and Natural Heritage
The Architectural Heritage Protection Guidelines for Planning Authorities (2004) produced by the
DoEHLG aims to support the effort of protecting architectural heritage. They offer guidance to Planning
Authorities on the criteria to be applied when selecting structures for inclusion in the RPS, on issuing a
declaration on a protected structure and on determining planning applications in relation to protected
structures, proposed protected structures or the exterior of a building within an Architectural Conservation
Area (ACA). While the guidelines are primarily aimed at Planning Authorities, they are also of assistance
to owners and occupiers of protected structures, buildings within ACAs, and to those proposing to carry
out works on structures of architectural heritage interest generally.
The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) is a state initiative managed by the
DoEHLG. It aims to promote the appreciation of, and contributes to the protection of, the Built Heritage
by systematically recording a representative sample of that built heritage on a nationwide basis. The
NIAH forms the basis for recommendations by the Minister of EHLG for inclusion in the Record of
Protected Structures under the Planning and Development Act 2000. The NIAH provides a source of
guidance to local authorities for the selection of structures for protection and also supplies data, which
helps them to make informed judgments on the significance of building stock in their functional area.
The Co. Roscommon Heritage Plan 2002-2008 (extended to 2009) has as its aim ‘to create and promote
an increased knowledge, awareness and appreciation of the natural, built and cultural heritage of County
Roscommon, and to conserve it for future generations’. This plan, which is currently under review,
represents the commitment of Roscommon County Council to the conservation and promotion of the
cultural heritage of Co. Roscommon. Its key objectives are: to raise awareness of our heritage, to collect
and disseminate heritage information and to promote best practice in heritage conservation and
management.
Physical Context
The history of Elphin which has led to its present shape and its rich multi-layered built heritage dates back
to its growth as a settlement around a fifth-century religious establishment founded by St Patrick and its
status as the seat of a Cathedral. Since then there have been several periods of intense development all of
which have left their mark on the town. First there was the Franciscan monastery of c. 1450. Then Bishop
King erected a castle to the southeast corner of the town in the beginning of the seventeenth-century. The
early 18 th century saw a large Palladian mansion erected to the north as the Bishop’s Palace, a windmill c.
1730, and the rebuilding of the Cathedral in 1757/8. The nineteenth century saw many new buildings, both
residential and commercial, including a fine bank, built to line the curving main street; some of these
undoubtedly incorporated earlier medieval fabric. A Catholic church was added to the western outskirts of
the town and was later reconstructed in 1894; a convent was added in 1868. The street names in the town
reflect this varied past – Chapel Street, Nun’s Lane, Church Lane, Castle Street, Palace Walk, Windmill
Street. It was called a city by Lewis in 1837 and the parish had a population of 8,000 before the Famine.
There was another significant layer of change in the mid-twentieth century when the town enjoyed a wave
of prosperity; the main road to the west ran through Elphin not Tulsk at this time and there were at least
three hotels in the town. New buildings with stepped parapets were constructed on Newline Street and
Main Street; shops were given a make-over with stepped detailing in render as in Dockery’s or in tiled
mosaic as in Morris Meats and Cryans.
The form of the town is of a linear extension to a medieval quarter; the medieval quarter lay to the
southeast with the road south from Strokestown entering it and being bisected by a back lane; the road
north to Carrick-on Shannon leaves it with the Bishop’s Palace demesne occupying all the land to the
west. A fine wide street leads west curving sinuously, and then it starts to narrow just before Nun’s Lane;
it continues to curve westwards out of town, where Windmill Lane joins it to the north and the Catholic
Church is located on south; it then meanders its way to Shankill Cross.
Elphin Local Area Plan 2009-2015 Page 46