The Wonderful Barn facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Wonderful Barn |
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| General information | |
| Status | Inactive, heritage building |
| Architectural style | Georgian |
| Location | Barnhall |
| Town or city | Leixlip |
| Country | Ireland |
| Coordinates | 53°21′35″N 6°30′36″W / 53.359757°N 6.510011°W |
| Elevation | 60 m (200 ft) |
| Completed | 1743 |
| Landlord | John Glin |
| Height | 22 m (72 ft) |
| Dimensions | |
| Diameter | 11 m (36 ft) at base |
| Circumference | 35 m (115 ft) at base |
| Technical details | |
| Material | red brick overlain with rubble stone |
| Floor count | 7 |
| Known for | unusual shape |
The Wonderful Barn is a very unusual building in Ireland. It looks like a giant corkscrew! You can find it near the Castletown House Estate in Celbridge, County Kildare. Even though it's close to Celbridge, the barn is actually in the nearby town of Leixlip.
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What Makes the Barn Unique?
This barn is famous for its strange shape. It's built like a tall cone, but with stairs winding around the outside, all the way to the top. It has seven floors inside. At the bottom, it's about 11 meters wide. The whole building is about 22 meters tall!
The barn also has two smaller towers on either side. These towers are called dovecotes. They were used to keep doves or pigeons.
A Look Back: The Barn's History
The Wonderful Barn was built a long time ago, in 1743. It was part of the large Castletown Estate, which belonged to a powerful family called the Conollys.
Why Was It Built?
People have a few ideas about why this unique barn was created:
- A Place for Grain: The most common idea is that it was a granary. This means it was used to store grain, like wheat or oats. There's a hole through the middle of each floor, which would have made it easy to drop grain down.
- Helping After a Famine: The barn was built right after a terrible time in Ireland called the Great Irish Famine (1740-1741). Many people were very hungry. Building new grain stores was important to prevent another famine.
- Providing Jobs: The Conolly family also wanted to help people. Building the barn gave jobs to many local people who needed work after the famine. It was similar to another building on their estate, the Conolly's Folly, which was also built to provide jobs.
- A Home for Doves: Some people think the barn, especially its side towers, was used as a giant dovecote. In the past, doves were sometimes eaten, especially when other food was scarce.
- For Fun or Sport: Because it's so tall, another idea is that it was used for sport shooting. People might have shot birds from the top. It might also have been a "folly," which is a building made just to look interesting from a distance, like from Castletown House.
Similar Buildings
The Wonderful Barn was so unique that another building was made to look like it! This similar structure is called the Bottle Tower. You can find it in Churchtown, near Rathfarnham.
Images for kids
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View of the Barn and the adjoining house, circa 1900.
