The façade of the former gaol in Tullamore, County Offaly, the only portion of this building to survive (all that lay behind was demolished in 1937-38). Designed by surveyor and canal engineer John Killaly, a plaque above the machiolated gatehouse reads: ‘The first stone of this prison was laid by Charles William Baron Tullamore on the 13th day of September in the year of our Lord 1826 under the 7th year of the reign of his most gracious majesty George the fourth.’ While the gaol is hard to miss, its entrance gates are likely often overlooked: note how the cast-iron piers are composed of bound bundles of staves from the centre of each rises an axe finial.