Killybegs Maritime and Heritage Centre

Despite alterations and conversion to new uses, this substantial former factory retains some of its early form and character. The original structure is well-built using good quality masonry and retains robust rock-faced block-and-start surrounds to the openings that help give this building an imposing appearance. Of particular note is the two-storey former office/administration/showroom block to the north-west corner which has crow-stepped parapets to the gable ends that are vaguely reminiscent of the Scottish Baronial architectural idiom. This large-scale building was originally built as the Donegal Carpet factory. The company was founded by the Scottish textile manufacturer Alexander Morton (1844 – 1923) in 1898, and perhaps the crow-stepped gables are an architectural reference to his Scottish roots. Morton himself supervised the building works. The company was supported in its initiation by the Congested Districts Board, who later funded the construction of three more carpet factories for Morton at Kilcar (1899), Anagry (1904) and at Crolly (1904). The Killybegs factory remained the most important, and it was here that spinning and dyeing was done for the entire company. The other three factories later closed during the Great Depression in the 1930s. The Morton factories produced hand-woven carpets in a ‘Turkish’ style, and the work produced became world-famous during the first decades of the twentieth century. Many of these carpets were produced on what is apparently the largest longest hand-knotting loom (forty-two feet wide) in the world, which can still be seen to the interior of this factory in Killybegs. Carpets made by the Morton company (popularly known as ‘Donegals’) were created mainly by local woman, and many were produced to designs by notable Arts-and-Crafts designers such as C.F.A. Voysey (1857 – 1941), Archibald Knox (1864 – 1933), Walter Crane (1845 – 1915) and Mackay Baille Scott (1865 – 1945). Carpets produced by the company can be found in the White House, Buckingham Palace, The Vatican, Aras an Uachtarain, and at nearby Glenveigh Castle. The Mortons sold the company to an Irish company, Donegal Carpets Ltd., in 1954. This factory later closed in 1987 but later partially reopened in 1997 and still produces hand-woven carpets. This building now hosts a number of uses, including a heritage centre, and is an important element of the social history of the Killybegs area.