Battleaxe Hall

Battleaxe Hall’s imperial staircase is part of the Dublin Castle complex. The treads are all “Irish Ogee” in profile, with a very tiny rebate between the treads. The staircase was originally constructed in the 1740’s and had a new balustrade added in the 1830’s. The right hand flight was apparently replaced with precast concrete treads in the 1960’s. I understand that originally all the treads were made from Portland Stone. The treads are almost 2.5m wide.

The left hand flight has obviously had some work done on it to level the treads as they have become worn. Instead of the usual method of piecing in a new piece of stone into the worn tread, each tread has been carefully cut down, leaving the ends of the treads with the original profile.

Following the collapse of a similar flight at the Natural History Museum (that had also had work carried out to correct worn treads) props were installed under the left hand flight. In 2011 the stone treads were removed and replaced with precast concrete treads.

The photographs below are all taken before the flight was replaced.