Swift's House,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This is a detached single-room summer house, built c.1830. It is currently unused. It is square in plan with a pyramidal pavilion roof. External walls to the cottage are painted render. The cottage is located on the periphery of the Loughry College estate; formerly the country estate of the Lindesay family.

The front north elevation has a single opening, a square-headed doorway with plain moulded edges. The door is a timber tongue and groove door with a rectangular vision panel.

The east side elevation has no openings. The rainwater downpipe is the only feature on this wall. The ground falls sharply to the south and west giving substantial under-building at these sides.

The external walls are painted render and the roof is slate with lead ridges and a carved stone ball finial to the apex. Rainwater goods are cast iron. The stone chimney is located to the southwest corner.

Setting:
The cottage is set on a steep bank overlooking the Killymoon River to the south. It faces north, towards the college complex. The bank below the house is densely vegetated with mature trees and undergrowth. A timber fence stretching from the northeast and northwest corners prevents access to the bank. The ground in front is grass and slopes down from the front of the house towards a nearby three-storey college block. A flight of concrete steps leads from the path around this building to the path leading to the front door of the cottage. The path comprises concrete flagstones set stepping-stone style into the grass.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1833-34, but not marked in any way. The legend ‘summer ho.’ appears on the revised map of 1857, but it is difficult to discern anything of the building, the legend appearing to be associated with a circular structure slightly further east; whilst on the second edition map of c.1905 nothing appears to be marked at all! The 1938 map, however, bears the legend ‘Swift’s House’, although, once again, it is difficult to make out a structure of any description.

The building itself does appear to be pre 1833, but, like much of the rest of the original structures at Loughry, is difficult to date with any certainty. It has traditionally been associated with the celebrated poet, satirist, pamphleteer and erstwhile cleric, Jonathan Swift (1667-1745). Robert Lindesay (1679-1742), the fourth owner of Loughry, who became MP for County Tyrone in 1726 and Judge of the Common Pleas in 1733, was a close friend of and legal advisor to, Swift. According to Lindesay family historian, Ernest Godfrey, Swift was a frequent visitor to Loughry ‘and in the old summer house, known as “Swift’s summer house”...the Dean in the company of his friend Lindesay wrote many of his poems and other works including part of his political satire, “The Tale of a Tub”’ [which was published 1704]. It is difficult to verify any of this, however, and one suspects that Swift’s association with the area, and this building (if indeed it were standing in the early 1700s), may have been exaggerated- possibly partly by the writings of Godfrey himself.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/6/38/1 OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 38, 1833-34
2 PRONI OS/6/6/38/2 OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 38, 1857
3 PRONI OS/6/6/38/3 OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 38, c.1905
4 PRONI OS/6/6/38/5 OS map, Co. Tyrone sheet 38, 1938

Secondary sources
1 Burke, Sir Bernard, ‘A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Ireland’ (London, 1912), pp.406-07
2 Godfrey, Ernest, ‘The Lindesays of Loughry, Co. Tyrone- a genealogical history’ (London, 1949)
3 Rowan, A.J., ‘The buildings of Ireland – North west Ulster’, (London, 1979), p.229
4 ‘Loughry through the ages’ (DANI, ?2000)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

This summer house has been well maintained, its simple cubic proportions are pleasing to the eye and the minimal geometry of the interior is refreshing despite not having a current use. It is a little overwhelmed by its larger modern neighbour but provides testament of the variety of buildings that make up a country estate. Its historic connotations and link with a famous author are it chief attributes.