Bridge Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An L-plan one-and-a-half storey/ three bay cottage ornee aligned NW-SE at the W side of Inisherk Island and part of Crom Castle Estate. The right-hand bay is gabled.

Pitched natural slate roof with four tall brick chimneys; one to party wall between each bay of main block, one to rear gable of cross-section and one to rear return (see later). There is a cast-iron skylight to rear pitch of main block and SE pitch of cross-section. All gables have decorative timber bargeboards with tall pointed finials. An advanced concrete eaves course supports half-round metal rainwater goods. Walls are squared and snecked rubble stone with ribbon pointing. Windows are timber side-hung casements with decorative geometric glazing, cement rendered reveals and concrete cills (unless otherwise stated). These windows are replacements and most have the remains of stepped brick reveals still visible beneath present reveals.

Principal elevation faces SW. Left bay has a window with cast-concrete label drip mould. Central bay has a door to right and a window (as before) to its left. The door is modern timber sheeted and is contained within a gabled open porch with pitched natural slate roof (detailed as house) supported on cement-rendered side walls with timber sheeted tympanum. The right bay cross-gable projects slightly and has stepped brick quoins. It contains a canted bay with hipped natural slate roof with window to each face (paired to centre). Above to apex is a small brick infilled window with brick dressings.

SE gable is identical to cross gable at façade.

NE elevation consists of the rear projecting bay at left and a similarly sized return to right bay (see later). All windows are timber sliding sashes. The exposed central bay of main block is wet-dashed (as are inside cheeks of projecting bay and return) and has a squat 6/6 window to left. The rear gable of the left projecting section has a tall narrow 4/4 window to either side at ground floor and a squat 6/6 to upper floor. Right cheek has a small narrow 2/2 window at extreme right end.

Return is detailed as house with the fourth chimney (as others) set at far end. The gable has a tall narrow 4/4 at left and a pair of 1x3 side-hung casements at right and also to centre of upper floor. Right cheek has a window as before to either end, each with stone cill (that to right is a pair). Left cheek has a timber sheeted door to left of centre with a 2/2 sliding sash to its immediate right.

SE elevation has an 8/8 sliding sash to either side and a 3/3 to centre (the remains of a brick reveal shows this previously to have been a door opening).

Setting:

The cottage is set within a small garden, delineated by a low fence, on the W shore of Inisherk Island, overlooking the Boat House (HB12/02/009) and Crom Castle (HB12/02/002). It is accessed from the mainland by White Bridge (HB12/02/008).

Historical information

A building is shown here on the 1834 OS 6” map. It was substantially remodelled in 1850-52 to create two houses, and it is then that the building took its present external form. One house (the principal front section and the return) was occupied by the estate steward, and the other (at NE) by the head carpenter. The novelist Shan Bullock (1865-1937) lived in one of the houses as a child. In the more recent past, the two houses have been made into one and the internal room configuration completely altered.

Primary sources:
1. OS 6" map, 1st edition, 1834, Co Fermanagh sheet 39 (PRONI OS 6/4/39/1).

Secondary sources:
1. Terence Reeves-Smyth, Crom Castle Demesne (National Trust, 1990).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

An interesting and pleasantly detailed cottage ornee, delightfully situated on Inisherk Island, Crom Estate and accessed by White Bridge (HB12/02/008). Although modernised, the building retains a good deal of external character, contributing significantly to the landscape and integrity of the estate group as a whole.

General comments

This record was previously numbered HB12/02/010.