Rathturret

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey/ three bay late 19thC Gothic Revival house with tower in mature grounds on W side of Rath Road. House is double pile.

The principal elevation is the garden front (front pile) which faces S. The rear (N) elevation is on the rear pile and contains the front entrance. The house is split level with front rooms (to front pile) being lower than the rear rooms (to rear pile).

Roofs are pitched and artificial slated with terracotta ridges and exposed moulded rafter tails. Tall Tudor-revival style chimneys in red brick, grouped together with ornately corbelled copings and purple brick stringcourses. Half round metal rainwater goods.

Walls are red brick with chamfered advanced base course. Several stringcourses of blue engineering bricks to each floor. Windows are all 1/1 sashes and have stop-end chamfered reveals and Gothic heads, which are inset with sandstone tympanums, some of which have circular blind recesses. Moulded granite cills.

The rear pile.

This elevation is N facing and is in two bays. The left bay is one and half storeys high and advances slightly. The right bay is two storeys high and is abutted to right by a three-stage tower. The left bay has two sets of chimneystacks, one to each end of ridge. Its ground floor has four equally spaced windows. Its upper floor has two large wall head dormers. Each has a pitched artificial slated roof, crested ridge and decorative timber bargeboard inset with fretted Gothic motifs. Each dormer has a pair of windows with common cills. The exposed right cheek of this bay is blank.

The right bay is two storeys high and is in three distinct parts. The left part has a wall-head dormer with roof as previous dormers but with different timber bargeboards. Below the dormer there are two windows to each floor (larger than those to left bay of this elevation); first floor ones are diminished in height. The middle section is narrower than the left part and has three very narrow windows to each floor. Those to ground floor are very high and have a fixed transom over each window. Those to first floor are diminished in height. The lintels of the lower set of windows form the cills of the upper set; the later also have flat granite heads. The right part is abutted to right by the tower.

The tower is in three stages, the third stage standing free of the house and having a very steeply pitched square roof, clad in clay tiles, and swept at the bottom. Each of its four pitches has a tiny glazed lucarne with cusped window. It has a small leaded flat top with elaborate wrought iron cresting.

Each cheek of each stage is identical except at left cheek of first stage, which has the main entrance. A chamfered Gothic doorway contains a pair of timber varnished front doors, which have five panels each. The bottom panel of each is square and the top two taper with the doorway head. All are raised and fielded and decoratively chamfered.Brass door furniture. Immediately over doorcase is a Gothic headed sandstone panel with a carved family crest with motto, ‘HONORE ET AMORE’. Below is ‘A.D. 1883’ in raised letters.

The remaining front and right cheeks of the first stage of the tower each have a pair of narrow 1/1 sashes detailed as the other windows. The front, left and right cheeks of the second stage have three similar windows and a moulded sandstone string course at window head level. Each cheek of the third stage has four similar windows. Above is a dentilled and corbelled brick eaves course. The right cheek of the tower is flush with the W elevation of the main house.

The W elevation of the main house is two bays wide (one to each pile), with the right cheek of the tower at left side. The remaining two bays each have a wall head dormer and the right bay advances slightly. The left one is smaller and both are detailed as those to N elevation. Due to the split-level of the house the windows to the right bay are set much lower than those to the left bay.

The left bay has a glazed timber door at basement level with a small 1/1 sash to its left. At ground floor there are three narrow windows at left, stepping down from left to right, and at right there are two similar windows at low level. At first floor there are two to the dormer, which is set to left. To left of these is a tiny 1/1 sash. At right, at a lower level to this bay is a pair of taller 1/1 sashes.

The exposed left cheek of the advanced right bay is blank. This bay has a moulded sandstone platband between ground and first floors and a swept roof containing the dormer. It has two large windows to each floor. Its exposed right cheek is blank.

The S elevation of main house is the garden front and has three bays. It has a moulded sandstone platband between ground and first floors. Its pitched artificial slate roof has a four-stack chimney between its central and right bays.

The left bay has a two storey canted bay with a steeply pitched canted roof. Each of its cheeks has a 1/1 sash window and each set shares a common chamfered granite cill and head.

The central bay has three window openings at ground floor. Those to left and right are windows and the central one has a steel door with fixed transom over. All three have chamfered granite lintels. The first floor has a pair of windows in a small wall-head gable (as others).

The right bay of this elevation has two windows to each floor. Those to first floor are under a wall-head gable (as left).

The E elevation of main house is in two bays, each bay being under a gable (each with decorated bargeboard). The right one advances. The left gable is blank and its walls have a moulded sandstone platband between ground and first floors and is embellished with blue engineering bricks. The right pitch of this left bay catslides on at a different pitch and is abutted by a modern kitchen extension. The exposed left (S) cheek of the main gable at first floor has a gabled dormer with glazed door out onto roof. The exposed section of the E gable has decorative engineering brick.

The extension is single storey with walls to match house and abuts the end wall and left cheek of the right gable. Its flat roof is a patio and enclosed by a brick parapet with plain metal railings. It has a 1/1 sash at left into basement and four 1/1 sash windows with granite lintels on its S wall. Its E elevation is blank but for a glazed timber door at left. The N facing cheek of the extension is narrow and has a single 1/1 window in a window opening which is an exact copy of those on this elevation.

To E of house is a small domestic yard with garage and shed. Its S is open to garden and its N is enclosed by a brick wall with t+g sheeted door to centre and pair of t+g sheeted sliding garage doors at left end under a brick gable.

Setting

To N is a short driveway from Rath Road which is planted with mature trees. To immediate NW of the house is a substantial timber chalet (1970s) with shallow roof and timber clad walls. To SW, S and SE of house are mature gardens, which terrace and are planted with mature trees and shrubs. To S is a modern open-air swimming pool. At SE on boundary with Rath Road there is a disused entrance way with t+g sheeted gates.

Historical information

Erection commenced in 1883 under W.S. Richards in 1883 who also built the nearby threshing mill in the same year (HB16/12/010). First cited (under Henry Richards) in the 1886 Valuation revision book. W.S. Richards was one of three bachelor sons of the adjacent Rev. Richards of Clonallan Rectory (HB16/12/008A). It is said that on the death of their father in 1883 they had to vacate the rectory and purchased this neighbouring site for their new home.

Primary sources
1. Datestone on house.
2. Valuation Revision book (PRONI – VAL 12B/22/23D, p.74).
3. Information from owner in 1999.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Gothic Revival style house, with tower, built 1883. All in polychrome brickwork and set in mature landscaped grounds. Internally, its remains little altered, and retains its manually operated dumb-waiter.