Fernhill House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey/ three bay derelict mid-late 18thC house with early-mid 19thC one and half storey/ single bay addition. All set on a hilltop in mature landscaped grounds with a small derelict gate lodge on its W boundary on Clonallan Road.

Original house has pitched natural slate roof (part collapsed) with cement rendered chimney to left and right gables. Advanced eaves carry half round metal rainwater goods. Cast iron skylight to rear pitch. Walls are lime rendered and unpainted. Central bay is narrower than the other bays and is abutted by a later (not tied into front wall) two-storey porch. Porch has a gabled natural slate roof with fretted Gothic Revival style bargeboards (part missing) and terracotta ridges on a steeply pitched roof. Lime rendered walls as the main house. Front wall has a window opening on each floor and its left cheek has a doorway; rest is blank. Flanking bays to each side of porch on façade have a single window opening to each floor; all with granite cills and some retaining exposed sash boxes.

The left gable of the house is abutted by the one and half storey addition.

Addition advances out slightly beyond the façade of the house (but not as far as the porch). Gabled natural slate roof to façade (aligned N-S) with overhanging timber eaves. Walls as main block. It has a single storey canted bay window to ground floor, with canted timber natural slate roof, and moulded timber eaves, on a masonry apron. Bay front is twice as wide as its cheeks and it seems to have contained sliding sash windows. In gable above there is a single window opening with recessed box sash. The left elevation of the addition has a bay window (similar to that on front gable). This elevation continues left (N) as the wall enclosing the W side of the rear yard. It has a doorway into yard at its right end. The rear gable of the addition seems to have been abutted at one time by a single storey lean-to. Its upper floor has a window opening on its left side at join with main house.

Rear elevation of main house is abutted to centre by a red brick extension, which continues to ground floor left. The rest of this elevation is harled rubble stone with single window opening to each remaining bay (ground floor one is set to left side).

This extension is in red brick and seems to be c1900. It has a shallow roof to the two-storey block and a lean-to corrugated metal roof (collapsed) to single storey left bay. Its left cheek has a small window opening.

The right bay of the main house has a window opening at ground floor right.

The rear yard is enclosed on three sides by high rubble walls and to S by the house. Internally there are outbuildings on three sides. These are in reasonable condition with pitched natural slate roofs and rubble stone walls. They are all devoid of window openings and have plain doorways.

Setting:
The garden seems to have extended to S and W of the house. The area to S seems to have been lawns and that to W is heavily planted with trees and shrubs and has a driveway. At W end of driveway, on W boundary are a pair of modern wrought iron gates on plain piers at left end and a pair of traditional flat iron gates at the left end. There is also a derelict lodge. It his single storey and two bays wide. Its hipped natural slate roof has collapsed. Rubble stone walls are blank to all but its front (W) elevation. Right bay has a doorway and a 6/6 sash window to its left and left bay has a similar window. Interior is plain. Fireplace on party wall between the rooms and the door between the two is to the left.

Historical information

The detailing of the staircase remains would suggest that the main house is mid to late 18thC in date. A rectangular building is shown on the 1834 OS 6” map. It is valued at £4.15s.0d in the 1835 First valuation and is described as measuring 35ft x 25ft x 15ft6in. There is no change to these dimensions in the 1861 valuation, but the return at left and front porch are also noted at this time, indicating them as mid 19th C additions.

Primary sources

1. OS map, first edition 1834, Co Down sheet 51 (PRONI: OS 6/3/51/1).
2. First valuation book, 1835 (PRONI: VAL 1B/353, p.151).
3. Second valuation book, 1861 (PRONI: VAL 2B/3/57A, p.70).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This two storey three bay house probably dates from the18thC was extended in the mid 19thC. It retains a yard of simple outbuildings to rear and a small plain gate lodge. Whole complex is now derelict and few original features remain in their entirety.