Gilford Castle Stableyard

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A courtyard complex of stable and farm buildings, one and two storey with three-storey service accommodation and stair tower in the Scots Baronial style, built c.1870 and located to the rear of Gilford Castle (HB17/01/002A) on an extensive demesne south of Gilford.

Pitched natural slate roofs throughout, with ashlar limestone chimneystacks to the accommodation block. Cast iron rainwater goods throughout, on stone eaves brackets to accommodation block, and yellow brick eaves brackets to remainder; profiled stone kneelers to gables. The accommodation block is detailed as the main house, with rock-faced coursed limestone walling, and tooled ashlar quoins, stringcourses, plinth and window dressings; remaining structures are of red brick (Flemish bond with penny-struck (tuck) pointing) with moulded yellow brick stringcourses; openings have yellow brick surrounds with the exception of ground floor doors which have ashlar limestone jambs. First floor windows are generally round-arched with yellow brick string at impost level. Ground floor windows are 2/4 segmental-arched timber sashes; all have granite sills. Doors are generally segmental-arched t&g sheeted, ledged and braced (unless otherwise stated).

Gate screen:

The courtyard is accessed via an ornate gate screen at east, echoing the Scots Baronial styling of the main buildings, comprising four-centred arched entrance with moulded jams and archivolt and timber lattice gates, framed by ashlar limestone piers with stepped pyramidal copings, raised and pointed keystone and dentilled entablature with central cartouche surmounted by a ball finial. The gateway is flanked by rock-faced screen walling with saddleback coping having a Tudor arched pedestrian timber lattice gate to right.

Courtyard:

Courtyard elevation of south and west ranges have a range of elliptical-arched double coach doors, timber sheeted entrance doors, and unevenly spaced windows (all with louvred heads) to first floor. An open passage to right side of south elevation leads to south side of outbuildings. The west range is fixed with remains of gas lamp holders.

Courtyard (south) elevation of single storey north range has a segmental-arched door to left and a modern garage door insertion to right. It extends to right to form the three-storey accommodation block and tower (see later).

The west gable has a single loading door to loft level.

The south elevation of the south range has a series of windows to loft level (as previous) and, to ground floor, a coach door and pedestrian door flanked to either side by 2/4 sliding sash windows. The elevation returns to south at left end (an extension of the west range), and is similarly detailed; the south gable has a loading door to loft level and is abutted by modern steel fire stairs.

The west elevation of the west range is cement rendered and blank with the exception of a row of deeply recessed segmental openings at high level (corresponding with former internal stalls). To left is the west gable of the north range, which has rock faced limestone walling (as main house) and a timber sheeted access door.

The north elevation of the north range is of brick construction, with a series of segmental-arched openings at high level, again corresponding with internal stalls.

Coachmen's’ quarters:

The three storey accommodation block is located at the north east corner of the stable yard, and is itself abutted to south-east corner by a four stage tower. Both are rectangular on plan, and in the Scottish Baronial style.

Roofs are pitched natural slate, with stone chimneystacks having terracotta pots and corbelled bases. Cast iron gutters are supported on bracketed eaves, brick to south, and stone to remainder. Walls are rock-faced limestone (as house) with the exception of the courtyard-facing elevation of the service block, which is detailed in brick with stone quoins and yellow brick dressings, as the stable buildings. Windows are 2/4 timber sliding sashes to brick section, 1/2 timber sliding sashes to remainder (unless otherwise stated).

The courtyard-facing elevation has a timber sheeted door to right and window to left to ground floor; single window to upper floors; that to second floor is diminished in height; there is a moulded string course between ground and first floor, and a decorative brick band between first and second floor.

The west gable abuts the single-storey north range; it is of rock faced masonry without openings. Dentilled corbelled dressed stone chimney to gable apex.

The dormered north elevation has two windows each to upper floors. First floor windows are have continuous label moulds and are set within chamfered ashlar reveals. Second floor is lit by wall-head dormers inset with recessed round-arched 2/4 sliding sash windows with kneelers, saddleback copings and pointed stone finials. Ground floor has deeply recessed two-pane stable windows at high level. It is abutted to right of centre by the north courtyard wall.

The east elevation has a window (detailed as first floor north), to upper floors, and a window offset to left at ground floor. Dentilled corbelled dressed stone chimney to gable apex.

The tower has a slightly overhanging ashlar limestone parapet on profiled corbel brackets. There is a bartizan tower with corbelled base to north-east corner. Each stage of the tower is delineated by a string course, which rises over window heads to form label moulds. Upper stage is blank with rectangular stone plaque to each facet; central window to three stages at east, to second and third stage only at south; west (courtyard) facet has a timber door and windows to second and third stage.

Saw House

To south-east of the main stableyard is a saw house, with central dividing wall rising above roof slope and topped with a coping. The roofs are replacement mineral fibre slates; yellow brick chimneystacks to either end. Walling is English garden wall bonded red brick with yellow brick dressings to openings. Timber sheeted doors and timber windows to north elevation. South elevation is abutted by a full-length canopy of corrugated metal, over a saw.

Kennels

Directly to right of the saw house is a pair of kennels under a single hipped natural slate roof with leaded hips and central lead capped louvred lantern. Red-brick walling, openings with yellow-brick dressings. Each unit has a timber sheeted door flanked to one side by a small 2/4 segmental arched sliding sash. Each is fronted by a small yard, separated by a tall brick wall which abuts the building at centre and enclosed to front by cast-iron railings with fleur-de-lys finials and matching gate. Other elevations blank.

The rear yard is accessed by timber gates detailed as main courtyard, supported on ashlar stone piers with corniced caps.

Setting:
The stableyard is located immediately south of Gilford Castle (HB17/02/002A), forming part of the estate structures. It is accessed from the road via the main entrance (continuing past the main house), and also via a farm lane directly to east. The
setting is sheltered by mature trees, and the garden is located to west.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Brick / Limestone
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Gilford Castle and its stable yard were completed c.1870 as a residence for Benjamin Dickson, a partner in the local linen thread company of Dunbar McMaster. The house replaced a much earlier castle built by a descendant of Gilford’s earliest proprietor and ‘Gilford Castle’ is first shown, captioned, on the third edition OS map of 1901-2, together with outbuildings to the rear forming three sides of a stable courtyard and a further range beyond the courtyard.

Gilford Castle, in the Scottish baronial style, was in progress in the late 1860s (Annual Revisions). The ‘yard’ is inserted into the fieldbook in the early 1870s together with the ‘castle’ and the buildings are together valued at £200. The cost of the house and outbuildings was later noted by a valuer to have been about £42,000.

The designer is said to have been William Spence, a Scottish architect resident in Glasgow who also designed a house, Elmfield (HB17/01/34A), for Dickson’s brother James. Benjamin and James Dickson were partners in the Dunbar McMaster linen thread company on which the growth and prosperity of Gilford town was largely founded. (Valuation Records; www.dia.ie)

No occupier is noted for the castle until 1887 when it became the home of Percy Jocelyn McMaster, the younger brother of Hugh Dunbar McMaster, proprietor of Gilford Mill, who was resident at nearby Dunbarton House. The house was let from Benjamin Dickson and was revalued the same year in two parts, the part occupied by McMaster valued at £75, and a further portion also valued at £75. However, McMaster’s tenancy was short-lived and by 1891 the house was again vacant. A tenant named Purcell inhabited the castle for some time around 1896 but the 1901 census records the only occupant as the gardener/caretaker, James Emerson, who occupied three rooms with his wife and six children, his 14-year-old daughter working as a seamstress. In 1904 the house and demesne was purchased by Katherine Carleton for £15,000, the valuer noting that the cost of the building to Benjamin Dickson had been about £42,000 and that the price paid by Carleton was ‘the value of the land alone, the castle being given for nothing’.

In Katherine Carleton, the castle found a long-term resident for the first time since it had been built and the 1911 census finds the 54-year-old spinster living at the castle with a female companion and two domestic servants, a cook and a parlourmaid. In 1918 the house was purchased by James F Wright, whose descendants continue to live in the castle today. In 1934 the accommodation comprised two reception rooms, a billiards room, library, study, two kitchens, two pantries, a scullery, larder and dairy. On the first floor were six bedrooms, two dressing rooms, two bathrooms, a nursery, a sewing room and three maids’ rooms. The second floor comprised two attic rooms.

During World War II most of Northern Ireland was a training ground for British and American troops and there was a large concentration of army personnel based in Gilford, which with its woods, lakes and rivers and proximity to major transport routes was ideally suited to military training purposes. The army made use of Nissen Huts erected for the purpose in Gilford Castle demesne, and in 1943 the demesne housed a squadron of US troops together with their medical detachment who built a temporary hospital to the rear of the castle. (Higgins) Valuation records show that 35 acres of land were requisitioned by the War Department in October 1940 and a further 1 rood and 15 perches in July 1941.

The castle is currently a family home, and the owner is a well-known local artist. (www.disovernorthernireland.com).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/26/2 Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/26/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/350 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48A Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/17A – Annual Revisions (1923-29)
9. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/9 – Valuer’s Notebook (1916-22)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 – First General Revaluation (1936-57)
11. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/M/1 – Valuers RV Binders (1933-57)

Secondary Sources

1. Graham, F “The History of Gilford Presbyterian Church and other articles of local interest” 2006
2. Higgins, Beryl "Gilford During The Second World War"
3. Logan, R A “A Window on the Past, A History of Gilford County Down” Banbridge Chronicle, (n.d.)
4. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007
5. www.dia.ie – Dictionary of Irish Architects online
6. www.discovernorthernireland.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

The stableyard at Gilford Castle (HB17/01/055A) is a courtyard of stables, coach houses and farm buildings located directly to south of the main house and constructed to designs by William Spence with the house c.1870. The buildings are a blend of Scottish Baronial and polychrome brick that is representative of the period. The courtyard is accessed through an ornamental gate screen with timber lattice gates contrasting with the functional uses of the yard. Almost all original fabric is intact, including several fixtures related to historic use and demonstrating the running of a small estate in the nineteenth century. Evidence of gas lighting also survives. The original setting survives and the stableyard has added significance as the site of an earlier eighteenth century house. It has group value with the other estate related structures including a gate screen (HB17/01/055C), walled garden (HB17/01/055E) and farm entrance with lodge (HB17/01/055D). The Gilford Castle estate is of interest as a fine and largely intact example of Scottish Baronial architecture; it is also of much historic interest, built on the proceeds of successful enterprise in the local linen industry at the height of its success.

General comments

Please note HB17/01/002 B was previously used for The BRT Shed Gilford Castle Estate it has been renumbered and is now recorded as HB17/01/002 F