Outbuildings

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Large courtyard of two-storey stone and brick outbuildings located to the immediate NE of Dunbarton House (HB17/01/015A), an early Victorian house of c.1845 possibly to designs by architect Thomas Jackson.
Dunbarton House is located at the end of a long sweeping driveway off Dunbarton Street, north west of Gilford village centre. Mature landscaped grounds to the south and east.

Yard to rear of house (NE) is accessed through an elliptical arch with brick voussoirs and stone quoins in the boundary wall on NW side. The yard is enclosed by Dunbarton House on the SW side, a two storey outbuilding on the NE (former Coach House, Outbuilding 1), and a tall painted, rendered wall on SE.

The courtyard is accessed through a segmental archway in the SW side of Outbuilding 1. The three outbuildings forming three sides of the courtyard include; Outbuilding 1 running NW-SE; Outbuilding 2 on the NW side, running SW-NE, and Outbuilding 3 on the SE, running SW-NE. A boundary wall with a rubblestone wall with brick piers completes the courtyard on the NE side. Courtyard is cobbled, likely replacement.

Outbuilding 1 (former Coach House)
Front elevation (SW)
Two storey linear block with hipped natural slate roof (replacement) and black clay ridge tiles. Rough-cut rubble masonry walling laid to courses with brick surrounds to openings. Original cast iron rainwater goods. All openings (with exception of the wide, modern opening to RHS of ground floor level), have brick surrounds forming toothed quoins and splayed brick headers.

Multi-bay elevation with various window and door openings.
On ground floor level from L to R: window opening with a 6/8 former timber sliding sash window with single glazing, stone cill, now altered to be fixed; door opening with painted timber frame and painted timber sheeted door, with 4 pane hopper overlight; large double timber sheeted gate doors with metal hinges; segmental coach arch with brick voussoirs and large tooled-stone quoins; window opening with replacement 6/6 timber sliding sash window with slim double-glazing units and replacement concrete cill; window opening with replacement 8/8 timber sliding sash window with slim double-glazing units and tooled stone cill; window opening with replacement 6/6 timber sliding sash window with slim double-glazing units and replacement concrete cill; door opening with replacement timber door and three pane overlight; large opening to extreme right side with replacement double-glazed timber glazed doors with side lights.
On first floor level from L to R: regularly spaced openings (appear to be concrete cills) consisting of a 2/4 timber sliding sash window; 2/4 timber window with hopper to top panes; 2/4 timber window with hopper to top panes; 2/4 timber sliding sash window; blank wall with modern red brick chimney at eaves level; 2/4 timber sliding sash window; 20th C brick wall-head dormer with pitched slate roof containing narrow timber glazed double doors behind modern metal railing; 2/4 timber window with hopper to top panes; 2/4 timber sliding sash window.

Rear elevation (NE)
On ground floor level, from L to R: two window openings with replacement 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with slim double glazing; modern single-storey extension of rustic redbrick, lean-to natural slate roof with velux-type roof lights, door in SE side; window opening with replacement 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with slim double glazing; segmental coach arch with tooled stone quoins and voussoirs with large timber sheeted double doors metal sheet to bottom half.
On first floor level, from L to R: modern window opening with 6 pane window with top-hung top panes and rendered surround; 2/4 timber sliding sash window; 2/4 timber window with hopper to top panes; blank wall with wformer window opening bricked up; three 2/4 timber sliding sash windows; 2/4 timber sliding sash window over coach arch.
Various sizes of modern velux-type rooflights in replacement natural slate roof.

Side elevation (SE)
Abutted by tall rear wall of conservatory (HB17/01/015B).

Side elevation (NW)
Blind elevation, coursed rubblestone masonry.

Outbuilding 2
Front elevation (SE facing courtyard):
Linear multi-bay, two-storey brick outbuilding with open section on extreme right side, double-height squash court to central section and stables to right side. Westmoreland natural slate roof covering. English gardenwall brick bond. Splayed brick headers to openings/block-up openings.

On ground floor level, from L to R:
Wide opening with brick header segmental arch with brick infill between underside of arch and steel beam header; cement rendered buttress; door opening with modern timber door; cement rendered buttress; cement rendered linear strip above door level with 5 diminutive square window openings to with rudimentary timber frames and single glazing to 4 of the openings, left side opening is blocked up; bricked-up door opening; three tall stable door openings with modern timber staircase constructed across the first door giving access to first floor level, middle door is a replacement stable half-door and the one on extreme right side is timber sheeted with a plain overlight.
On first floor level, from L – R:
Window opening with 3/6 timber sliding sash window; blank façade with five bricked-up former window openings; window opening with putty-fronted single-glazed 9-pane fixed light; door opening with squat replacement timber sheeted door at top of timber steps; window opening with putty-fronted single-glazed 9-pane fixed light. Advanced brick header eaves course.
Plastic rainwater goods. Raised lead parapet at SW end with replacement slate hipped roof behind.

Gable elevation (SW)
Abutted by NW end of Outbuilding 1.

Rear elevation (NW):
Façade is rough cut stone brought to courses with brick surrounds and heads to openings. Advanced brick header eaves course.
On ground floor level, from L to R:
Three window openings with 9-pane fixed timber windows with single glazing, stone cills; remainder of façade has bricked-up window openings (not fully seen at time of survey).
On first floor level, from L to R:
Three window openings aligned with those below, with a 9-pane fixed timber window with single glazing on left side, a 4-pane window of same type to middle, and a 9-pane of same type on right, all with stone cills; door opening with remnants of footbridge formed with steel sections leading to higher ground level. Remainder of façade has bricked-up window openings (not fully seen at time of survey).
Plastic rainwater goods.

Gable elevation (NE):
Blind façade with natural stone to lower half and brick above, raised cement-rendered parapet. Abutted by courtyard boundary wall at E corner.

Outbuilding 3
Thirteen bay, single-storey brick stable block with mono-pitched natural slate roof.

Front elevation (NW facing courtyard):
From L to R: Four regularly spaced replacement stable timber half-doors between replacement fixed timber multi-paned windows (single-glazed, no cills); small cement-rendered chimney left of centre; two stores to right side with timber sheeted doors and same windows. Small, simple cast-iron water pump to extreme right side. Plastic rainwater goods.

Gable elevation (SW):
Blind gable, painted brick.

Rear elevation (SE):
Right side is blind, no openings, ruled & lined cement rendered, red clay ridge tiles.
Left side is abutted by large modern lean-to shed with sliding timber barn door.
SW side of lean-to shed has a single-storey potting shed abutting rear (SE) elevation of outbuilding.
SE elevation of potting shed has a central timber sheeted door flanked by 12 pane timber fixed lights.
SW gable elevation of potting shed has a single window opening with a 3/3 timber sliding sash window with magin panes.
Natural slate pitched roof with red clay ridge tiles. Plastic rainwater goods.

Gable elevation (NE):
Blind elevation with lean-to roof profile in rubblestone masonry with brick quoins to left side.

Northeast courtyard boundary wall:
Courtyard is enclosed to the north east by a rubble masonry wall with tall, squared brick piers, granite caps; replacement timber sheeted gates.

Materials
Roof – Natural slate, original and replacement
Walls – rough-cut stone with brick detailing
Windows – historic and replacement timber sliding sash / fixed pane / hopper openings
RWGs – cast iron & replacement PVC

Historical information

Dunbarton House dates from c1845 and is thought to be the work of Thomas Jackson who designed a number of houses for linen merchants in the area, namely Huntly House, Milltown House and Belmont which all date from the 1830s and 40s. The three outbuildings to the rear of the house today date from c1850 (outbuilding 1), c1858-60 (outbuilding 3) and c1885 (outbuilding 2).
Dunbarton House is first shown, captioned, on the second edition OS map of 1858 (a structure is shown on the site of the house on the first edition map of 1834 but this does not have the same footprint as the present building and appears to have been replaced by the current building. Additionally the structure does not appear in the Townland Valuation of 1838). In 1858 the house had two ranges of outbuilding to the rear, one of which was outbuilding 1. Two smaller structures are shown on the site of outbuilding 3 in 1858 with a roofless central section, but by the time of the large-scale map of 1860, the central section had been roofed over suggesting that this outbuilding was under construction through the late 1850s. Griffith’s Valuation (1861) gives dimensions for the outbuildings that were present at that time. Outbuilding 1 occupied much the same footprint as it does today and was always a two-storey building, making it the earliest of the outbuildings to have survived relatively intact.

By the third edition of 1901-2, outbuilding 2 had also been added to the site and the three outbuildings formed a U-shaped courtyard, having much the same footprint as the stableyard occupies today.

The 1933 revaluation gives a plan and dimensions for the outbuildings, which conform to their present-day dimensions. The valuer notes that a ‘motor house’ was introduced into outbuilding 1 c1934 extending for 17½ feet of the frontage and the entire outbuilding width of 20 feet.

During WW2, Dunbarton House was used as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers, at which time an air raid shelter and a swimming pool were constructed by 297 Company of the Royal Engineers who were stationed in Gilford Castle demesne. It is thought to be at this time that a section of outbuilding 2 was fitted out as a squash court and the fittings and markings of the court remain apparent.

There is a pump shown at the south-west corner of the stableyard on the large-scale OS map of 1860 and a pump remains in this position to the present day (2023).

Outbuilding 1 has been converted in recent years to provide living accommodation and this has entailed the construction of a small projection within the stable courtyard and the introduction of a new dormer window to the front elevation, as well as the replacement of the roof. The former ‘motor house’ entrance has been fitted with glazed doors. An extension of approx. 25 x 16 feet was added to the rear of outbuilding 3 after 1972 and this extension has been further extended in recent years.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI VAL/1/B/350 – Townland Valuation- Parish of Tullylish (1838)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/26/2 Second Edition OS map 1858
4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
5. PRONI OS/6/3/26/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48E Griffith’s Valuation (c.1861)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/M/3 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
9. 1901 census online
10. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

11. Dean, J. A. K. “The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer.” Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1994.
12. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
R. Age

Evaluation

Large range of brick and stone outbuildings built in stages at c1850, c1858-60 and c1885 forming a stableyard to the rear of Dunbarton House c1845 (HB17/01/015A), likely designed by Architect Thomas Jackson. The original wooded, landscaped grounds are located off Dunbarton Street, north west of Gilford village centre, Co Down.
The outbuildings have particular special interest in relation to World War II, as a section of Outbuilding 2 was fitted out as a squash court while Dunbarton House was used as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers. There is also a water pump extant in the SW corner of the stable-yard.
The outbuildings have group value with the rest of the Dunbarton estate, ie. with Dunbarton House (HB17/01/015A), the conservatory (HB17/01/015B), WWII air-raid shelter (HB17/01/015C) and the gate lodges (HB17/01/015D & E).
While 20th century alterations have taken place over the years, much original historic fabric remains as well as some original planform and interior detailing. The outbuildings are an integral part of the estate and add to the local interest of the Dunbarton estate.