Mountain View

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical two-storey with attic three-bay farm house dating from c.1850. Rectangular plan form with rear return. Located to off the Ballybrick Road approximately 3 miles north of Rathfriland.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles; smooth rendered gable chimneystacks with corbelled cap; clay pots; cast-iron rainwater goods. Pebble-dash walling; smooth rendered plinth. 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with vertical margin panes; no horns; masonry cills. Four panelled front door with bolection mouldings; side-lights with margin panes and panelled aprons; spoked fanlight with hub set into elliptical arched opening. Single storey flat roof porch added c.1970.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged. Centrally positioned front door with ground floor with ground floor windows either side, three first floor windows directly over.

The left gable is largely blank with exception to a diminished-in-scale attic window slightly left of centre.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged. Two-storey flat-roofed twentieth century addition located left of centre; timber casement windows to the north elevation; single door to the left cheek. Left of the addition is a single ground floor 3/6 sash window; first floor window directly over. Single raised landing window. Right of the return are two ground floor windows with a single first floor window.

The right gable has a single first floor window to the left and a diminished-in-scale attic window slightly right of centre.

Setting

The house is screened from the road by trees. The site is accessed via modern gates supported from modern boundary walls. On approach the short driveway runs parallel to the front lawn addressing the house. Separate access to the rear concrete yard; wrought-iron gates on granite piers to the east entrance; partial remains to the west. The yard is enclosed to the north by a two-storey pitched natural slate roofed outbuilding; rubble masonry walling built to course; brick elliptical arches; timber floor boards and collar-beam trusses. Single-storey coach house to the east; square plan pyramidal slated roof surmounted by ball finial; rough cast render. Other buildings are smooth cement rendered with corrugated-iron roofing. Beyond the site boundary is a rural landscape
setting.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Pebble dash
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Mountainview, a two-storey Victorian farmhouse, was constructed sometime between 1833 and 1859 first appearing on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1859). The farm was initially occupied by James McBride until his death in 1858 and as a result, during Griffith’s Valuation in 1862, the site lay vacant, valued at £14 (PRONI Wills).

‘Mountainview,’ as it was captioned on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map, consisted of the two-storey farmhouse and a large two-storey barn situated to the northwest of the dwelling. Mountainview was owned by a Mr. James Birch who let the site to John Alexander Murray, a local farmer, in 1864 after approximately five years of lying vacant.

John A. Murray continued to reside at Mountainview until his death in 1920. The 1901 Census records that John A. Murray (45, Presbyterian) lived alone at the site. The census building return for 1901 was missing however, in 1911 the census described the farmhouse as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 10 rooms and possessed a number of farm offices, located in the outbuilding to it’s north-west side, that included a stable, two cow houses, two piggeries, a boiling house ad a barn. John A. Murray married his wife Isabella (aged 36 in 1911) in 1902 and together they had a son and two daughters whilst a number of workers were hired to work the farm (1911 Census).

Murray continued to reside at Mountainview until his death in 1920 at which time his widow Isabella came into possession of the site; Isabella lived at the site until at least the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929. Mountainview was listed in 1977. The two-storey barn to the north-west side of the dwelling survives. Addition of an entrance porch c. 1970 and a plain two-storey return to the rear.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/34/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/34/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/34/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1902-03
4. PRONI OS/6/3/34/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1903-1918
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/34 – Townland Valuation Map 1830s
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/357 – Townland Valuations 1830s
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/59B – Griffith’s Valuation 1862
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4A – Annual Revisions 1864-1876
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4B – Annual Revisions 1877-1887
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4C – Annual Revisions 1887-1898
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4D – Annual Revisions 1898-1911
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4E – Annual Revisions 1912-1929
13. PRONI Wills (7 Dec 1858; 29 Sept 1920)
14. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
15. First Survey Record – HB17/08/012 (1970)
16. Ordnance Survey Map – 238-7 (1975)

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A two-storey with attic three-bay farmhouse dating from c.1850. Its proportions and style survive although the addition of the front porch and the re-rendering detracts from its historic character. After being abandoned for sometime, there was extensive refurbishment resulting in a loss of much original historic fabric. The outbuildings to the rear add to the overall interest and setting of the dwelling. As a whole, this is a good example of the type surviving in its original setting with outbuildings and increasingly rare hereabouts.