Enniskeen House Hotel,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Tall late-victorian, three storey house of c.1890, having irregular facades with many gables, a turret and gabled dormers. The building, which has been a hotel since c.1960, is set to the SW side of the Bryansford Road, c.1.5 miles NW of Newcastle town centre.

The building is roughly rectangular in plan and has irregularly arranged facades. The present front façade is the most irregularly arranged of all. It faces NE and has a large flat roofed entrance projection to the right on the ground floor. This projection was added c.1974 after bomb damage and features a large segmental arch headed doorway (reached via steps) to its SE face and three large similarly shaped windows to the NE. To the right the projection links to an equally modern single storey flat roofed section.

The original façade NE to the left and above the entrance projection is taller towards the left (SE), with the roof line dropping considerably to the right. Three large gables break the roof line in half dormer-like fashion, with that to the right slightly shorter and with a chimney breast to that to the left. The windows on this façade are of varying size and irregularly spaced, but all have sash frames apart from a huge mullioned and transomed window near the centre of the façade which lights the main stair, and another much smaller one to the ground floor which has a modern frame. On the roof to the immediate left of the gable to the right there is a large gabled dormer whose window has been blocked up.

The shorter SE façade has a large, full height, octagonal corner turret to the left (S) with a steeply pitched hipped roof decorated with finial and sash windows to each face at each level. To the right of the façade is a large, single storey canted bay with high parapet obscuring the roof with sash windows to each face (two to the broad SE face). Above this are two sash windows with another two at second floor level set into a large gable with chimney breast similar to the NE façade.

The SW façade has a more polite appearance. To the far right is the turret mentioned above. Some distance to the left of this is a square two storey, hipped roof bay with sash windows to all faces on both floors (two to the broader front face). Above this bay is a large gabled half-dormer with a pair of sash windows. Between this bay and the turret there spans a balcony with simple wrought iron balustrade. At ground floor level below the balcony are two glazed doors. At first floor (opening onto the balcony) is a similar glazed door with large sash window sidelights.

To the far left the roof level of this façade drops considerably (as with the NE façade) and the façade itself is set further back. This section of the façade has two pairs of sash windows to the ground floor and two to the first floor (all of differing size) and culminates with another large gabled half-dormer complete with a sash window.

The NW façade has a large single storey flat roofed section which now links to a modern single storey flat roofed section to the N of the main house (and set at right angles to it). At first floor level there is a boarded up opening to the left. There are two gabled dormers to the roof above this.

The façade is finished in rough cast and largely unpainted, with window reveals in painted render. Each of the large gables has corbels and a parapet together with eaves course. The roof has natural slate and there are five tall rendered chimney stacks. The roof has at least two velux windows. Metal rw goods.

To the SE of the house, at the end of the main drive, there is a single storey gate lodge (HB18/15/009A) with symmetrical front façade with gabled hooded porch over the entrance and a simple moulded course over the windows. The roof is gabled and has a slight overhang and there are two attic windows to each gable. There is a gabled single storey return to the rear.

Historical information

This house was built c.1890 for Robert Wallace Murray the owner of the eponymous tobacco factory in Belfast. Reputed to have been remodelled by William Batt, who was also doing work in Newcastle at this time, but this is in no way certain. In 1913 the house was sold to a Mr. Liddel, who sold it to a Colonel Panter in the early 1930s. Panter carried out alterations to the interior of the building to designs by Hobart & Heron, the most radical of which appears to have been the re-ordering of the main hallway with the re-positioning of the lower section of the staircase. In the [?late] 1940s Panter sold the house to the Lindsay family who in turn sold it to the present owner in 1959.

The property was converted to a hotel in 1960. In 1974, as a result of bomb damage, the porch projection was added to the front and (among other things) the hallway layout altered.

References- Secondary sources
1 P.J. Rankin, 'Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in the Mourne Area of South Down', (Belfast UAHS 1975), p.78. [This book states that William Batt carried out alterations to this property in 1893-4, based on evidence in a copy of the ‘Irish builder’ dating from early 1895 (Vo.XXXVI, p.46), however, this article actually refers to a completely different residence in Newcastle named ‘Arkeen’ (which is also illustrated in the same journal).]
2 J.A.K. Dean ‘The Gate Lodges of Ulster’ (Belfast UAHS 1994), p.75. [This book states that the house may have been designed by William Batt, but this may be based on the erroneous information given in the UAHS guide to the Mourne area (see ref. 1).]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Large late-Victorian three storey residence of c.1890 whose many gables and dormers exude a Highland hunting lodge feel. To the front there is a large single storey, flat roofed entrance porch, added c.1974-5. The property is now a hotel.
Contemporary one and a half storey gabled gate lodge to drive with largely plain facade.