Survey Data
Reg No
20847031
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Court Macsherry
Original Use
Country house
In Use As
Hotel
Date
1800 - 1840
Coordinates
151621, 42461
Date Recorded
29/07/2009
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Freestanding five-bay two-storey former country house, built c.1820, having glazed timber porch to front (north-west), bowed bay to side (north-east) canted bay and two-bay two-storey addition to side (south-west). Numerous additions to rear (south-east). Now in use as hotel. Hipped slate roof to main block having overhanging rendered eaves with paired timber corbels and cast-iron rainwater. Flat bitumen-clad roof to porch and side (south-west) addition, having overhanging timber-clad eaves to porch. Flat bitumen-clad roofs and pitched slate roofs to additions, having rendered chimneystacks and uPVC rainwater goods. Rendered walls with chamfered plinth throughout. Glazed timber panelled walls to porch. Square-headed window openings with stone and rendered sills throughout, having three-over-three pane timber sliding sash windows to main block and side (south-west) addition. Timber-framed tripartite windows to side (north-east) elevation of northern most addition, having central two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows flanked by one-over-one pane timber sliding sash sidelights. uPVC casement windows elsewhere. Fixed margined timber-framed windows to porch over timber panelled stall risers, surmounted by multiple-pane overlights. Square-headed door opening to porch, having double-leaf glazed timber door surmounted by multiple-pane overlights. Round-headed door opening to interior of porch, having glazed timber double-leaf doors surmounted by spoked fanlight. Rendered and crenellated rubble stone enclosing walls with square-profile rendered gate piers to north-west.
Appraisal
Henry Boyle of Castlemartyr, the second son of the Earl of Orrery, acquired lands in Courtmacsherry in the mid eighteenth century. This house was built by the then Earl of Shannon in the early nineteenth century as a summer house and, together with the former boat house to the north-east and the former gate lodge and school to the west, it is a reminder of the scale and wealth of the estate in the past. By the turn of the twentieth century it was in use as an hotel known as "Esplanade Hotel". Although partially burnt during the Troubles (1919-23), and subsequently modified in reconstruction, its historic character and charm survive largely intact.