Survey Data
Reg No
30403603
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural
Original Use
Farmyard complex
Date
1810 - 1815
Coordinates
75857, 247835
Date Recorded
21/07/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached quadrangular former stable block, possibly former barracks, dated 1813. East-west blocks now used for domestic accommodation and north-south blocks used as stables, with internal courtyard and having three-stage towers to each corner. Hipped tiled roofs with dormer additions, rendered chimneystacks and hidden rainwater goods. Rendered and pebble-dashed walls to accommodation blocks. Towers are of irregular coursed limestone blockwork with batter to northern and eastern elevations and parts of northern and eastern elevations are pebble-dashed. Dressed limestone string courses between stages of towers, and above ground floor openings and at impost level of first floor of south elevation. Coursed dressed and pecked limestone blocks to ground floor of stables, irregular coursed dressed limestone to first floor below dressed string course above centre of window openings with recent dressed stonework up to parapet with concrete coping. Square and round-headed openings to windows in accommodation blocks, square-headed, and lancet openings to towers with limestone voussoirs and dressed sills. Square-headed window openings to first floor of stables with limestone sills, and camber-headed vehicular openings to ground floor with limestone voussoirs. Replacement uPVC windows and doors throughout. Complex extensively modernised in early 1990s.
Appraisal
This intriguing building retains many original features and is closely linked to the former owners of Ballynahinch Castle, the Martins. The semi-defensive appearance of the building gives an indication of more turbulent times, but it mostly alludes to the building styles then in vogue with the landed gentry of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.