Survey Data
Reg No
40902945
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Westbrook
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Presbytery/parochial/curate's house
In Use As
House
Date
1800 - 1850
Coordinates
234767, 432907
Date Recorded
--/--/--
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey house, built c. 1840, having single-bay single-storey flat-roofed porch to the centre of the front elevation (east) having modern metal railings over. Now extended to the north with large single-storey extension and also in use as a guest house. Possibly containing fabric of earlier house to site, built c. 1807. Hipped natural slate roof with a central pair of rendered chimneystacks having terracotta pots over. Rendered walls with rendered block-and-start quoins to the corners of the front elevation. Square-headed window openings with painted stone sills, and with eight-over-eight pane timber sliding sash windows at ground floor level, and replacement fittings at first floor level. Round-headed window opening to front face of porch having three-over-six pane timber sliding sash window with spoked head to upper sash. Square-headed doorway to the north face of porch having replacement door. Central square-headed doorway at first floor level, over porch, having glazed timber double-doors\French doors. Set back from road in attractive mature landscape grounds to the west bank of the Crana River, and to the north\north-east of the centre of Buncrana. Wilson’s Bridge (see 40902928) adjacent to the south-east. Rubble stone boundary walls to site boundary to the south-west and west. Enlarged gateway to the south-west.
Appraisal
This well-proportioned middle-sized house, of late Georgian or early Victorian appearance, retains its early form and character despite some modern alterations and the construction of extensions to accommodate new use as a guest house. Its integrity and visual appeal is enhanced by the retention of salient fabric such as the timber sliding sash windows at ground floor level and the natural slate roof. Its three-bay two-storey form with central doorway is typical of many middle class gentlemen’s houses, rectories etc. that were constructed throughout Ireland from the mid eighteenth century until the twentieth century, and is an example of the language of classical architecture stripped to its barest fundamental elements, which creates a fine dwelling. This house may incorporate the fabric of an earlier house or houses to site, one of which was constructed by a Judge Wilson in 1807. This was a long building located adjacent to the road to the south-west in c. 1835 (Ordnance Survey first edition map). The main part of the house as stands today was built between this date and c. 1860 (Griffith’s Valuation map of c. 1857). Wilson was also responsible for the construction of the adjacent elegant single-arch bridge (see 40902928) over the River Crana, known as ‘Wilson’s Bridge’, that provides access to the house from the south-west. The porch is a later addition (added after 1902; Ordnance Survey twentieth-five inch map), while a number of returns to the rear, including possible parts of the earlier house to site, were demolished post-1902. Westbrook was later the home of the Right Revd. V.G. Kearney in 1894 (Slater’s Directory), who was parish priest at the nearby St. Mary’s Catholic church (see 40902924) at nearby Cockhill to the north-west at this time. Set in a very attractive situation adjacent to the west bank of the Crana River, this house makes a positive contribution to the rural landscape to the north of Buncrana, and is an addition to the built heritage of the local area.