Survey Data

Reg No

15402658


Rating

Regional


Categories of Special Interest

Architectural, Artistic


Original Use

Country house


In Use As

House


Date

1770 - 1800


Coordinates

248654, 247196


Date Recorded

15/10/2004


Date Updated

--/--/--


Description

Detached three-bay two-storey over basement country house, built c.1785, having a full-height canted-bay projection to the centre of the main elevation (west). Return to the rear (east) and an extension to the south. Now in use as a guest house and as a restaurant. Hipped natural slate roof with projecting cut stone eaves course having cut stone corbels and a pair of smooth rendered chimneystacks to the centre. Roughcast rendered walls with square-headed window openings having cut stone sills and replacement timber casement windows. Round-headed doorcase to the front face of canted bay projection (west) having cut limestone surround with fluted lintel and projecting keystone over, a spoke fanlight and a timber panelled door. Cut limestone steps to front flanked by rendered walls to either side (north and south). Balustraded wall surrounds basement to front of house (west). Main entrance gates to the north. Set back from road in own grounds to the southeast of Mullingar.

Appraisal

An appealing country house, of late eighteenth-century appearance, which retains much of it early character, form and fabric. The front façade of this house is distinguished by the canted projection and by the high quality cut limestone doorcase, which is of artistic merit and has a distinctive partially fluted architraved design. This canted two-storey projection helps to break up the rigidity of the front facade and echoes the designs of both Anneville House (15402631) to the west and Carrick House (15402624) to the southwest, which both share this feature. This canted projection may have been added during the mid nineteenth-century as Woodville House is indicated as having a flat regular front façade on an 1838 map of the area. The interior of this house has been compromised by recent alterations to accommodate use as a restaurant, while the loss of the original windows is a regrettable feature of this compact country house. This good quality house is an important component of the architectural heritage of the area, whilst its attractive mature grounds adds incident to the rural landscape to the southeast of Mullingar. The wrought-iron gates and railings add to the setting of this composition.