Reg No
31941001
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Archaeological, Architectural, Artistic, Technical
Original Use
Farmyard complex
Historical Use
Country house
In Use As
House
Date
1810 - 1850
Coordinates
181882, 259907
Date Recorded
01/09/2003
Date Updated
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L-plan range of two-storey outbuildings to east of ruinous country house, built c.1830, comprising U-plan coach house and stables now in use as private house. Rear of house faces onto courtyard. Pitched slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and stone chimneystacks. Random coursed stone walls, rendered to north-facing elevation. Square-headed window openings with replacement aluminium frames. Adjacent outbuilding with half-hipped slate roof and random coursed limestone walls, now in use as farm building. Pedimented bellcote to yard and fuel store with pointed-arch openings. Derelict U-plan coach house and stables with squared limestone walls and tooled limestone cornice and quoins, having family crest set into wall. Limestone surrounds to carriage arch and door openings and red brick surrounds to window openings. Additional coach house to east, accessed through wrought-iron gate with ashlar stone piers. Three-bay single-storey gate lodge to south, with attic storey. Nearby is ruin of three-bay three-storey former country house over basement, built c.1830.
Although the main house is now in ruins, the Castlestrange estate, the outbuildings adjacent to the ruined house continue in use, as a private dwelling. While this outbuilding has been saved from dereliction by its change of use, the coach house and stables have succumbed to that fate. These remarkable buildings are a display of the opulence of the estate and the central arrangement of five carriage arch openings is a striking composition. Although greatly diminished, Castlestrange survives as a living estate where buildings of architectural and social importance remain. Castlestrange is also the home of a Celtic La Tène stone known locally as the Castlestrange Stone.