Survey Data
Reg No
15401907
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical
Previous Name
Lynn House
Original Use
House
Historical Use
Hunting/fishing lodge
In Use As
House
Date
1780 - 1820
Coordinates
243835, 251142
Date Recorded
19/05/2006
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey house, built c.1800, possibly incorporating the fabric of an earlier structure. Full-height canted bays, with pyramidal-shaped artificial slate roofs over, flanking central entrance to east and west, possibly added c.1900. Hipped artificial slate roof having brick chimneystacks with terracotta pots. Smooth rendered walls over projecting plinth course. Square-headed window openings having replacement timber casement windows. Cut-stone surround with projecting keystone over to window opening above central doorcase (southwest). Central round-headed doorcase having moulded limestone block-and-start surround with fluted frieze and a spider's web fanlight over. Replacement double leaf timber panelled door. Tooled limestone steps descend to gravel forecourt to front (southwest). Set back from road in mature grounds with rubble stone boundary wall to road frontage. Main entrance to the northwest with two dressed limestone gate piers on square-plan having cast-iron railings and cast-iron double-gates. Two-storey outbuilding/stable block to north with rendered walls having corrugated metal roof and cobbled floors. Located to the south of Mullingar Town.
Appraisal
A substantial and rather confusing house, which retains some of its earlier character despite undergoing extensive alterations in recent years. This house has evidence of at least two separate phases of construction, which can be gauged from the survival of an early doorcase (having an early window surround over), c.1810, and by the presence of later fabric c.1900. The fine doorcase with a delicate fanlight is of artistic merit and helps to distinguish this structure. The current owners of this house have in their possession letters associated with the eminent writer and historical figure Jonathon Swift (1667-1747), apparently sent to him when he was using Lynn House as a hunting lodge. This suggests, perhaps, that this house contains earlier fabric or that there was an earlier house on this site, c.1720. It is not unlikely, judging from the form of this house, that it was re-orientated from a northwest facing aspect to face southwest at some stage. The good quality cast-iron gates and gate piers, along with the rubble stone boundary wall, completes the setting and adds to this composition.