Survey Data
Reg No
14930001
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic
Original Use
Country house
In Use As
Country house
Date
1740 - 1780
Coordinates
210128, 211908
Date Recorded
22/10/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay two-storey over basement country house, built c.1760, with outbuildings to rear. Set within its own grounds. Pitched slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, rendered chimneystack with terracotta pots, cast-iron rainwater goods and tooled stone coping to gables. Roughcast render to walls. Timber sash windows and stone sills to all elevations and oculi to front and rear elevations. Main entrance with round-headed door opening with timber panelled double doors flanked by tooled limestone engaged Doric columns surmounted by petal fanlight. Door accessed by flight of punch-dressed limestone steps flanked by with low sweeping walls. Wrought-iron bootscraper to base of steps. Round-headed door opening to rear site with fanlight and timber panelled door with stone threshold. Multiple-bay two-storey stables to rear site with pitched slate roof and random coursed stone walls. Timber lintels to square-headed door and window openings and timber battened doors. Main entrance with square-profile gate piers of channelled limestone with carved stone swags to frieze surmounted by cornice and capping stone with flanking quadrant walls and wrought-iron gates.
Appraisal
Whigsborough House overlooks a sloping lawn. In excellent condition, this house portrays some interesting architectural details. A round-headed doorway with a petal fanlight and six-over-six sash windows are two items of significance. Accompanying this house is a wide range of outbuildings, including stables, gardener's sheds and a walled garden with thick buttressed walls and a tower or folly façade overlooking front lawn. Without a doubt, Whigsborough House makes a positive architectural impact on County Offaly.