Survey Data
Reg No
20911248
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Scientific, Social
Original Use
Country house
In Use As
House
Date
1775 - 1780
Coordinates
169780, 49831
Date Recorded
13/07/2009
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay two-storey with dormer attic and gabled central bay house, built 1776. Recent single-storey extensions to rear (south-east). Now also in use as restaurant. Pitched slate roof having cat-slide to rear pitch, with rendered eaves course, roughly coursed rubble limestone chimneystacks and replacement cast-iron rainwater goods. Dressed stone walls having chamfered plinth and tooled limestone date plaque. Square-headed window openings with tooled limestone sills throughout, having voussoirs with raised keystones or moulded render surrounds. Replacement six-over-six and four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows. Venetian window opening with tooled limestone sill to front elevation. Central six-over-six pane timber sliding sash window with fanlight flanked by two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Round-headed window openings to dormers, having replacement timber casement windows. Round-headed window opening with render sill to side (south-west) elevation, having timber casement window. Square-headed door opening to front elevation, having replacement timber panelled door with decorative overlight and limestone stepped approach. L-plan complex of outbuildings, recently converted into holiday apartments, to rear, surrounding yard. Pitched slate roofs with rubble stone walls having camber- and square-headed window openings with replacement sills and replacement two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Camber- and square-headed door openings having replacement exposed timber lintels.
Appraisal
A fine eighteenth century house which retains much of its early character. Apparently incorporating fabric of an earlier tower house built in 1576 by the Roche family, this house was built by Thomas Walton, whose family had been granted the castle when the Roches were disinherited. Stonemason George Keane oversaw its construction. It is thought the Walton family gained great wealth through smuggling activities, which paid for the construction of this imposing house in its remote setting, overlooking the inlet.