Ford Castle

Ford Castle is a country house, now a field study centre, with a complex history dating back to the 14th century (a licence to crenellate was granted in 1338). It was converted into a mansion in 1694 and given Gothic detailing in 1761 by George Raffield for Sir John Hussey Deleval. Further restoration in a 17th-century style, along with a new north wall and internal alterations, took place from 1862 by David Bryce for Louisa, Marchioness of Waterford. The building is primarily ashlar, with earlier medieval sections in squared stone, and has stone slate and graduated Lakeland slate roofs.

Originally constructed as a quadrilateral castle with four corner towers, three of these survive, though one is now detached (the Flagpole Tower is listed separately). The present house has an E-plan with three storeys plus attics. It features a five-bay centre with a projecting porch tower, and projecting wings incorporating four-storey, one-bay stair towers in the re-entrant angles. A rusticated basement is present, accessed by steps leading to a two-leaf door. The basement windows are two-light mullioned; the upper floors have cross windows and larger four- and five-light mullioned-and-transomed windows on the ground floor. A four-light window is positioned above the main door. Further details include an 18th-century modillion cornice and a castellated parapet. The gabled roofs are punctuated by tall diagonally-set stacks of several conjoined shafts.

The left return displays 18th-century masonry to the right, medieval masonry in the centre, and a 14th-century King James' Tower to the left, with a blocked arched window on the first floor and irregular 19th-century openings.

The rear facade includes King James' Tower to the right, featuring an original slit window in the sub-basement and a blocked window above. A section designed by Bryce is characterized by consciously irregular Gothic openings, including a stone balcony on large stone brackets to the right, and a large oriel on four substantial brackets in the centre. A tower to the left shows old masonry with 18th-century quoins; this may be a late 18th-century reconstruction.

Internally, King James' Tower has a vaulted basement accessed by stairs within the wall's thickness, leading to two-centred arched doorways. The vault is pointed, with five square-section transverse ribs. Walls are exceptionally thick, measuring 15 feet at this level, decreasing to 8 feet above. The first floor features two pointed-arched doorways, a ceiling dating to the 16th or 17th century, with stop-chamfered spine beams with run-out stops, and square close-set joists. A stone fireplace with a Tudor-arched lintel and moulded surround is also present. The second floor is a Gothic room dating to 1862, connected by a mural stair. In the angle of the east wing, a restored newel stair is alongside a fragment of an earlier staircase in the wall. Throughout the house, there are seven fireplaces dating from the 16th or 17th centuries, including one granite fireplace with a bold incised curve in the lintel. Good Arts-and-Crafts-style doors were inserted by Lord Joicey in 1907.