Murdoch House

Murdoch House is a mid to late-18th century house, rebuilt after a fire in 1922 and subsequently used as meeting rooms and offices. The building is constructed of granite rubble with rendered sections, slate hanging, and painted areas. It has a pitched slate roof with brick chimneys. Timber six-over-six sash windows are typical throughout, although some have different glazing patterns.

The house has two storeys with an attic and basement, arranged around a roughly rectangular plan, a single room deep. While the principal front faces north, the public-facing elevation is on the south side, overlooking a small public square.

The north front is largely symmetrical, with a rendered finish, a modillioned eaves cornice, and gable stacks rising from the pitched roof. An entrance doorway, featuring a six-panelled door and overlight, is set slightly to the right, flanked by sash windows on both the ground and first floors. Two gabled dormers with three-over-six sash windows are set into the roof. The south elevation is rendered to the ground floor and slate-hung above. A prominent external red-brick staircase obscures much of the ground floor, leading to a contemporary doorway on the first floor, with a sash window to the right and a small nine-pane fixed window further to the right. The west elevation is largely hidden by the nearby ruins of Druid’s Hall. On the east-facing painted elevation to Cross Street, a late-19th century tablet records that William Murdoch lived in the house.

The interior was significantly altered after the 1922 fire. The ground floor room features 20th-century cross beams, and a hatch provides access to the cellar. A 20th-century timber dogleg staircase rises from a small lobby on the south side to the first floor, where there are two office spaces, each with post-1922 timber fire surrounds. The attic rooms retain exposed principal rafters and purlins, likely remnants of the original roof structure. The interior finishes and joinery are mainly 20th century, having been rebuilt after the 1922 fire and refurbished in 1987.