Potters Cottage And The Downings

Potters Cottage and The Downings are a pair of houses, likely dating from the 17th century, situated in Egloskerry. The buildings are constructed of stone rubble and cob, with rendered and painted elevations above a ground floor. The roofs are covered with rag slate, featuring gables, with a lower range to the left also having gable ends. A stone rubble axial stack with granite quoins is present, and a shaft has been removed from a front lateral stack.

The original plan is uncertain, but it’s thought that the houses were originally a three-room layout with a through passage. The right-hand house now comprises a heated hall, an unheated inner room, and a passage, with an axial stack backing onto the passage. A 17th-century single-room plan wing is located on the front of the lower side of the hall, its original purpose unclear. The left-hand house was originally heated by a front lateral stack and passage, with a partition on the lower side removed. A circa 19th-century outshut extension runs across the front of the lower end.

The exterior presents an asymmetrical 1:2 window front, with the ground rising to the right. The hall and inner room have a higher roof, with a two-storey gabled projection near the centre. A circa 19th-century single-storey outshut extension is situated across the front on the left, with a 20th-century window and door. 20th-century 2-light casements are present on the ground and first floors of the gabled central wing. To the right are a 20th-century 3-light casement window above a doorway, a further 20th-century 3-light casement, and two 20th-century casements on the first floor.

Inside the right-hand house, the hall and projection to the front of the hall feature closely set, large, roughly chamfered floor joists, and a chamfered timber fireplace lintel. The roof structure was inaccessible. Potters Cottage has roughly cut, slighter floor joists, with the fireplace covered over.