Fingal'S Hotel And Restaurant Old Coombe Old Coombe (Fingal'S Hotel And Restaurant) Including Back Yard Wall

This former farmhouse, now operating as Fingal's Hotel and Restaurant, originated probably in the early 17th century or possibly earlier. It was substantially remodelled and extended around 1700, with minor alterations made in the early to mid-19th century.

The building is constructed of whitewashed slate rubble, plastered at the front and on the left (north-west) side. The slate roofs are gable-ended to the right and hipped to the left, with gable-ended rear wings to the right and hipped rear extensions to the left; the inner slopes feature scantle slates with red clay ridge tiles. Large rendered gable-end stacks serve the right side of the main range and the rear wing, with a later rendered axial stack positioned left of centre in the main range.

Plan and Development

The original early 17th-century house comprises the front range and centre rear wing. The front range follows a three-room and through or cross-passage plan. The lower room to the right is heated by a gable-end stack, the former hall has a rear lateral stack (now redundant), and the wine room or parlour to the left appears originally unheated and possibly represents a late addition. The wing behind the hall is also early 17th century, featuring a large gable-end fireplace with an oven; its moulded lintel suggests it may not have been a service wing.

Around 1700, the house underwent remodelling and extension. The through passage was converted into an entrance hall leading to a stair tower added at the back in the right-hand angle of the rear wing, with a small integral room to its right. Probably at the same time, an unheated service room (the present kitchen) was built at the end of the rear wing, and two rooms were added behind the wine room or parlour in the left-hand angle of the rear wing. Later in the 18th century or during the 19th century, a single-storey outshut was added to the extreme end of the rear wing and a single-storey outbuilding was built in its left-hand angle.

Exterior

The building stands two storeys high. The long, not quite symmetrical front presents seven closely-spaced windows fitted with 12-pane sashes. Four of the first-floor sashes are early 18th century with thick glazing bars, while the others were replaced in the early 19th century, though all remain in exposed cases. The doorway, positioned right of centre, features an 18th-century doorcase with fluted pilasters, frieze paterae and cornice, fielded panel reveals, and a contemporary fielded eight-panel door.

The left-hand (south-west) elevation sits under three hipped roofs and has 18th or 19th-century two-light 12-pane sashes to the right and left; the ground-floor left sash has been replaced by 20th-century garden doors, and at the centre a 20th-century fire escape ascends to a first-floor doorway.

At the rear, the gable-ended stair tower to the left features a large circa 1700 24-pane stair sash with thick glazing bars and a circa 1700 cross-mullion-transom window on the left-hand side. The outer north-east side of the rear wing has early 18th-century two-light sashes on both ground and first floors to the left with thick glazing bars—the ground floor with 12-pane sashes and the first floor with 18-pane sashes—a 19th-century three-light casement to the right, and an early 18th-century fielded six-panel door between with a thatched canopy.

The back yard wall, dating from around the 18th or early 19th century, is built of slate rubble with slate capping, curved on plan in the angle with the rear wing and stair tower, enclosing a small back yard. The wall incorporates a small mounting block.

Interior

The entrance passage features fielded dado panelling and a moulded round arch leading to the stairwell at the back, which contains a good circa 1700 open-well, open-string staircase with two turned balusters per tread and a moulded handrail ramped up to Tuscan column newels; the handrail is wreathed over the curtail, and the staircase has fielded panels with what remains of the cornice being moulded.

The former hall (central room in the front range) has a 19th-century moulded plaster cornice, fielded panel door, and shutters. The parlour at the left (south-west) end features fielded panel window shutters, fielded panelling, dentilled cornice, and a moulded wooden chimneypiece with a late 19th-century iron grate in the corner.

The main room in the rear wing contains a large fireplace with an ovolo-moulded timber lintel with bar stops, dressed slate jambs, and a brick-lined oven. The room behind the rear wing, now the kitchen, has closely-spaced light scantling cross-beams. The first-floor bedchamber to the rear right (north-west) has a deep coved cornice and a simple 18th-century chimneypiece with a moulded cornice and a late 19th-century cast-iron grate.

Roof Structure

The roof over the main front range has straight principals with notch-lap-jointed cambered collars, threaded purlins, and threaded diagonal ridgepiece, though only some of the purlins and rafters survive. The roof over the original rear wing has straight principals with halved and lapped collars; the roof over the extension to the rear wing has been largely replaced.