Outer Down

Outer Down is a house built in 1911 for Miss Jameson of the Irish whiskey family. The architect is unknown. It is constructed of snecked granite ashlar, quarried from the grounds, with granite stacks featuring granite ashlar chimney shafts and a roof of Delabole slate. The house faces east and has a seven-room plan, with the northern end being double depth; reception rooms are located at the rear (garden), alongside service rooms including a large kitchen, wine cellar, laundry room, scullery, and butler's pantry. The single-depth section to the south contains an entrance hall with stairs and a principal drawing room at the end. Most rooms are heated by axial or gable-end stacks. The building is two storeys high and built in a restrained Tudor style.

The front elevation has an irregular five-window arrangement with granite mullioned windows of varying sizes, all containing iron-framed casements without glazing bars, but with Jacobean-style catches. Larger windows are transomed, the largest being a four-light kitchen window also featuring a hoodmould. A two-storey porch projects forward, slightly left of centre, with a sixth first-floor window composed of three lights, transomed and with a hoodmould. The front doorway has an elliptical arch with a deep hollow-chamfered surround, sunken spandrels, and a hoodmould, and it contains a studded plank door with coverstrips and wrought iron fittings. The main roof is gable-ended. Some chimney shafts are divided and set diagonally. The left gable end, facing south, has a two-storey bay window with slightly canted sides, two-light side windows, and a three-light front window with transoms, topped with a parapet. The garden side has a three-gabled front to the double-depth section, where the fenestration is more regular. The roof of the right gable extends over an open-sided passage to the entrance hall, incorporating an outer Tudor arch and a three-bay arcade supported by granite Tuscan columns. The principal sitting room at the right end features a five-light window in a square-cornered bay window. A rainwater head nearby is dated 1911.

The original interior is well-preserved and reflects a 17th-century style more than Tudor. The staircase has a closed string, flat handrail, and balusters turned in a 17th-century style, constructed from mahogany, rosewood, and oak. Main rooms have grey-marble chimney pieces with iron grates enriched with hand-tooled decorative festoons in the style of Grinling Gibbons. A vaulted ceiling exists in the corridor from the entrance hall into the double-depth section. Most doors are two-panelled with brass fittings, and the principal sitting room has a cut crystal handle.