Stables at Mount Stewart, Mount Stewart, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2RU(?)

Stables at Mount Stewart

A rubble-built U-shaped stable block of approximately 1846, designed by Charles Campbell for Mount Stewart house. The building displays Classical overtones and a domestic rather than utilitarian character. Originally a two-storey structure with gabled sections, it now accommodates residential flats.

The building is positioned a short distance to the southeast of Mount Stewart house, cut into a small hill, creating steep embankments to the north and south. All roofs are covered with Bangor blue slate, gabled to the front and hipped to the rear. Brick chimney stacks, cast iron rainwater goods, and PVC soil drainage serve the building.

The western boundary of the yard is defined by a gate screen with rusticated sandstone pillars topped with pyramidal caps. Inner pillars carry coach lamps. Pedestrian gates lie between the outer and centre pillars, flanked by low walls with spearhead railings to the outer sides of the outermost pillars.

The symmetrical western elevation centres on a slightly projecting bay containing a central timber-sheeted double door beneath a stone canopy supported on stone brackets. Flanking the door are sash windows with small panes. The first floor of the bay features three evenly spaced PVC windows in simulated sash style. The bay is topped with a pediment incorporating a roundel feature with Scrabo stone dressings and a decorative star-shaped insert. Single windows to each floor appear on either side of the bay, with PVC windows to the first floor.

Large forward-projecting symmetrical wings form the uprights of the U-shape. The courtyard-facing facades of each wing display five evenly spaced windows to the first floor. The ground floor of each wing contains three large conjoined segmental arch openings, each fitted with plain sheeted double timber doors and inner door or window openings. The outward-facing gables of the wings each contain ground and first floor windows, topped with gable pediments featuring recessed roundel details.

The north elevation features a partly blocked or reduced doorway and small blocked former window openings to the ground floor. A casement window appears to the upper floor right, with a blocked window opening at centre and a glazed door to the right. This upper floor door is accessed via a timber bridge spanning from the embankment on the north side over the enclosing path.

The east elevation has slightly projecting bays at either end, each with one ground floor window and one PVC simulated sash window to the first floor. A central bay features two small PVC windows flanking a central timber doorway at first floor level. Access is via a metal fire escape stair with a small segmental arch timber bridge spanning from the half-landing over a pathway to the embankment on the east side, which features a stone retaining wall. Ground floor windows flank either side of the stair.

The south elevation contains a first floor door on the left, accessed via a straight metal fire escape stair. Two PVC windows stand to the right of the stair. A small blocked opening appears to the ground floor centre, with a standard ground floor window to the right.

Stonework throughout consists of random rubble with Scrabo stone dressings laid in-and-out in all openings and at quoins on the courtyard sides. Brick dressings appear on openings to the rear sides.