The Stone House, 93 Warren Road, Portavoe, Donaghadee, Co Down, BT21 0PJ

The Stone House

A large and distinctive one and a half to two storey Arts and Crafts style house completed in 1930, designed by Denis O'D Hanna. The building is situated dramatically on a rocky coastline approximately two miles north-west of Donaghadee, Co Down, with extensive seascape views.

The house is fundamentally L-shaped with additional projections to the east, west and north-east corner. The long arm of the L runs roughly north to south, with the broader foot extending from the north-west corner. The building displays the characteristic features of the Arts and Crafts genre, including an expansive Westmoreland slated roof with a relatively steep pitch, overhang and exposed rafter ends; a stone façade; half-timbered jettied bays; and dormers.

The principal entrance is positioned on the west-facing elevation of the long section, set within a two storey half-timbered gabled bay slightly left of centre. The ground floor of the entrance bay is in undressed snecked rubble stone with dressed sandstone surrounds to the openings. The timber-framed first floor is jettied and supported on timber corbels, the two front corbels having their ends carved as grotesque human heads in the medieval manner. The main entrance itself comprises a timber door with narrow full-length panels set in a bevelled sandstone reveal. To the south of the porch at ground floor is a multi-pane timber window. The first floor contains a relatively large window with similar multi-pane glazing and a small upper opener.

To the left of the entrance bay, the façade is single storey with a large multi-pane window. To the right are two windows, the far right being significantly larger, both with similar frames. Directly above the far right window is a large flat-roofed dormer with matching window frames. The south-facing façade of the shorter foot of the L is one and a half storeys high. The ground floor has two large multi-pane windows, with two almost identical windows to the upper floor set into mono-pitched roof half-dormers, each with brown brick dressings and quoins. The west-facing gable of this section is uneven and features a buttress to the left, creating a battered appearance to that wall. At ground floor is a large segmental-headed glazed opening to the left, incorporating an integral door, and to the right a projecting stone chimneybreast.

The south gable of the main section of the L is dominated by a steeply pitched hipped roof loggia with battered end walls. Each end wall contains a large semicircular-headed multi-paned window facing east and west respectively. The loggia roof is supported on two timber stanchions. The rear wall of the loggia, formed by the gable itself, has a central French window with plain glazing. Above the loggia, a small section of the gable is visible containing a single-pane window.

The north elevation displays a complex arrangement with a less formal treatment than the front façades. It is two storeys with various single and one and a half storey off-shoots. To the far left is a one and a half storey gabled projection; against its gable is a large single storey garage extension in brown brick, with a small multi-pane window to the upper floor. The right side is dominated by a largely one and a half storey lean-to-like projection whose roof merges with the main roof, featuring a small window with recent casement frame to the north and a much larger window to the right with plate glass. The roof of this section bears a large hipped roof dormer with a recent window frame. Between the lean-to and the gable projection spans a small conservatory-like linking section with a mono-pitched roof and panelled and glazed double doors. Behind this section is a small exposed section of first floor façade with two small windows of apparently recent manufacture. All external walling is predominantly in snecked fieldstone with rough sandstone dressings and relieving arches to many openings.

The rear elevation is considerably less formal in appearance, lacking the overtly Arts and Crafts character and reading more as a 1960s suburban villa. To the right of centre is a large two storey gabled bay in a mixture of brown brick with Westmoreland slate cladding to the gable and the area between the ground and first floor openings. At ground floor is a large plate glass window flanked by much narrower windows with similar glazing, mirrored at first floor with shorter windows. The short south face of the bay contains two relatively small ground floor windows with two slightly shorter versions at first floor, those below having plate glass and those above recent-looking frames with upper openers; the north face has a similar arrangement. The upper floor of the north face is abutted to the right by a flat-roofed dormer with plate glazing.

To the left of the bay is a large plate glass window with a large dormer above featuring a recent-looking frame. To the right of the bay are five windows of varying size, mostly with recent frames. Above this section rises a very large, uneven gable with Westmoreland slate cladding to the apex, containing a very long, squat window with a recent frame. To the far right the rear façade is single storey.

The roof is covered predominantly in greenish Westmoreland slate. There are three chimney stacks: one in stone to the main west gable, one to the main ridge in brick, one taller brick stack to the north elevation, and a similar one to the rear.

Cast iron rainwater goods are dated 1930 with initials of the designer/builder.