Stables, Gill Hall, Lurgan Road, Coolsallagh, Banbridge, Co Down, BT25

Former Stables, Gill Hall Estate

This is a detached, multi-bay, two-storey rubblestone former stable block, built around 1736 to the designs of Richard Castle, the prominent Dublin-based architect responsible for buildings including Leinster House. It is the sole surviving structure of the once-significant Gill Hall estate in the townland of Quilly (also recorded under Coolsallagh), situated to the north of the River Lagan and accessed by an early stone bridge off Lower Quilly Road. The building is now partially derelict and in agricultural use.

Architectural Description

The building is rectangular on plan, facing south, and sits on an elevated site to the north of the Lagan. The roof is covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, dressed stone eaves, and replacement steel rainwater goods. The front pitch is broken by two redbrick wallhead dormers with dressed stone detailing. Walling is of random rubblestone with redbrick dressings throughout.

The principal south-facing front elevation is the most architecturally distinguished face of the building. It features two pairs of segmental-headed carriage arch openings with stone ashlar surrounds, and two square-headed door openings with extended stone lintels that form the sills to round-headed overlights constructed in redbrick. The easternmost of these door openings contains a single timber thermal window. First-floor window openings are square-headed and have largely been filled in with concrete block.

The rear elevation is two storeys of rubblestone with no openings. The west gable has partially collapsed, with remnants of redbrick-lined openings surviving at both floor levels. The east gable is built in red brick laid in English garden wall bond up to eaves level and is abutted by an external flight of steps constructed in concrete block. There is a segmental-headed door opening at first-floor level and a round-headed door opening at ground-floor level, both constructed in redbrick. A redbrick eaves course runs along the rear elevation.

Internally, the ground floor was arranged as groined brick-vaulted bays supported on stone Doric columns, as recorded in the 1966 Archaeological Survey of County Down.

Historical Background

Gill Hall was an 18th-century mansion that served as a seat of the Earls of Clanwilliam. The stable block was designed by Richard Castle — originally named David Riccardo — who had come to Ireland from the continent in 1728. Castle worked as an engineer on the Newry Canal between 1733 and 1736 before establishing a private practice. As well as designing the stable block, he made additions to the main house at around the same time. The mansion itself was a three-storey harled rubble building with sandstone dressings and a slate roof.

Both the house and the stable block are shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834. At that time, the stable block had additional wings to its south-west and north-east gables; by the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1858, these wings had been removed and the building had assumed its current form. The Townland Valuation of around 1830 valued Gill Hall and its out-offices at £60 19s., with the principal out-offices individually valued: the "offices, court house and stable" at £14 0s. 5d. and "office and stables" at £5 13s. 4d.

In the 1830s, Gill Hall was the residence of the Earl of Clanwilliam — Richard Meade, also holding the titles of Viscount Clanwilliam, Baron Gilford, and Baron Clanwilliam — though the Ordnance Survey Memoirs recorded the mansion as "an old house of no architectural beauty, an extensive and memorial-like building." The Earl seldom stayed there, preferring his permanent London residence in Upper Brook Street. In his absence, George Brush, an agent to the Bishop of Dromore, occupied Gill Hall. Griffith's Valuation did not assess the stable block separately from the main house, instead valuing the entire site — including the house, out-offices, and a gate lodge — at £80.

No significant changes were recorded to either the house or the stable block through to the later Ordnance Survey editions of 1903 and 1903–16, nor through the Annual Revisions to 1930. By the first general revaluation of property in Northern Ireland in 1935, the estate had passed to a Mr Samuel G. Ardery. The entire demesne — by then evidently in disrepair or lying vacant — was valued at only £10, and was not included in the second revaluation of 1956–72.

During the Second World War, Gill Hall was occupied by the Royal Air Force. It remained vacant after the war and was recorded as empty and dilapidated in 1966. On 1st June 1969, the mansion was destroyed by fire, leaving only an empty shell. The stable block to the north was unaffected by the blaze. Between the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1903–16 and the current edition of 1972, two modern corrugated-iron outbuildings were constructed to the south-west and south-east of the original stable block.

Setting

The building occupies an elevated position to the north of the Lagan, reached across an early stone bridge off Lower Quilly Road. Mid- to late-20th-century agricultural buildings to the south and west form a concrete farmyard. The stable block is the only surviving 18th-century structure on the former Gill Hall estate.

The building was listed in 1977 and represents the last physical remnant of an important historic estate. It is a rare surviving example of its building type, and carries particular significance as a documented work by Richard Castle, one of the most notable architects working in Ireland in the 18th century.