Gilford Castle, 5 Banbridge Road, Gilford, CRAIGAVON, Co Down, BT63 6DJ

Gilford Castle is an asymmetrical two-storey country house in Scottish Baronial style, built around 1870, set within an extensive private demesne south of Gilford village in County Down. The house is constructed over a concealed basement and arranged in a U-shaped plan with a north-facing entrance wing, a west-facing garden front, and a south wing incorporating lower two-storey service quarters on axis. Turrets punctuate the north and west elevations. The complex is organised around a small central courtyard enclosed to the east by a single-storey outbuilding range, with a second courtyard to the south separating the main wing from the stableyard.

The roofing is complex, with pitched natural slate at varying levels and ashlar sandstone chimneystacks to gables topped with multiple clay pots. Gables have saddleback coping on kneeler stones, and ogee cast iron gutters are supported on corbel brackets. The turrets feature conical roofs with filigree finials. The walls are constructed in rock-faced Armagh limestone with tooled ashlar quoins, plinth, stringcourse and window surrounds. Turrets, bays and porch are built in tooled ashlar limestone. Windows are set in moulded stone architraves and comprise a variety of mullioned and transomed-and-mullioned designs on the principal elevations, with generally 2/4 timber sliding sashes elsewhere, some retaining original glazing. Many windows have label moulds and all have chamfered sills.

The principal north entrance elevation displays irregular frontage across three levels. A single-storey projecting open porch is positioned right of centre, surmounted by a 2/2 sliding sash window within a corbelled wall-headed gablet and flanked by transomed-and-mullioned windows with 2/2 sliding sashes above. To the right stands a wide two-storey gabled projecting bay with a box-bay and parapet to ground floor. A slimmer three-storey gabled bay projects from the left side with a full-height turret to the re-entrant angle. Scottish Baronial detailing is evident throughout, with gables breaking the eaves over some first-floor windows. The box-bay parapet features a multifoil motif.

The porch is heavily ornamented with a moulded three-centred arched opening flanked by carved spandrel panels. Corner piers are decorated with fretwork and elongated diamond panels, topped with ornate ball finials and spikes. A fretted parapet, supported on corbel brackets, surmounts the composition. Depressed gothic openings are present to the left and right cheeks. The entrance door is double-leaf oak panelled with brass furniture and bell pull, accessed by two stone steps.

The east gable of the north wing is blank and abutted by a single-storey brick-built and stone-faced store accessed from the central courtyard. It is lit by two windows to the front and one to the east gable. The store returns southward, connecting with the east gable of the lower two-storey service wing, which has an enlarged first-floor window opening. Original openings comprise 1/2 sliding sashes (diminutive to the first-floor right), a timber sheeted courtyard entrance door and a loading door to the store. The south wing's gable is blank. The south elevation is relatively plainly detailed with a gabled projecting right bay.

The main south wing is extended eastward by a lower one-and-a-half storey service annexe constructed in brick with plain white brick eaves. Openings are dressed in ashlar limestone except for a door opening to the right with replacement cement surround. The main elevation is abutted by a single-storey addition lit by a roof lantern and a transomed-and-mullioned window within a gabled breakfront to the west. The service annexe and addition frame a paved rear courtyard; enclosure is completed by a high wall with timber-framed door and the stableyard to the south.

The west (garden) elevation comprises a projecting gabled left bay with a bowed bay window to ground floor and a shallower projecting right bay with a broad canted ground floor bay window. Ground-floor bay windows are detailed with fretted parapets. A bartizan on a corbelled stone base ornaments the re-entrant angle between the central and left bays.

The central courtyard is accessed via a timber-sheeted door to the east. It is paved with terracotta tiles with a geometric tiled perimeter path providing access to the rear entrance door (leading to the service corridor) and a series of stores to the east. The path is covered by a catslide roof at the east and an overhanging first floor to the south, each supported on cast iron columns. Walling is painted brick in English garden wall bond with chamfered limestone dressings to openings and tooled limestone quoins. Fenestration is irregular, including a large transomed and mullioned stained glass stairwell window to the east elevation of the west front. A late twentieth-century lean-to stairwell addition, partially glazed with painted brick walling, has been attached to the south elevation of the north front.

The castle occupies an extensive private demesne bounded by the river to the west and woodland to the south and east. A long sweeping approach from the north leads to the house, fronted by a gravel courtyard. Lawned gardens with little formal planting surround the building. To the rear are stableyards and a saw mill, with a walled garden located some distance to the south. The main entrance stands close to the village, and a secondary farm entrance with lodge lies to the east.