Outbuildings, Dunbarton House, 70 Dunbarton Street, Loughans, Gilford, Co Down, BT63 6HJ

This large courtyard of two-storey stone and brick outbuildings lies immediately northeast of Dunbarton House, an early Victorian house of circa 1845 possibly designed by architect Thomas Jackson. Dunbarton House stands at the end of a long sweeping driveway off Dunbarton Street, northwest of Gilford village centre, surrounded by mature landscaped grounds to the south and east.

The yard to the rear of the house (northeast side) is accessed through an elliptical arch with brick voussoirs and stone quoins set in the boundary wall on the northwest side. The yard is enclosed by Dunbarton House on the southwest side, a two-storey outbuilding on the northeast (the former coach house, Outbuilding 1), and a tall painted, rendered wall on the southeast. The courtyard is entered through a segmental archway in the southwest side of Outbuilding 1.

Three outbuildings form three sides of the courtyard: Outbuilding 1 runs northwest to southeast; Outbuilding 2 on the northwest side runs southwest to northeast; and Outbuilding 3 on the southeast also runs southwest to northeast. A boundary wall of rubblestone with brick piers completes the courtyard on the northeast side. The courtyard is cobbled, likely with replacement cobbles.

Outbuilding 1 (Former Coach House)

This two-storey linear block has a hipped natural slate roof (replacement) with black clay ridge tiles. The walls are rough-cut rubble masonry laid to courses with brick surrounds to openings. Original cast-iron rainwater goods survive. All openings, with the exception of a wide modern opening to the right-hand side of the ground floor, have brick surrounds forming toothed quoins and splayed brick headers.

The front elevation (southwest) is multi-bay with various window and door openings. On the ground floor from left to right: a window opening with a former 6/8 timber sliding sash window with single glazing and stone cill, now altered to be fixed; a door opening with painted timber frame and painted timber sheeted door with four-pane hopper overlight; large double timber sheeted gate doors with metal hinges; a segmental coach arch with brick voussoirs and large tooled-stone quoins; a window opening with replacement 6/6 timber sliding sash window with slim double-glazing units and replacement concrete cill; a window opening with replacement 8/8 timber sliding sash window with slim double-glazing units and tooled stone cill; a window opening with replacement 6/6 timber sliding sash window with slim double-glazing units and replacement concrete cill; a door opening with replacement timber door and three-pane overlight; and a large opening to the extreme right side with replacement double-glazed timber glazed doors with sidelights.

On the first floor from left to right: regularly spaced openings (appearing to have concrete cills) consisting of a 2/4 timber sliding sash window; a 2/4 timber window with hopper to top panes; a 2/4 timber window with hopper to top panes; a 2/4 timber sliding sash window; blank wall with modern red brick chimney at eaves level; a 2/4 timber sliding sash window; a 20th-century brick wall-head dormer with pitched slate roof containing narrow timber glazed double doors behind modern metal railing; a 2/4 timber window with hopper to top panes; and a 2/4 timber sliding sash window.

The rear elevation (northeast) has on the ground floor from left to right: two window openings with replacement 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with slim double glazing; a modern single-storey extension of rustic red brick with lean-to natural slate roof and velux-type roof lights, and a door in the southeast side; a window opening with replacement 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with slim double glazing; and a segmental coach arch with tooled stone quoins and voussoirs with large timber sheeted double doors with metal sheet to the bottom half. On the first floor from left to right: a modern window opening with six-pane window with top-hung top panes and rendered surround; a 2/4 timber sliding sash window; a 2/4 timber window with hopper to top panes; blank wall with former window opening bricked up; three 2/4 timber sliding sash windows; and a 2/4 timber sliding sash window over the coach arch. Various sizes of modern velux-type rooflights punctuate the replacement natural slate roof.

The side elevation (southeast) is abutted by the tall rear wall of the conservatory. The side elevation (northwest) is a blind elevation in coursed rubblestone masonry.

Outbuilding 2

This linear multi-bay, two-storey brick outbuilding has an open section on the extreme right side, a double-height squash court to the central section, and stables to the right side. The roof is covered in Westmoreland natural slate. The brickwork is laid in English garden-wall bond with splayed brick headers to openings and blocked-up openings.

The front elevation (southeast facing the courtyard) has on the ground floor from left to right: a wide opening with brick header segmental arch with brick infill between the underside of the arch and steel beam header; a cement-rendered buttress; a door opening with modern timber door; a cement-rendered buttress; a cement-rendered linear strip above door level with five diminutive square window openings with rudimentary timber frames and single glazing to four of the openings (the left side opening is blocked up); a bricked-up door opening; three tall stable door openings with a modern timber staircase constructed across the first door giving access to first floor level, the middle door being a replacement stable half-door and the one on the extreme right side being timber sheeted with a plain overlight.

On the first floor from left to right: a window opening with 3/6 timber sliding sash window; blank façade with five bricked-up former window openings; a window opening with putty-fronted single-glazed nine-pane fixed light; a door opening with squat replacement timber sheeted door at the top of timber steps; and a window opening with putty-fronted single-glazed nine-pane fixed light. The building has an advanced brick header eaves course and plastic rainwater goods. A raised lead parapet at the southwest end has a replacement slate hipped roof behind.

The gable elevation (southwest) is abutted by the northwest end of Outbuilding 1.

The rear elevation (northwest) has a façade of rough-cut stone brought to courses with brick surrounds and heads to openings, and an advanced brick header eaves course. On the ground floor from left to right: three window openings with nine-pane fixed timber windows with single glazing and stone cills; the remainder of the façade has bricked-up window openings (not fully seen at the time of survey). On the first floor from left to right: three window openings aligned with those below, with a nine-pane fixed timber window with single glazing on the left side, a four-pane window of the same type to the middle, and a nine-pane of the same type on the right, all with stone cills; a door opening with remnants of a footbridge formed with steel sections leading to higher ground level. The remainder of the façade has bricked-up window openings (not fully seen at the time of survey). Plastic rainwater goods.

The gable elevation (northeast) is a blind façade with natural stone to the lower half and brick above, with a raised cement-rendered parapet. It is abutted by the courtyard boundary wall at the east corner.

Outbuilding 3

This thirteen-bay, single-storey brick stable block has a mono-pitched natural slate roof.

The front elevation (northwest facing the courtyard) has from left to right: four regularly spaced replacement stable timber half-doors between replacement fixed timber multi-paned windows (single-glazed, without cills); a small cement-rendered chimney left of centre; two stores to the right side with timber sheeted doors and the same windows. A small, simple cast-iron water pump stands at the extreme right side. Plastic rainwater goods.

The gable elevation (southwest) is a blind gable in painted brick.

The rear elevation (southeast) has the right side blind with no openings in ruled and lined cement render, with red clay ridge tiles. The left side is abutted by a large modern lean-to shed with sliding timber barn door. The southwest side of the lean-to shed has a single-storey potting shed abutting the rear (southeast) elevation of the outbuilding. The southeast elevation of the potting shed has a central timber sheeted door flanked by twelve-pane timber fixed lights. The southwest gable elevation of the potting shed has a single window opening with a 3/3 timber sliding sash window with margin panes. The potting shed has a natural slate pitched roof with red clay ridge tiles and plastic rainwater goods.

The gable elevation (northeast) is a blind elevation with lean-to roof profile in rubblestone masonry with brick quoins to the left side.

Northeast Courtyard Boundary Wall

The courtyard is enclosed to the northeast by a rubble masonry wall with tall, squared brick piers with granite caps, and replacement timber sheeted gates.

Materials include natural slate roofs (both original and replacement), rough-cut stone walls with brick detailing, historic and replacement timber sliding sash, fixed pane, and hopper windows, and cast-iron and replacement PVC rainwater goods.