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

Gilford Castle Stableyard is a courtyard complex of stables, coach houses and farm buildings, built around 1870 to designs by William Spence, a Scottish architect based in Glasgow. It sits directly to the south of Gilford Castle and forms part of a coherent estate layout that survives largely intact. The complex was built for Benjamin Dickson, a partner in the Dunbar McMaster linen thread company, whose success in the local linen industry funded the entire estate at an estimated cost of around £42,000. Spence also designed Elmfield, a nearby house for Benjamin's brother James Dickson, who was likewise a partner in the same firm.

The buildings are one and two storeys throughout, with three-storey service accommodation and a stair tower in the Scottish Baronial style. The architectural character combines rock-faced coursed limestone — matching the detailing of the main house — with red brick in Flemish bond with penny-struck (tuck) pointing, and moulded yellow brick dressings. This blend of Scottish Baronial styling and polychrome brickwork is characteristic of the period. Roofs are pitched natural slate throughout, with ashlar limestone chimneystacks to the accommodation block, the latter having terracotta pots on corbelled bases. Cast iron rainwater goods run throughout: supported on stone eaves brackets to the accommodation block and yellow brick eaves brackets elsewhere. Profiled stone kneelers are present to the gables.

The stable and farm ranges share a consistent palette of materials and detailing. Ashlar limestone jambs are used to ground floor door openings; upper floor windows are generally round-arched with yellow brick strings at impost level. Ground floor windows are two-over-four segmental-arched timber sashes with granite sills throughout. Doors are generally segmental-arched, tongued-and-grooved sheeted, ledged and braced unless otherwise noted.

The courtyard is entered from the east through an ornate gate screen that echoes the Scottish Baronial character of the main buildings. This comprises a four-centred arched entrance with moulded jambs and archivolt, fitted with timber lattice gates, and framed by ashlar limestone piers with stepped pyramidal copings, a raised and pointed keystone, and a dentilled entablature with central cartouche surmounted by a ball finial. The gateway is flanked by rock-faced screen walling with saddleback coping, with a Tudor-arched pedestrian timber lattice gate to the right.

The courtyard elevations of the south and west ranges present a range of elliptical-arched double coach doors, timber sheeted entrance doors, and unevenly spaced first floor windows, all with louvred heads. An open passage to the right side of the south elevation gives access to the south side of the outbuildings. Remains of gas lamp holders survive fixed to the west range, providing evidence of the estate's original gas lighting system. The courtyard-facing (south) elevation of the single-storey north range has a segmental-arched door to the left and a modern garage door insertion to the right. This range extends to the right to form the three-storey accommodation block and tower. The west gable of the north range has a single loading door at loft level.

The south elevation of the south range has a series of loft-level windows and, at ground floor, a coach door and pedestrian door flanked on either side by two-over-four sliding sash windows. This elevation returns southward at the left end as an extension of the west range, similarly detailed, with a loading door at loft level in the south gable; modern steel fire stairs abut this gable. The west elevation of the west range is cement rendered and otherwise blank, except for a row of deeply recessed segmental openings at high level corresponding with former internal stalls. To the left is the west gable of the north range, finished in rock-faced limestone matching the main house, with a timber sheeted access door. The north elevation of the north range is of brick construction with a series of segmental-arched openings at high level, again corresponding with internal stalls.

The three-storey coachmen's quarters are located at the north-east corner of the stableyard, abutted at their south-east corner by a four-stage tower. Both are rectangular on plan and in the Scottish Baronial style. The courtyard-facing elevation of the service block is detailed in brick with stone quoins and yellow brick dressings to match the stable buildings; all other elevations are in rock-faced limestone matching the main house. Windows to the brick section are two-over-four timber sliding sashes; elsewhere they are one-over-two timber sliding sashes unless otherwise noted. The courtyard-facing elevation has a timber sheeted door to the right and a window to the left at ground floor, single windows to the upper floors (that at second floor diminished in height), a moulded string course between ground and first floor, and a decorative brick band between first and second floor. The west gable abuts the single-storey north range; it is of rock-faced masonry without openings and has a dentilled corbelled dressed stone chimney to the gable apex.

The dormered north elevation has two windows to each of the upper floors. First floor windows have continuous label moulds and are set within chamfered ashlar reveals. Second floor windows are wall-head dormers inset with recessed round-arched two-over-four sliding sashes with kneelers, saddleback copings and pointed stone finials. At ground floor there are deeply recessed two-pane stable windows at high level. The north courtyard wall abuts this elevation to the right of centre. The east elevation carries windows detailed as those on the first floor of the north elevation to the upper floors, with a window offset to the left at ground floor, and a dentilled corbelled dressed stone chimney to the gable apex.

The tower has a slightly overhanging ashlar limestone parapet on profiled corbel brackets, with a bartizan tower on a corbelled base to the north-east corner. Each stage of the tower is delineated by a string course that rises over window heads to form label moulds. The upper stage is blank with a rectangular stone plaque to each facet. There is a central window to three stages on the east face; to the south face, windows appear at the second and third stages only; the west (courtyard) face has a timber door and windows at the second and third stages.

To the south-east of the main stableyard is a saw house with a central dividing wall rising above the roof slope and finished with a coping. Roofs here are replacement mineral fibre slates, with yellow brick chimneystacks to either end. Walls are English garden wall bonded red brick with yellow brick dressings to openings. Timber sheeted doors and timber windows face north. The south elevation is abutted by a full-length corrugated metal canopy over a saw.

Directly to the right of the saw house is a pair of kennels under a single hipped natural slate roof with leaded hips and a central lead-capped louvred lantern. Walls are red brick with yellow brick dressings to openings. Each unit has a timber sheeted door flanked on one side by a small two-over-four segmental-arched sliding sash. Each kennel is fronted by a small yard, the two yards separated by a tall brick wall that abuts the building at centre and enclosed to the front by cast iron railings with fleur-de-lys finials and a matching gate. All other elevations are blank. The rear yard is accessed through timber gates detailed as those of the main courtyard, supported on ashlar stone piers with corniced caps.

Almost all original fabric survives intact, including several fixtures relating to the historic use of the yard that demonstrate the running of a small estate in the 19th century. The evidence of gas lighting is a particular survival of note.

The estate was built on the proceeds of the local linen industry at the height of its prosperity, and the stableyard has added historical significance as the site of an earlier 18th century house. Following Benjamin Dickson's ownership, the castle passed through several hands. It was occupied from 1887 by Percy Jocelyn McMaster, let from Dickson, but was vacant again by 1891. A tenant named Purcell was in residence around 1896, and by 1901 the only occupant recorded in the census was the gardener and caretaker, James Emerson, who shared three rooms with his wife and six children, his fourteen-year-old daughter working as a seamstress. In 1904 Katherine Carleton purchased the house and demesne for £15,000 — a valuer noting that the cost of construction to Dickson had been around £42,000 and that the price paid was effectively the value of the land alone, the castle being given for nothing. Carleton became the first long-term resident since the house was built; the 1911 census records her as a fifty-four-year-old spinster living with a female companion and two domestic servants, a cook and a parlourmaid. In 1918 the house was purchased by James F. Wright, whose descendants continue to live there.

By 1934 the accommodation comprised two reception rooms, a billiards room, library, study, two kitchens, two pantries, a scullery, larder and dairy at ground floor, with six bedrooms, two dressing rooms, two bathrooms, a nursery, a sewing room and three maids' rooms on the first floor, and two attic rooms above. During the Second World War, 35 acres of the demesne were requisitioned by the War Department in October 1940, with a further one rood and fifteen perches taken in July 1941. Nissen huts were erected in the demesne for military use, and in 1943 a squadron of American troops with their medical detachment built a temporary hospital to the rear of the castle.

The stableyard has group value with the other estate structures, including the gate screen, walled garden, and farm entrance with lodge. The original setting survives, sheltered by mature trees, with the garden to the west and the castle immediately to the north. Access is from the road via the main entrance continuing past the main house, and also via a farm lane directly to the east.