Carricklee Stableyard, Carricklee Road, Strabane, Co. Tyrone, BT82 9SE

Carricklee Stableyard is a well-detailed, largely unaltered Arts and Crafts quadrangular stableyard dating from 1891, situated to the west side of Carricklee Road, Strabane, County Tyrone. It is attributed on stylistic grounds to architect W. F. Unsworth, and was built for John Herdman (1841–1903), co-owner of Herdman & Co. Ltd of Sion Mills. The complex forms part of a wider estate that includes Carricklee House and its gatelodge, all designed in a vaguely Elizabethan Arts and Crafts manner. The stableyard first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905, and Annual Revision Records indicate that the rateable value of the site rose from £28 to £51 10s in 1892, consistent with the construction of the stableyard and the associated house in 1891.

The complex comprises three rectangular blocks arranged around a courtyard, forming the north, east, and south sides, with the entrance on the east. Throughout, the shared palette of materials and detailing gives the group a strong visual coherence: roofs are covered in rosemary clay tiles with red clay ridge tiles; chimneystacks are red brick with corbelled heads and clay pots; eaves are deep and overhanging with timber sheeting, exposed rafter ends, and timber bargeboards, all carrying u-profile cast-iron rainwater goods. Walls are roughcast rendered with applied mock half-timbering to the gables and stepped brick quoins. Windows are generally bottom-hung sixteen-pane timber casements set within cambered-headed openings with painted stepped brick surrounds and projecting masonry cills.

The north block is the largest and most elaborately detailed of the three. It is a seven-bay, one-and-a-half-storey building, rectangular on plan, with a hipped roof. At its north end it is cross-gabled, and this gable is surmounted by a clock tower with a bellcast roof and weathervane. The south and east (courtyard-facing) sides carry gables with a slightly lower ridge line. The west roof pitch contains two wall-head dormers and a central timber-louvred cowl-dormer; the east pitch contains three timber-louvred cowl-dormers. The principal south elevation, which faces the stableyard, has a central square-headed entrance door flanked by two windows on each side. The left gable contains a window at each floor level, with a twelve-pane casement at first floor; at the left corner the block is abutted by a roughcast rendered wall with rosemary tiled coping that encloses the yard. The right gable has a round-arched-headed opening and a first-floor window matching the left gable detail; at mid-height it is abutted by a pitched canopy running east–west. The left (south) gable is blank. The west elevation is gabled at the left side and has a central gabled entrance porch and a first-floor window; to the right, a series of eight square-headed ventilation openings are surmounted by two wall-head hipped dormers containing vertically sheeted timber loft doors. The entrance porch has close timber studding, a single window (now boarded) to the gable, and vertically sheeted timber doors to each cheek. The north elevation is abutted at the right by a full-height canted bay containing the stairwell, and at the left by a single-storey lean-to extension. The exposed section of the north wall contains a vertically sheeted timber door within a stepped brick surround and cambered opening. The canted bay has a bellcast rosemary-tiled hipped roof, exposed red brick walls, and a single-storey lean-to extension abutting the ground floor. At landing level it has a six-pane fixed window; at first floor each cheek has a four-pane fixed window, all sharing a continuous masonry cill.

The south block is a single-storey rectangular cottage with a pitched roof and a single red brick corbelled chimneystack with clay pots, otherwise detailed consistently with the stable block. Its north (stableyard-facing) elevation has a vertically sheeted timber door with fanlight to the right, and five windows to the right of that. The east gable is blank with mock half-timbering. The south elevation has double-leaf glazed doors with fixed sidelights to the right, and two windows to the left; above the door, at eaves level, are two square-headed ventilation openings that are now blocked and rendered. The west gable, which faces the stable block, is abutted at its right corner by a roughcast boundary wall with rosemary tile coping and a lean-to store; the exposed section is blank.

The north block is single-storey, rectangular on plan, and detailed consistently with the other two blocks. Its south (courtyard-facing) elevation is sheltered at roof level by a pitched canopy whose north side is tiled and south side glazed, supported on four cast-metal columns and metal trusses. The exposed wall below contains, reading left to right: a vertically sheeted timber door with fanlight, a window immediately to its right, then another vertically sheeted timber door with fanlight and a window immediately to its left, a cast-iron water tap surround, and at the far right a series of large vertically sheeted timber sliding doors. The west elevation is abutted by a single-storey lean-to extension of no architectural interest; the exposed section is blank. The north elevation has three windows to the right, and the east gable is blank with mock half-timbering.

The stableyard is entered from the east through vertically sheeted timber gates hung on brick piers with projecting bases and decorative capping stones bearing ball finials and crests. The crest on the left pier carries the monogram "J.H." and the right (north) pier is dated "1891", the numerals interlaced. These two ornate shields are among the most striking features of the entrance. The courtyard itself is enclosed by roughcast rendered walls with pitched rosemary tiled copings and exposed rafter ends. The internal angle between the north and west blocks forms a small square yard, similarly walled, accessible from the west side.

The stableyard is set within a mature landscaped estate, positioned to the north-west of Carricklee House. It retains most of its original fabric and remains an impressive and largely unaltered example of late 19th century Arts and Crafts stable architecture, contributing significantly to the architectural heritage of the area.