Parochial House, 17 Chapel Lane, Gortin, Co Tyrone, BT79 8ND

Parochial House, Gortin

A detached asymmetrical three-bay two-storey parochial house dated 1903, situated on an elevated site to the east of Chapel Lane, Gortin. The building has an L-shaped plan with a projecting gabled left bay and a full-height narrower gabled entrance bay set within a re-entrant angle. A double (M-profile) rear return is further abutted by a single-storey hipped roof extension.

The roof is pitched natural slate with clay crested ridge tiles and filigree cross finials. Three stepped smooth-rendered corbelled chimneystacks with clay pots rise from the main building, with a fourth serving the two-storey extension to the rear. Timber bargeboards to the gables feature deep overhanging timber sheeted eaves supported on exposed rafter ends, with eaves also supported on a stone corbel table. The rainwater goods are ogee cast-iron, though some replacement aluminium has been introduced to the rear.

The walls are smooth rendered with a projecting string course and tall projecting plinth. Windows throughout are square-headed 1/1 uPVC casements with projecting masonry cills.

The principal elevation faces west. The left bay contains a two-storey canted bay with hipped natural slate roof and a window to each face at both floors, surmounted by a datestone reading "1903". The entrance bay has a window to each floor; the ground floor window features a label mould and is surmounted by a half-round oriel on a bell corbel containing three stained glass windows. The left cheek contains a six-panel timber door with fanlight, recessed within a round-arched-headed chamfered surround with hoodmould and label-stops. Access is provided by five perpendicular masonry steps with bull-nose tread and wrought-iron handrails to each side (the left handrail abuts the west elevation of the central two-storey return). The right bay contains paired windows at each floor, with the ground floor windows set in a projecting bay having a continuous cill and curb roof with moulded cornice.

The north elevation (left side) contains two windows at ground floor (the left within the projecting left bay) and a single window at first floor. The rear elevation is abutted at its centre by a two-storey gabled return, with a two-storey gabled extension abutting the right cheek. The exposed section at left contains a single window at each floor, the first floor window diminished in height. The two-storey return gable contains a single window at each floor (the ground floor window diminished), with its left cheek containing a single window at ground floor and two windows at first floor. This return gable is abutted by the single-storey hipped extension; the exposed section is blank. The right cheek at ground floor contains a paired window at left and a single window at right, with two windows at first floor. The single-storey hipped extension contains a square-headed timber-sheeted entrance door at the south elevation with a single window to its left, two windows at the east elevation, and a single window to the north. The right gable (south) is detailed as the left gable, with a single window to the left at first floor.

The house is bounded by a random rubble wall on its north, south and west sides, accessed from the west through square plan random rubble piers with stone pyramidal caps. The rear is accessed from a lane running east-west along the northern boundary of the site. St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church is located to the south, with the two buildings accessible through a wrought-iron pedestrian gate on the connecting boundary wall, supported on square ruled-and-lined rendered piers with stone pyramidal caps and cast-metal finials. A second wrought-iron pedestrian gate at the north-east corner of the house leads to the rear yard. A modern hall built circa 2007 stands to the north-east. The graveyard lies to the north of Chapel Lane.