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

Parochial House

A detached asymmetrical three-bay two-storey parochial house built in 1903, located on the east side of Chapel Lane in Gortin. It remains in use as the parochial house for St Patrick's Church. The building exhibits design features typical of the early 20th century period, though it has been compromised by the loss of original fenestration and represents a late example of its type.

The house is constructed with an L-shaped plan featuring a projecting gabled left bay and a full-height 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 pitched roof is finished in natural slate with clay crested ridge tiles and filigree cross finials. Four stepped smooth-rendered corbelled chimneystacks with clay pots rise through the roof (three to the main house, one to the two-storey extension). Timber bargeboards ornament the gables with deep overhanging timber-sheeted eaves supported on exposed rafter ends, whilst the eaves elsewhere are supported on a stone corbel table. Ogee cast-iron rainwater goods are present, with some replacement aluminium sections to the rear.

Walls are finished with smooth render, a projecting string course, and a tall projecting plinth. Windows are now square-headed 1/1 uPVC casements with projecting masonry cills throughout.

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

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

The house is set on an elevated site to the east of Chapel Lane, bounded by random rubble walls on the north, south, and west sides. Entry is gained from the west through square-plan random rubble piers with stone pyramidal caps. The rear is accessed by a lane running east-west along the northern boundary. St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church (built circa 1898) stands to the south and connects to the parochial house via a pedestrian gate in the boundary wall, set within square ruled-and-lined rendered piers with stone pyramidal caps and cast-metal finials. A second wrought-iron pedestrian gate is located at the north-east corner of the house, providing access to the rear yard. A modern hall of no architectural interest was built to the north-east circa 2007. The graveyard lies to the north of Chapel Lane.

The parochial house first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905–6. Documentary evidence, including the datestone, confirms construction in 1903, making it contemporary with the nearby church construction of circa 1898.