Farmyard, Crom Castle Estate, Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh, BT92 8AP

Former farmyard complex, designed by Edward Blore and erected between 1835 and 1838 for John Crichton, third Earl of Erne, on the Crom Castle Estate, overlooking Lough Erne in County Fermanagh. The complex has since been refurbished to provide holiday cottages and a visitors centre, but retains much of its external character and charm, and forms an integral part of the wider estate group.

The farmyard is an enclosed courtyard complex of four blocks. Three are two storeys; the fourth, to the south, is double-pile and single storey. All roofs are pitched natural slate with stone chimneys. Advanced stone eaves support half-round metal rainwater goods. Walls throughout are irregularly coursed rubble stone. Windows are timber sliding sashes unless otherwise noted, with flush stone cills and various dressings, mostly dressed stone. Doors are modern tongue-and-groove sheeted.

WEST BLOCK

The west block contains four holiday cottages, each two bays wide except the northernmost, which is three bays. All have gabled open windbreak porches with pitched natural slate roofs, decorative bargeboards, and a tall pointed finial supported on cast concrete side walls with a modern tongue-and-groove sheeted tympanum. The cottages are described from north to south.

Cottage One (Orchard Cottage): A stone chimney is placed at the party wall between each bay. The northwest corner has a two-stage angle buttress. A central door is accessed by two stone steps. Left and right bays each have a canted bay window with a hipped natural slate roof and cement-rendered walls; each face has a window, the front face being wider. Above the ground floor openings are three windows diminished in height. The north elevation has a door to the centre, containing a glazed panel and without a porch, set within a stepped cement-rendered reveal with a plain transom over. Above it, aligned slightly to the right, is an infilled arrow loop. To the left of the door is a window in a similar reveal; to the right is a wider window in a stone reveal. The first floor has a window to each side, the right being wider.

Cottage Two (Aspen Cottage): One chimney placed to the right of centre. The left bay has a door placed at the right (to the centre of the façade), accessed by three concrete steps and one stone step. To its left is a paired side-hung casement window with lattice glazing. The right bay has a similar window. The first floor has two windows, not aligned with those below, detailed as the ground floor windows but diminished in height.

Cottage Three (Woodford Cottage): One chimney placed to the left of centre. The right bay has a door placed at the left (to the centre of the façade), accessed by five cement steps with modern metal railings. To its left is a side-hung casement window with lattice glazing. Above at first floor level, aligned to the left, is a 4x4 fixed-pane window. The left bay has a 2/2 sliding sash window to each floor.

Cottage Four (Erne View): One chimney set to the right of centre on the front pitch. Walls have an advanced chamfered rubble stone base course and dressed stone quoins. The right bay is notably longer. The door is set at the right-hand side of the left bay; its porch has an overhanging canopy only, without side walls, and is accessed by eight concrete steps with a rubble stone base. To the left of the door is a window with brick jambs and a jack arch. To its right are two windows. The first floor has three equally spaced windows. The south elevation has a window to either side, the left being a pair with a central timber mullion. The first floor has a window to the centre. This elevation is abutted at its extreme right end by the lower south stable block.

West block, yard-facing elevation: Erne View is almost completely abutted by the double-pile south block; the exposed right bay has a door to the left and a window to the right. Woodford Cottage has a window to each floor on either side, not aligned; the first floor left window is landscape format. Between the first floor windows is a small tongue-and-groove sheeted loading door. Aspen Cottage has a window to each floor; the right bay first floor and left bay ground floor windows are diminished in height. Each ground floor window is contained within one section of an arcade of four infilled segmental-headed arches, the extreme right arch being shared with the adjoining north cottage. Orchard Cottage has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door at extreme left, contained within the right-hand coach arch. The central bay has a window to each floor, placed at the right. The right bay is abutted by the north block.

NORTH BLOCK

North elevation: Two chimneys, one placed to the right of centre and one at the centre of the right-hand side. Six equally spaced two-stage buttresses, including an angle buttress at either end. At the centre is a full-height Tudor-headed coach arch set within a dressed stone reveal, with a plastered and painted soffit, a modern brick pavier threshold, and a large pair of cast-iron gates with spear-headed finials and a criss-cross central bar. To the left of the coach arch, set between each buttress, is an arrow loop opening. The section to the right of the coach arch comprises the rear elevation of an additional pair of cottages at the left and the north elevation of Orchard Cottage at the right, separated by a buttress. The rear elevation of the fifth cottage has three windows to the ground floor; the central one is lower and smaller and has an arrow loop above. The first floor has two windows, not aligned.

North block, yard-facing elevation: The section to the left of the coach arch is divided into two cottages. That to the left has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door at extreme left and a window at each floor to the right. That to the right has a door with a windbreak porch (detailed as those to the west elevation of the west block) placed to the centre, a window to either side, and three equally spaced windows aligned above at first floor. The section to the right of the coach arch has four openings to the ground floor: all are 3x2 metal-framed casement windows except the leftmost, which is a door. The first floor has three openings: a louvred window opening at the left, another at the centre, and a tongue-and-groove sheeted loading door to the right.

EAST BLOCK

East elevation: No chimneys to this elevation. The right end is abutted by a two-storey, three-bay cottage. At the left end is a segmental-headed arch with a voussoired head, infilled with a modern glazed entrance door. At the centre is a tongue-and-groove sheeted door with a stone lintel. The first floor contains two infilled window openings: one aligned slightly to the right of the entrance door, and one below eaves level to the left of centre. Between the ground floor openings, set slightly above door-head level, is a series of stone corbels. The south gable has a window to the ground floor.

The abutting cottage has a hipped natural slate roof with a chimney placed at the party wall between each bay, and all detailing is as elsewhere but without the eaves course. The left bay has a door with windbreak porch to the right and a window immediately to its left. The central bay has a window. The right bay has a pair of windows with a central timber mullion, both set within infilled segmental-headed arches with concrete cills. The first floor has three equally spaced windows. The south elevation has a small brick-infilled window opening set to the centre between each floor. The north elevation is blank.

East block, yard-facing elevation: A stone chimney to the centre at the front of the west pitch. At the centre is a large pair of tongue-and-groove sheeted doors with a concrete lintel. To either side are three windows. Those to the left are metal-framed casements with flush stone cills and lintels, except the rightmost which has a concrete lintel. Those to the right are modern timber top-hung casements, all of which were previously door openings now infilled beneath cill level. Between the central window and that to the right is an infilled window opening. The first floor has six equally spaced openings: from left, a louvred window opening, a loading door, two louvred openings, a loading door, and a louvred opening. All have stone lintels and flush cills.

SOUTH BLOCK

South elevation: The south block is double-pile. Due to the topography it is two storeys to the south and single storey to the north. The south elevation has dressed stepped sandstone quoins and eight equally spaced openings to each floor. Those to the ground floor are large voussoired semi-circular headed arched openings, each with a timber gate. Those to the first floor are 2/2 sliding sashes with tooled stepped sandstone reveals and flush concrete cills. The west and east elevations are blank, the west being wet-dashed.

South block, yard-facing elevation: A pair of doors to either end and to the centre. Between each door is a pair of timber side-hung casements set into an infilled door opening.

To the west of the farmyard is a large shed with a pitched corrugated metal roof and irregularly coursed stone walls. The east elevation has five full-height openings, those from the centre to the right being infilled with concrete blocks. The left gable has a series of irregularly spaced ventilation openings. The rear elevation is blank. The right gable has a large semi-circular headed opening with a voussoired head and a small square opening to the apex.

HISTORY

Edward Blore was responsible for the design of the farmyard, which was erected between 1835 and 1838 for John Crichton, third Earl of Erne. A square farmyard block with a central courtyard is hand-drawn on the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland copy of the 1834 Ordnance Survey six-inch map. The complex is described in the 1834 first Valuation book as "Steward's house, farmyard and offices." Between 1847 and 1851, additions were made to create a model farm. New buildings were added on the east and south sides of the yard and included a new cow house, calf house, piggery, steaming house (for animal food preparation), and a steam engine. The engine drove a sawmill, bone crusher, and threshing mill, and was also used to pump slurry. A large hay barn was erected to the east at the same time.