Rossclare House, Rossclare, Killadeas, Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh, BT94

Rossclare House is a middling-sized two-storey hipped-roof country house built between 1862 and 1867, with single-storey side pavilions, a large three-storey rear return, and characteristic mid-Victorian Italianate detailing including bracketed oversailing eaves, decorative window surrounds, and cast iron balustrading. The building is set on an isolated rise overlooking Lower Lough Erne, reached by a long drive to the west of the main Enniskillen to Castle Archdale road, roughly four miles south-west of Irvinestown. Although the building actually faces south-west, the description that follows treats that orientation as west for clarity.

The property is broadly L-shaped in plan. The main two-storey front section, flanked by its single-storey pavilions, sits on a north-south axis to the west, while the long rear return — partly two-storey and partly three-storey — runs on an east-west axis on lower ground to the east. A large, relatively recent single-storey extension resembling a Portacabin is attached to the south side of the return. The front wing is finished in painted lined render with moulded quoins and window surrounds; the return is similarly rendered but without quoins and with only simple window surrounds to the north side. Windows are flat-arched and largely fitted with sash frames, though a significant number are presently boarded over with their frames still in place beneath. The roof of the main two-storey front section and the return is hipped and slated, with very shallow triple-hipped roofs over the front pavilions. The building bears visible traces of its later institutional life, most notably a prominent fire escape stair to the front and to the return, and a tarmac-covered parking area to the front. The property has been abandoned since around 1998 and is now in poor condition.

The front elevation is generally symmetrical. At the centre of the ground floor of the main section is a relatively large flat-roofed porch. To the south face of the porch is the main entrance, consisting of a relatively modest panelled timber door with a plain surround; above the doorway, and stretching the full width of this face of the porch, is a large recent corrugated metal hood, so substantial it might almost be described as a roof. This face of the porch has plain pilasters to each edge. To the west face of the porch is a pair of windows, presently boarded, set in a shallow recess and sharing a sill. The north face of the porch is cut across by a relatively recent fire escape stair leading up to the porch's flat roof, which serves as a balcony and is fitted with a decorative cast iron balustrade. To either side of the porch is a relatively shallow single-storey flat-roofed canted bay with a rendered base and sash windows to all faces — a mixture of vertical and horizontal glazing bars in 2/2, 4/4, and 2/2 configurations — separated by timber mullions. These windows are partly boarded. To the right of the right-hand bay is a plain sash window, probably not original. At first-floor level there are three windows, with the central one extended downwards to form a doorway (now boarded). Each opening has a moulded surround with decorative scrolled brackets supporting a hood-like cornice, with a sill band running beneath the windows, now cut through by the doorway. The large single-storey pavilions each have two tall window openings with moulded surrounds, brackets, and a frieze beneath the cornice, much as those at first-floor level. Each pavilion roof carries a decorative cast iron balustrade, as on the porch.

The long north elevation consists chiefly of the rear return, with the short north face of the front wing and pavilion at the far right. At the far left, the return is two-storey, with three windows of various sizes and a doorway to the ground floor, all boarded up, and a small plain sash window and a timber-sheeted door with a boarded-over glazed panel at first-floor level, the latter giving access to a fire escape stair. The main three-storey section of the return has a long lean-to projection covering almost all of the ground floor. This has four widely and unevenly spaced windows of various sizes and shapes, with a doorway between the second and third windows; all openings are boarded, and the doorway is set slightly below ground level, approached by several sunken steps with side walls. At the far west end the lean-to abuts a two-storey flat-roofed projection set into the junction of the return and the main front wing; this has a boarded-up doorway to the ground floor of its north face and a plain sash window at first-floor level. At first-floor level the return has four symmetrically arranged boarded-up window openings. At second-floor level there are four more symmetrically arranged openings, with that at the far left converted to a doorway giving access to the fire escape; the three windows to the right of this have sash frames with Georgian panes in a 3/3 configuration. The north face of the north pavilion has three very small windows to the left — two boarded, one with a modern frame — and a boarded-up doorway to the right; all of these openings are probably not original. To the right of these is a canted flat-roofed bay with a window to each face, the outer windows boarded and that to the centre retaining the remains of a sash frame with 2/2 vertical glazing bars. The north face of the main two-storey front section has three windows of differing sizes: that to the left with a modern frame, that to the centre with what appears to be a Georgian-paned sash frame (possibly 6/6), and that to the right with a plain sash frame.

The long south elevation has the short south face of the front wing at the far left and the return to the right. The south face of the south pavilion has a flat-roofed canted bay to the left, with windows largely boarded, and a doorway and window to the right, also boarded. The south facade of the main two-storey section of the front wing has a plain sash window to the left, a Georgian-paned sash window (6/6) to the centre-right, and two much smaller windows with modern frames to the right. At ground-floor level on the south facade of the three-storey section of the return, a projecting flat-roofed corridor to the left links to the large, relatively recently built single-storey Portacabin-like extension. To the right of this is a boarded-up doorway, then a single-storey lean-to with a large boarded-up window to its south face, and then three windows of varying size, all boarded. At first-floor level in the three-storey section there are six similar symmetrically arranged window openings: three boarded and three with sash frames — two 6/6 with Georgian panes throughout, and one 6/1 with Georgian panes to the top sash only. At second-floor level there appear to be six original symmetrically arranged window openings, with one much narrower and probably later window, now boarded, inserted between the fifth and sixth. The original windows all have sash frames with 3/3 Georgian panes. The first and second original windows retain much dilapidated moulded surrounds. The two-storey section of the return has four unevenly spaced boarded-up window openings of various sizes at ground-floor level, and five uniform but unevenly spaced windows with 3/3 Georgian panes at first-floor level. The ground floor of the short east facade of this two-storey section is largely covered by a single-storey hipped-roof projection with a boarded-up doorway to its north face and three very small boarded-up windows to its south face. At first-floor level there is a small window matching those on the first-floor south facade.

The rear elevation of the main section of the front wing has a large boarded-up window at the left of the ground floor whose double-sash Georgian-paned frame remains largely intact behind the boarding. Above this at first-floor level are two sash windows, both originally 8/8 Georgian panes, with the lower sash of the left-hand one boarded and the lower sash of the right-hand one largely broken. To the right of these is a small narrow window with a modern frame. Further right is a two-storey bay with a large metal water tank on its flat roof; the ground floor of the east face of this bay has a boarded-up window opening, with a sash window at first-floor level (six panes to the top sash, the lower sash boarded). Immediately to the right of, and attached to, this bay is a single-storey bay with a shallow lean-to roof that appears to be a boiler house. This bay has a large doorway to its east face with timber-sheeted double doors. To the right of that is a very large window opening, now boarded, while at first-floor level there are three windows: that to the left smaller and with a modern frame, and the two to the right identical, both with 8/8 Georgian-paned sash frames. The rear face of the south pavilion has two boarded-up windows. The rear face of the north pavilion has a boarded-up doorway to the left, followed by three unevenly spaced same-sized windows — two boarded and one with a sash window retaining only the upper sash with six Georgian panes. From this eastern aspect one can also see the pavilion's shallow hipped roof.

The front wing is finished in painted lined render with in-and-out quoins and a bevelled base; the return is in similar render but without the quoins. A small section of render has fallen away from the north facade of the three-storey portion of the return, revealing what appears — from a distance — to be granite in-and-out quoins with squared limestone to the main body of the wall. The roof of the main two-storey front section is hipped and slated with a large overhang supported on paired brackets, and has two centrally located chimneystacks in what appears to be limestone, with tall bases and a cornice course. There is also a tall brick stack to the rear of this roof, rising from a projecting painted brick chimney breast that rises from the single-storey lean-to projection. A large centrally located skylight is also visible to the rear of this roof. The return has a hipped slated roof with a less pronounced overhang with exposed rafter ends and three large brick-built chimneystacks. The rainwater goods are largely cast iron.

Immediately to the front and north of the building is a tarmac-covered car parking area, with a relatively steep grass slope to the west and north of this and a curving drive further to the west. To the rear, to the east, is a relatively large single-storey gabled outbuilding with a rendered facade and various, mainly large, window openings. Set on sloping ground to the north-west side of the main drive is a very long, low single-storey gabled building in timber, constructed in 1913 as a pavilion for patients suffering from tuberculosis. To the west of the house, beyond the drive, the ground slopes down to the lough, where the remains of a small jetty and several small single-storey sheds survive.

A large house is shown on the site of the front wing on the Ordnance Survey map of 1835, though of a different plan form from the present building, consisting of a central section with two recessed side portions. Contemporary valuation records describe this earlier house as a low, single to one-and-a-half-storey dwelling, 13½ feet in height, with single-storey additions, and possibly at least twenty-five years old at that time. It appears to have been built as a summer residence by the Darcy-Irvine family of Castle Irvine, Irvinestown, the local landowners; the valuers described it as "very nice" but also "much exposed in winter and rather dilapidated." By 1861 the old building was recorded as "down," and in the following year the valuers noted that Henry Darcy-Irvine had commenced building a "large new house." This new dwelling was completed in 1867 and, like its predecessor, appears to have served as a summer residence for the family. The unusually large rear return was probably used to house the servants and entourages of holidaying relatives and friends. Despite remaining in Darcy-Irvine ownership until the early 20th century, the property is recorded as vacant in 1871, as a hotel in 1879 and 1881, and as the home of a Mr William R. Cooney between 1902 and 1905. In 1907 it became a hotel for the second time, though from 1910 to around 1912 or 1913 it appears to have reverted briefly to use as a private residence. Between 1913 and around 1925 or 1926 Rossclare served as a female sanatorium under the control of the Women's National Health Association, who, wishing to take full advantage of the clear air blowing off the lough, erected the long timber pavilion to the south-west side of the main drive, described at the time as "containing bedrooms, open air shelters, recreation rooms, kitchen etc., heated by water [and] electrically lighted." By 1927 the building had become a hotel once again, operated by the Lough Erne Hotel Co. In around 1975 it was converted to a Special Care School and remained in that use until the mid-1990s. It was subsequently acquired by a private owner. Note: Alistair Rowan's North West Ulster (London, 1979) states that Rossclare House was built in the 1840s, but the primary valuation records contradict this.