Boat House, Crom Castle Estate, Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh, BT92 8AP

Boat House at Crom Castle Estate

This is a split-level boat house of coursed sandstone in Tudor-Gothic style, located to the southwest of Crom Castle and overlooking the lough. It was designed by Dublin-based architect George Sudden and erected between 1839 and 1842 by John Crichton, third Earl of Erne. The lower terrace and slipway were added in 1843–44. The boat house served as the headquarters of the Lough Erne Yacht Club and is recorded on the 1857 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map as "Boat House and Landing Stage". It closed in 1914 as a mark of respect for members of local gentry families killed in the First World War.

The principal elevation faces southwest to the lake and is accessed by a stone flagged landing platform. It is enclosed from the lough by a coursed sandstone wall with stringcourse and dressed copings. The two-storey elevation features a crenellated boat shed at ground floor and a viewing gallery at first floor, which is narrower with a cobbled terrace extending around three sides.

The pitched roof is of natural slate with decorative timber bargeboards and finials supported by timber brackets to each gable. The eaves are overhanging with exposed rafter tails. Half-round cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout. A group of three square-section chimneys with moulded caps, set at an angle on the shaft, rest on an advanced chimneybreast to the left gable. All walls are of coursed sandstone with a slightly advanced base course.

The boat shed has a crenellated parapet around all three sides with a moulded stringcourse below. At the centre of the elevation is a Gothic opening with moulded cornice, flanked by a triangular buttress rising above the spring of the arch. At each end are narrow Tudor openings: that to the right leads to stone stairs to the viewing gallery and rear elevation; that to the left contains a tongue-and-groove sheeted door with decorative hinges, leading into a small changing room. The left gable has two narrow geometrically glazed windows. The right gable is blank.

The viewing gallery has a canted bay window to the southwest elevation with stone stop-end chamfered reveals and a hipped natural slate roof. The front face of this bay contains a 3×2 geometrically glazed window with similar 1×1 glazed cheeks. The exposed left and right sections are blank. The right gable has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door set within stepped and roughly dressed reveals that sweep inwards towards the bottom. To either side are two blind narrow arrow-loop openings. The left gable has two similar arrow-loop openings to the left and an advanced chimneybreast to the centre; the exposed right section is blank.

The rear northeast elevation is flanked by Tudor-arched openings that lead to the cobbled veranda and stairs down to the boat shed. Each opening has a crenellated and moulded head with a shield in the spandrel. The rear of the main block has a central Tudor-arched opening containing a door accessed by a stone step, with a drip mould above. Above this is a narrow window opening with splayed reveals.

The boat house, with its associated walling, terrace and slipway, reflects the social climate of the upper classes in the later nineteenth century and blends harmoniously with its natural surroundings within the Crom Estate. George Sudden was also responsible for the rebuilding of the castle following the fire of 1841.