Castletown House, Monea, Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, BT93 7AR

Castletown House is an impressive and well-detailed 19th-century country house, built in the 1870s, which incorporates the remains of the earlier Monea Cottage within its rear returns. Together with its outbuildings, walled gardens, and the nearby ruined plantation castle of Monea, it forms a demesne group of considerable historical and architectural importance. The demesne has remained in continuous ownership since its purchase in 1790 and has never been sold.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Monea Castle is a plantation structure dating from 1619 and is one of the most intact of its type in Ulster. Its castle, garden, and tree-lined avenue are scheduled monuments. Monea Cottage was erected to replace the castle after it burned down in 1750, on the site of the current house. The Manor of Monea was purchased in 1790 by Mr J. Brien of Stralongford, County Tyrone, who held a number of estates in the province. On his death in 1811 it passed to his fourth son, Captain John Brien (born 1776). Captain Brien may already have been resident on the estate, as the old schoolhouse was erected in 1802 by "Lieutenant J. Brien" — a datestone from this building is preserved in the domestic yard. Captain John Brien married Charlotte Dawson in 1814, and their son John Dawson Brien, born in 1815, inherited the estate in 1856. He built two gate lodges around 1860, one to the west and one to the north. In 1869 he became High Sheriff and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Fermanagh, and it was at this time that he built the current main house. He died in 1881, and his widow Frances (née Smith) had the local Church of Ireland church — St Molaise — rebuilt in his memory. A plaque inside reads: "To the Glory of God and in affectionate memory of John Dawson Brien, Castletown. This church was erected by his widow and his two surviving sisters, 1890." Mrs Brien continued to live in the house until her death in 1917. The estate was due to pass to John Henry Loftus Reade, but he had died in Flanders in 1914. It passed instead to the Brien family, whose two eldest sons had also died in the First World War, and the house was inherited by one of their sisters. She lived there until her death around 1974, when it passed to the present owner.

The first-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows the demesne with a lodge and main driveway to the north. No west lodge appears, but a schoolhouse is marked north of the driveway. There is no driveway running south to the castle. The house is labelled "Monea Cottage" and is cruciform in plan, with a range of T-planned outbuildings to its north. The flower and vegetable gardens are shown immediately to the east. The second-edition map of 1857 shows the west lodge in place, the main approach now being from the west, the former schoolhouse no longer labelled, and a national school shown outside the demesne to the northwest. The tree-lined driveway to the old castle has also appeared by this date, and the outbuildings and farmyard to the north are more numerous and more clearly defined. The current Ordnance Survey map, revised in 1963, records the north lodge — now gone — as having been rectangular with a small return on its north end.

Following the erection of the main house around 1870, the rear returns represent the surviving portions of Monea Cottage, which appears to have been L-shaped at that point, suggesting that the east and south wings of the cruciform cottage were demolished to make way for the new house. Fragments of moulded masonry frieze and cornice, now used as coping on the wall of the west drive and on the flower garden walls, may have been salvaged from the demolished portions of the cottage.

DEMESNE AND SETTING

The demesne lies to the southeast of Monea village and is accessed from the Leighan Road to the west. At the entrance stands a much-altered single-storey, L-shaped gate lodge of little architectural interest. From here, a beech tree-lined driveway runs east to the gates of the house. The entrance has octagonal one-piece stone gate piers with small rounded stone bollards to prevent the gates swinging too far open, and a modern cattle grid. The rubble stone walls to either side run north, enclosing the garden, with a lane leading up to the rear yards. The coping on the gate walls is a moulded masonry piece that appears to be the upturned cornice of an earlier structure; similar fragments appear in the flower garden walls. To the right of the entrance, the boundary fence continues south along the edge of a second beech tree-lined driveway leading to the ruined plantation castle to the south.

From the gates, a short gravel driveway runs east to the front of the house. A curving driveway to the west links the front of the house to the rear yard. Immediately to the west of the house is planted with mature shrubs. A small lawned area to the south steps down into the former front lawns, which are now a field. To the north of the house is a small domestic yard, and beyond that — extending further to the west — a larger farmyard. To the east of the house is a flower garden, enclosed to the south and west by a rubble stone wall, to the east by a steep fall in ground level, and to the north by a hedge. This hedge also separates the flower garden from the vegetable garden, which is enclosed to the west and north by a stone wall and, again, to the east by the steep drop in ground level.

MAIN HOUSE

The main house is a two-storey, three-bay structure built in the 1870s. Its principal elevation faces south. The roof is U-shaped in plan — with the open end of the U facing south — finished in natural slate with hipped ends, and has a hipped stairwell return projecting from the centre of the north elevation. An advanced ashlar eaves course carries moulded metal rainwater goods. There are four chimneys: two on the front ridge and one on each of the side ridges. All are of ashlar masonry with projecting copings.

The front and side elevations are lined, rendered, and unpainted, with a chamfered ashlar base course, stepped V-channelled ashlar quoins, and a stucco stringcourse above the first-floor windows that creates a plain eaves frieze.

The principal south elevation is symmetrical. At its centre is a single-storey bow-fronted porch approached by three bowed stone steps. The porch has a concealed flat leaded roof and walls to match the façade, with a slightly projecting moulded cornice and single stucco pilasters with moulded heads and bases framing its three openings. The central opening contains a door, with windows to either side. All openings have fine moulded architraves with a very slight semi-elliptical head and moulded cills. The windows are 1-over-1 sliding sashes with horns, as are all windows unless otherwise noted. The four-panelled replacement door is of stained timber with a plain transom above, and is fitted with a decorative cast-iron knocker and knob.

The left and right bays at ground-floor level each have a single window with moulded corbelled cills, moulded architraves, and decorative consoles supporting a classical hood. At first-floor level, the left and right bays have single 2-over-2 sliding sash windows, aligned with those below and diminished in height, with shallow segmental heads, corbelled cills, and fine architraves. Above the porch in the central bay are three narrow semicircular-headed 1-over-1 sash windows with moulded architraves.

The left (west) and right (east) elevations are symmetrical, each with three windows per floor, all detailed in the same manner as the left and right bays of the principal façade. The east elevation is painted.

The rear (north) elevation is wet-dashed and painted, retaining the same base course, quoins, and eaves detailing as the front. At the extreme left at ground-floor level, two steps lead to a four-panelled door with bolection mouldings, a decorative knocker, and a small bootscraper. The rest of this elevation is largely blank and is abutted at its centre by the stairwell return, and to its left by a small block linking the main house to the rear return.

STAIRWELL RETURN

The stairwell return has a hipped natural slate roof detailed to match the main roof, with wet-dashed walls. Its north-facing elevation is abutted at ground-floor level by a further return and has three semicircular-headed windows at half-landing level, matching those on the principal façade. The right cheek of the central bay has a 1-over-1 window at ground-floor level; the left cheek is blank.

LINK BLOCK

A small two-storey link block to the rear is aligned north to south. Its pitched natural slate roof has a lower eaves level than the main block, though its ridge is level with the main eaves. Its east wall is dashed with a base course matching the main block and has two small 1-over-1 sash windows with horns to each floor. Its south gable abuts the main house, its north gable abuts the rear return, and its west elevation is abutted by the stairwell return.

REAR RETURN

The two-storey, single-bay rear return has a pyramidal natural slate roof aligned west to east, with a chimney matching the others on the south pitch at its junction with the link block. It is detailed in the same manner as the link block, which abuts its blank north wall. The east wall has a 2-over-2 sliding sash on each floor, with the first-floor window diminished in height. The north wall is abutted at centre and left by a single-storey lean-to pantry and to the right by the north wing; the west wall is also abutted by the north wing.

PANTRY

The pantry is a later addition with a pitched lean-to roof finished in artificial slate, fitted with a small cast-iron skylight and half-round plastic gutters. The walls are smooth rendered. The east wall has a six-paned casement window. The west cheek is abutted by the north wing, and the north wall is blank.

NORTH WING

The north wing is aligned north to south and partially abuts the west elevation of the rear return. It is two storeys high and two bays wide, set at a lower level than the return. The pitched natural slate roof has a concrete-coped brick chimney between the two bays, stone ridge tiles, an advanced masonry eaves course, and half-round plastic rainwater goods. The walls are dashed and painted. Ground level rises to cill height at the north and west ends.

On the east elevation, abutted at the lower left by the pantry, there is a two-paned casement window without a cill to the left at ground-floor level, and a tongue-and-groove sheeted door to its right. At first-floor level, to left and right, are 3-over-6 sliding sash windows. The north gable has a modern window opening at ground-floor level containing a pair of casements with a transom above; its transom is set between first and second floor height and its cill is almost at ground level. On the west elevation, the south end is abutted by the west wing, with a pair of modern side-hung casements at ground-floor level to the right; at first-floor level, to left and right, are single 3-over-6 sliding sashes.

WEST WING

The west wing is aligned west to east. Its east gable abuts part of the west wall of the rear return and part of the west wall of the north wing. Its south wall abuts the ground floor of the stairwell return. The pitched natural slate roof has stone ridges, an advanced eaves course, and a ridge level with the eaves of the rear return. The south pitch has two cast-iron skylights. Walls are dashed and painted.

The north, yard-facing wall has a 6-over-6 sliding exposed box sash window to the extreme left at the junction with the north wing, with a small window opening above containing a pair of 2-over-2 side-hung casements. To the right of centre at ground-floor level is a pair of modern side-hung casements with a transom above. The west gable, which faces the garden and is in line with the west elevation of the main house, has a modern doorway with sidelights at its centre and a 3-over-6 sliding sash window in the gable above. The south wall is blank.

SIGNIFICANCE

The earlier 18th-century Monea Cottage forms the rear returns of the 1870 house. It is a relatively modest structure that has been altered over time but retains a number of vernacular features. The yards and outbuildings to the north complete the historic vernacular grouping, together with the flower and vegetable gardens and their associated buildings. The loss of the south and east wings of Monea Cottage does not obscure the original layout, and the incorporation of the surviving wings within the later house clearly demonstrates an interesting pattern of development and continuity of occupation on the site. The setting is further defined by the domestic yard, farmyard, and walled gardens.