Station House, Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh, BT92 8JD

Station House, Newtownbutler

This former station house, designed by William George Murray around 1858, is the sole surviving example of three stations he built on the Dundalk–Enniskillen railway line. Constructed of coursed rubble stone with sandstone dressings, the building remains attractive and well proportioned, retaining much of its original character and internal fabric.

The building is L-shaped, comprising two storeys and three bays, with an arcaded entrance porch. The right bay is single-storey and lower than the main block. Set to the east of Newtownbutler Village, the station house is aligned north-west to south-east, with its rear north-east face overlooking the former railway line. The pitched natural slate roof features four brick chimneys on stone bases: one to the right gable of both the centre and right bays (that to the centre bay is advanced), and two set perpendicular to the ridge of the left bay. The rear pitch has two wall-head dormers with timber bargeboards. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

The principal elevation faces south-west. All windows are Gothic-headed without cills unless otherwise stated. The left bay contains two windows to each floor; those to the first floor are narrower and positioned closer together. Its right cheek has a Gothic-headed timber entrance door, accessed from the porch; the exposed section is blank. The centre bay is wider and is almost completely abutted by an arcaded entrance porch with hipped natural slate roof and sandstone octagonal posts with moulded heads and bases. The porch is accessed by stone steps and its front face has two Gothic-headed openings, with the right cheek having one similar opening; all are flanked by engaged posts. To the ground floor is a large window to the left and a Gothic-headed timber door to the right. The right bay has a central window. The rear elevation has two windows to the left bay, a window to the left and a Gothic-headed timber door to the right of the centre bay, and a window to each floor of the right bay. All rear windows are paired mullion and transom with cusped heads; those to the ground floor are set within a Gothic-headed recess. Above to the first floor is a diminished-height window to the wall-head dormer and a small rectangular window over the door. Both right gables are blank.

The building was erected in 1858 under the supervision of Sir John Macneill, chief engineer to the Dundalk & Enniskillen Railway Company. The line between Clones and Lisbellaw opened in 1858, with the final section to Enniskillen opening the following year. Murray was also responsible for designing Enniskillen and Tynan stations, and his two other station houses on this line at Lisbellaw and Lisnaskea have since disappeared. The Dundalk & Enniskillen Railway became the Irish North Western Railway in 1862, and in 1876 the Irish North Western Railway amalgamated with the Ulster and Northern Railways to form the Great Northern Railway. The line and station closed in 1957. The listing extends to the former station house, platform, gates and gate piers.