Gortaleagh, 17 Loy St, Cookstown, Co Tyrone, BT80 8PZ

Gortaleagh is a detached two-storey house built around 1891, located on Loy Street to the south of the commercial centre of Cookstown, County Tyrone. It was built by Dr. Charles H.P.D. Graves and originally incorporated a dispensary, though records suggest the dispensary use had ceased by 1930. The identity of the architect is uncertain. The building remained in Dr. Graves's possession until 1936, when the lease passed to another doctor, John S. Glasgow, with whom it remained until at least 1972. It is now in use as a Rural Development Office.

The building is roughly rectangular in plan, with a two-storey return to the rear south-west and a two-storey extension to the rear north-west. It draws loosely on the Arts and Crafts style of the late 19th century, though not with any great depth of commitment to that tradition. The mixture of stone, brick and timber dressings gives the exterior a lively character, and its position set back from the road behind a low snecked stone and brick wall adds to its prominence within the streetscape.

External walls are rock-faced and squared stone to the ground floor, with brick to the upper floor. A projecting carved stringcourse runs between the two levels. The roof is slated and pitched, with sandstone cresting and detailing. All gable-ends feature faux half-timbered painted timber gables, carved timber fascias, and sandstone finials.

The front east elevation faces onto Loy Street and has a two-storey canted bay to the left and a single-storey projecting squared bay with a hipped roof to the right. The gable above the two-storey canted bay projects outward and is supported on timber brackets, with carved timber fascias and finials above. Ground-floor windows have cut-stone chamfered surrounds but have been replaced with uPVC units. First-floor windows have carved brick and stone chamfered surrounds, with cut-stone stringcourses at both window-base and window-head level; these too are replacement uPVC.

The south entrance elevation faces onto the car park. To the right is a projecting porch entrance bay, open to the gable end, with a slate roof and a carved stone finial at the apex. The porch gable-end is supported on timber brackets with a carved timber fascia. A four-light coloured timber window sits on a rock-faced stone wall with a splayed cut-stone sill. To the left of the porch is a paired window, and to the right a square-headed window; all have replacement uPVC glazing and chamfered cut-stone surrounds.

The north elevation is obscured from view by the adjacent building, though a metal fire escape stair is visible. The rear west elevation is obscured by the returns and an infill section between them.

The two-storey south-west return has rock-faced and squared stone to the ground floor and brick to the first floor, with an assortment of square-headed uPVC windows retaining chamfered cut-stone surrounds and sills. Its gable-end has decorative timber, a carved timber fascia and a finial at the apex, consistent with the main building. The roof is hipped and pitched, with cast-iron rainwater goods. The two-storey north-west extension is finished in painted render, with replacement uPVC windows and door, a pitched and partially flat roof, and uPVC rainwater goods. A single-storey lean-to is attached to this extension to house a boiler.

The building sits behind a rock-faced stone and brick boundary wall, with a gated entrance through cut-stone pillars leading to a tarmac drive and a car park to the south. The surrounding street is composed mainly of Victorian buildings ranging in date from the early to late 19th century. The building has been subject to a number of alterations and, while it has architectural interest as a late 19th-century Arts and Crafts-influenced house, it is not considered to be of the highest quality of design for its period.