Courtyard, Stuart Hall Demesne, Mountjoy Road, Stewartstown, Co Tyrone, BT71 5AE

Courtyard of outbuildings, later 18th century (circa 1760–1779), with alterations in the early 19th century and later, forming part of the former Stuart Hall (also known as Stewart Hall) demesne, located to the southeast of Cookstown, County Tyrone.

OVERVIEW

This is a group of stone and rendered outbuildings arranged in a regular fashion around a roughly quadrant-shaped courtyard. The complex is an important and unusual survival from a significant country house estate. Its particular distinction lies in the variety of its original functions: the group includes what was once a privately owned Presbyterian chapel (now in use as an art gallery), stables, and estate workers' cottages. Together with a walled garden and entrance structures elsewhere on the demesne, the collection is somewhat eclectic in character but forms a noteworthy ensemble of estate buildings.

The main country house these outbuildings once served, Stuart Hall, was built around 1760 by Andrew Thomas Stewart, who became Viscount Castle Stewart in 1793 and Earl Castle Stewart after 1800. It began as a straightforward rectangular Georgian block. In 1860 it was extended with the addition of a somewhat ill-conceived Baronial tower to the south-east, and a castellated parapet was applied to the original section in an attempt to give the whole building visual unity. The house was badly damaged by a bomb in 1974 and demolished in the 1980s, replaced by the present bungalow.

The outbuildings appear to be largely contemporary with the original house. Their distinctive quarter-circle plan form is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34, and the first valuation of 1835 grades most of the complex as 'old' at that date. Recorded dimensions from that valuation are: 87ft × 17½ × 11, 44 × 21 × 16, 80 × 17 × 11, 40½ × 23 × 17½, 61 × 18 × 10, 69 × 17½ × 10, 56½ × 21½ × 16, (deducting an archway of 9 × 22½ × 10), 58 × 21½ × 16½, 54 × 11 × 6 (described as a 'newer' structure), 27 × 9½ × 8 (also noted as more recent), 41 × 14½ × 7, 88 × 20 × 9, 56½ × 13 × 7, 31½ × 13½ × 7, 56 × 21 × 13, 35 × 20 × 9, 44 × 13½ × 7 (described as 'houses outside garden [?offices]'), 33 × 13½ × 10, and 44 × 13½ × 7. The house itself measured 90 × 55 × 30, with 8ft-high cellars.

The date of the highly unusual private Presbyterian meeting house or chapel within the complex is uncertain. It does not appear on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1833–34 or 1853–57, but is noted for the first time on the 1906 map, and is only mentioned by valuers in 1923 as 'chapel and farm offices'. As valuers were not generally interested in recording religious buildings, which were exempt from rating, the chapel was in all likelihood built at some point in the later 19th century, making it the work of the 4th or 5th Earls of Castle Stewart. The walled garden is shown on the 1833–34 Ordnance Survey map and includes a date stone of 1832. The decorative folly towers appear on the 1853 map and are consistent with the later Baronial additions made to the house by the 4th Earl of Castle Stewart in 1860.

LAYOUT

The courtyard is formed by three principal wings: a linear north wing, a linear west wing, and a curved south wing. The curved plan of the south wing allows it to meet both the north and west wings at right angles, completing the enclosure. Beyond the west wing there is a further linear range of outbuildings. To the north-west of the courtyard lies a large walled garden.

NORTH WING

The north wing consists of a single-storey hipped building to the left, an open archway at the centre, and a single-storey hipped outbuilding to the right. Both buildings are roofed with natural slate. They are joined by a central elliptical-headed arch with cut-stone capping to the wall above.

The building to the left is six bays wide. Its front elevation consists of six elliptical-headed recessed bays. The three left-hand bays are open with rendered stall risers. The fourth and sixth bays contain elliptical-headed windows — both timber casements set on cut-stone sills. The fifth bay has a square-headed timber sheeted door with a brick surround. The west side elevation abuts the west wing. The east side elevation is exposed within the central archway and contains no openings. The rear elevation has two small square-headed horizontal slit windows at high level and a further square-headed door to the right.

WEST WING

The west wing consists of three sections: a two-storey stone hipped building to the north, a central gable-ended turreted block, and a two-storey rendered hipped building to the south.

Two-storey north building: The courtyard elevation is four bays wide with segmental-headed recessed bays. The ground floor has square-headed timber double doors to the first and third bays, and square-headed timber casement windows to the second and fourth bays. All recessed bays have decorative brick surrounds, and there is a continuous cut-stone string course at arch-springer level. The first floor has segmental-headed timber casement windows, all with decorative brick surrounds, set on a continuous cut-stone stringcourse at sill level. External walls are snecked and rubble stone. The roof is hipped with natural slate.

Central turreted block: The courtyard north-west elevation is three bays wide. The ground floor has three round-headed arches divided by rectangular buttresses at each bay. The round-headed openings are supported by cut-stone columns, with stepped buttresses abutting the columns on the exterior. The arches have brick voussoirs. Within each round-headed archway is a recessed square-headed opening with a cut-stone lintel, surmounted by a brick roundel within the recess. The left and right bays have large timber doors; the central bay is open. Above, a stone and brick gable carries a brick roundel at its centre, with the brickwork aligned with the central ground-floor bay and rising on the line of the columns to form a slightly projecting brick bay. A hexagonal brick turret surmounts the gable at the centre; each face has a round-headed opening with brick voussoirs and a cut-stone keystone. A clock face is inserted into the courtyard-facing side; all other faces have recessed timber doors. The turret roof is pitched and curved. The rear elevation has a large square-headed opening at ground-floor level and square-headed timber casement windows to the first floor. External walls are rubble stone with brick dressings. The roof is pitched and hipped with natural slate.

Two-storey south building: The courtyard elevation is four bays wide with segmental-headed recessed bays. The ground floor has a square-headed timber and glazed door to the second bay; all other bays have square-headed timber casement windows. There is a continuous cut-stone string course at arch-springer level. The first floor has square-headed timber casement windows, all with decorative brick surrounds set on concrete sills, with a continuous cut-stone stringcourse below sill level. The rear elevation has an irregular assortment of square-headed timber and uPVC windows to both floors and a square-headed door at ground level. External walls are rendered. The roof is hipped with natural slate, with three rendered chimneys with profiled stepped capping. Rainwater goods are replacement uPVC.

CURVED SOUTH WING

The curved south wing is made up of four sections: a single-storey pitched curved building to the left; a two-storey hipped chapel; a two-storey pitched block; and a single-storey pitched block to the right.

Pitched single-storey curved building: The courtyard elevation has an irregular assortment of square-headed window openings, some set within elliptical-headed recesses. There is a projecting single-storey lean-to to the front, with a square-headed timber entrance door to the north and a square-headed timber casement window to the west. The side elevations abut adjacent buildings. The plain unpainted rendered rear elevation has three pointed-arched windows at ground-floor level. The roof is pitched and curved with natural slate, and there is a simple rendered chimney to the roof. External walls are painted render.

Two-storey hipped chapel: The front courtyard elevation has four long pointed-arched lancet windows. The side elevations are partially obscured by adjacent buildings. The plain rendered rear elevation also has four pointed-arched lancet windows, with a continuous cut-stone stringcourse at mid-window level. There is a single-storey rear entrance porch at ground-floor right; its roof is flat. The south elevation of the porch has a square-headed door and a pointed-arched window; there is a further pointed-arched window to the west elevation. Rainwater goods are cast-iron. External walls are painted render. The roof is hipped with natural slate.

Two-storey pitched block: The front courtyard elevation is four bays wide. The ground floor has recessed elliptical-headed bays with square-headed windows within each bay; the first floor also has square-headed windows. The side elevations are obscured by adjacent buildings. The plain rendered rear elevation has a square-headed painted timber door at ground-floor right and four square-headed louvred timber openings to the first floor. External walls are painted render. The roof is pitched with natural slate. Rainwater goods are cast-iron.

Single-storey pitched block to the right: The front courtyard elevation has an assortment of square-headed openings and an elliptical-headed coach arch to the left. The rear elevation is rubble and snecked stone. Window openings appear to be blocked, though this elevation is partially obscured by foliage. The roof is pitched with natural slate. Rainwater goods are cast-iron.

SETTING

The demesne is located to the south-east of Cookstown. The entrance is off Mountjoy Road to the north, via a long circular drive that sweeps around the west of the walled garden and enters the courtyard from the south through the archway in the central turreted block, which was the original main entrance to the courtyard. A more recent cut-off from the entrance drive, near the new house, leads directly to a large forecourt created to the north of the courtyard, accessed through a small arched gateway in the north range. There is also a grander entrance to the demesne off Castlefarm Road to the west, linking to the circular drive, which must originally have been the main approach to the estate but is now kept locked. The demesne is well-wooded and some of the original landscape features survive.