Killymoon Castle, 60 Castle Road, Cookstown, BT80 8TN

Killymoon Castle is a late Georgian country house built in 1802–03 for Colonel James Stewart, designed by the English architect John Nash. It was Nash's first castle in Ireland and stands as a rare and significant example of the Norman-inspired castle style in Northern Ireland. The castle is an extensive two- to three-storey sandstone building with a basement, laid out on an asymmetrical plan. Three-storey circular and octagonal towers connect lower blocks across the composition, the whole designed in a Norman-inspired round-arched castle style, with the exception of one earlier surviving wing which has both rectangular and Gothic arched openings. The building overlooks the Ballinderry River in its own parkland on the edge of Cookstown.

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER AND EXTERIOR

The main entrance faces east. The east elevation consists of a two-storey, two-bay rectangular block in Norman style, with a taller square porte-cochère projecting to the right. Various other towers and blocks sit well back to the rear and right. Roofs along the main entrance front are hidden behind crenellated parapets. The walling of the rectangular block is of coursed rough-dressed sandstone with ashlar dressings, crenellations above a moulded cornice, and a battered plinth below a moulded stringcourse. There are two main windows on the front face, one to each main floor, each consisting of coupled two-light Gothic timber lancets with a small spandrel light, all set in semi-circular arched openings. The lancets are sashed one-over-one, both with and without horns, set between circular timber colonnettes with small Norman-style scalloped capitals carrying moulded arches. The sandstone reveals are stop-chamfered and the arch is surrounded by a drip moulding. The spandrel light in the first-floor window is blind. In the basement below are two further windows: a semi-circular arched lunette of coupled Gothic arches with a spandrel light, and a very small partly arched opening in the corner next to the porte-cochère.

The porte-cochère has walling entirely of ashlar except for the plinth. It is buttressed by octagonal corner piers that terminate above the crenellated parapet in pointed domical stone pinnacles. On the east front these pinnacles are embellished with narrow arrow-loop recesses, while on the north face the central crenellation is surmounted by a short stub chimney pot topped with a crown. The porte-cochère has tall moulded semi-circular arched openings of three orders on the front and sides. The engaged circular colonnettes have scalloped capitals and the arches carry chevron mouldings. An unusual and notable feature is a series of small Coade stone terminal bosses to the drip mouldings of the archways, formed as human heads, some of a grotesque type. Above the front archway at first-floor level is a shallow canted oriel window in timber, supported on three stone corbel courses with a moulded cill. Its windows comprise a two-light to the front — a pair of coupled Gothic lancets sashed as described above, without horns, surmounted by a small spandrel light, all set in a semi-circular arched frame — and a single sashed Gothic lancet in each side. Marking the springing points on the front angles are a pair of carved wooden human heads of hirsute and wild appearance, with pointed ears. Within the porte-cochère the ceiling is a stone rib vault rising from corner colonnettes on battered bases. In the rear wall a pair of Tudor-arched timber panelled double doors is set in a rectangular Tudor-arched opening with a crenellated top, surmounted by a round-arched fanlight of intersecting Gothic tracery.

The south elevation is of similar character, style, and materials to the entrance front. It is of two storeys on a basement, dominated by a circular tower in a central position and terminated at the western end, without any visually separating projection or recession, by an octagonal tower. Both towers have their upper courses of walling in ashlar sandstone, the lower portions being of coursed squared rubble with ashlar dressings. Both carry machicolated crenellations on Gothic-arched corbel courses. Some of the crenellations to the north side of the round tower appear to have been repaired in timber boarding and panelling painted grey, presumably concealing decayed stonework. The round tower also has a smaller circular stair turret rising higher beside it, containing narrow rectangular slit window openings with a drip moulding. Windows are mainly two-light timber Gothic lancets set in semi-circular arched openings as before, sashed one-over-one, except where some are sashed two-over-four with tracery lights. The ground-floor window at the left-hand end is a timber six-light window with each lancet sashed one-over-one, set in an arcade of five intersecting Norman arches forming an impressive feature. To its right is the garden doorway, recessed in a semi-circular archway of two orders with similar detailing to the porte-cochère archways, including Coade stone stops to the drip mouldings, set between projecting buttress-like pilasters. The doorway itself comprises a pair of rectangular glazed timber doors forming the lower lights of a two-light arrangement of coupled Gothic-arched lancets set in a semi-circular head. It is approached by a flight of stone steps bounded by a pierced parapet with pointed domical caps to the end piers, all carried on a battered base that is open at the front where a segmental vault contains a rectangular two-light basement window. Other basement windows on the south front are of coupled two-centred arch form set in segmental arched surrounds.

The west elevation extends from the octagonal tower at the right-hand end to a two-storey block in the style of a Gothic chapel at the left-hand end, with a square tower in a central position. From the octagonal tower to the square tower the walling, detailing, and overall character continue as before. The two-storey section contains a slightly smaller arcaded window of Norman intersecting arches, this one being five lights rather than six. There is also a canted oriel at first-floor level in the square tower, similar to that of the porte-cochère but with smaller pane divisions. Below it is another garden doorway approached by a flight of stone steps, though less elaborate than that of the south front: the balustrading is plain and the doorway is set in a plain surround. The two-storey end block to the north is of a different character, being Gothic in style rather than Norman. This is part of the earlier house on the site that survived the fire of around 1800. It is three windows wide, each bay marked by three-stage buttresses surmounted by plain pinnacles, with a crenellated parapet behind which is a pitched roof of Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses. The first-floor windows are large two-lights with cusped tracery lights in Perpendicular Gothic style, set in Gothic-arched openings surmounted by a drip moulding. The ground floor also contains two-light windows, but much smaller, comprising coupled angle-headed small-paned lancets set in segmental arched openings, similar in style to the basement windows elsewhere in the building but larger.

The north elevation presents for the most part the character and appearance of a rear elevation, largely because a significant portion of it on the west side is part of the earlier house and is of random rubble masonry without crenellations. The gable of the Gothic chapel-like block has a tall central projecting square belfry built partly of sandstone and partly of brickwork, with a crenellated top containing a slightly pointed arched opening in each face. High in the wall to the left of the belfry are two rectangular windows containing small-paned casements, with a Tudor-arched door surround projecting at basement level below. The east side of this block is of two storeys on a basement, constructed of sandstone rubble with smooth dressings to openings, a crenellated parapet, and two-stage buttresses between window bays. Basement windows are mainly segmental arched and framed and glazed as elsewhere, though one has been replaced with a modern glass brick window set in a partly walled-up semi-circular arched opening. Ground-floor windows are rectangular timber two-light casements with small panes set in sandstone block surrounds surmounted by a rectangular drip moulding. Two first-floor windows are similar but smaller, while the two end bays each contain a narrow four-pane window of similar detailing. Set back beyond this buttressed block is a taller block of sandstone rubble, partly crenellated, with one diagonal buttress. This block contains the secondary entrance in its east face, below two windows arranged in two tiers — two-light sashes in semi-circular arches. The doorway has a replacement rectangular panelled door with Gothic-arched glazing bars to the fanlight, recessed in a moulded semi-circular arched surround. This block returns eastward in crenellated rubble sandstone form, with two smaller-paned two-light sashed windows in round arches on its east face, surmounted by a cluster of tall chamfered stone chimneys at the north-east corner. Across the north face of this block at ground level is a sunken basement area reached by steps, with a pair of rectangular timber boarded doors set in a segmental arched opening in the battered base of the north wall. Set slightly back behind this block is the north wall of the main front block of the east elevation, which is of rubble sandstone, crenellated at the top, and containing one window at first-floor level — a two-light in a round arch as on the main entrance front — with a half-lunette in the basement.

Connected to the house on the north side by a crenellated wall extending northward to screen the basement well in front of the earlier house, and integral with the overall towered composition of the main building, is a two-storey square tower of sandstone rubble with a crenellated parapet and diagonal buttresses to the east face. Wide Tudor-arched openings at ground-floor level on the east and south faces, and coupled Gothic-arched lancets retaining the remnants of timber louvres on the east, south, and west faces at first-floor level, are the principal features. The open ground floor is covered by a groin vault. The north face contains a basket-arched doorway with perforated panels in its timber door, reached by a flight of exterior stone steps.

SETTING

The castle is approached by a long driveway through the demesne grounds, terminating in front of the building, with a tarmac car park on the north side, and neat lawns and flower beds beyond the driveway at the front. A substantial part of the former demesne is now used as a golf course. Beyond the castle to the east and west lies grassed parkland, while to the south the ground descends steeply to the bank of the river. On axis with the garden entrance on the south side is a set of stone steps leading down to a circular fountain that is now in a state of disrepair. Immediately to the north of the main building is a sunken rear yard surrounded by rubble stone walls, which rises to a comparatively small rear garden. The rubble stone screen wall connected to the main building at the north-west corner contains a brick-dressed gateway with a trellis-work garden gate, and continues northward to abut a derelict rubble stone and brick-dressed two-storey outbuilding dating from the 18th century. This outbuilding has a semi-circular arched passage through it at the south end, running east to west, brick-arched on the east wall and of rusticated sandstone on the west wall. To the north-west of this ruinous 18th century outbuilding is an extensive walled garden of rubble stone walls, which are partly derelict. In the south wall is a Tudor-arched dressed stone gateway in the style of John Nash, containing an original ironwork gate of arrow-head rails. Against the brick-lined south face of the north wall of the walled garden are the remnants of an extensive conservatory, now in complete ruins. Against the north face of the north wall of the walled garden are lean-to stone sheds in poor condition. To the north-west of the walled garden are further walled enclosures containing various ruined outbuildings. At the east end of this complex, standing well to the north of the main house, is a yard enclosed on three sides by mid- to late Victorian single-storey rubble stone outbuildings, which contain a repetitive series of elliptical openings dressed in brickwork. To the north-east of the main house is an L-shaped range of 18th century outbuildings, and to the east of that is an 18th century sawmill, both described separately in the heritage register. Between these two stands a large gateway on the main drive, comprising a pair of tall square sandstone piers with moulded cornices and of 18th century appearance, surmounted by brick finials which may be later additions, though the gates themselves are now missing. Extending northward from these piers is a curved screen wall terminating in a pair of circular stone piers hung with old ironwork gates of some visual charm. A modern bungalow lies to the south of the 18th century gateway. Well to the east of these various buildings, and visible at long range from the castle, is an old four-arched hump-backed stone bridge over the Ballinderry River, forming a picturesque element in the demesne. Its parapets have been crudely repaired in both brickwork and concrete blockwork, and its approaches and carriageway have been laid in concrete.

HISTORY

Killymoon Castle was built in 1802–03 for Colonel James Stewart, to designs by the English architect John Nash. The Stewart family had held the property since 1634. Colonel Stewart had originally obtained plans for a new house — incorporating parts of the old one, which had been destroyed by fire around 1800 — from the Dublin architect Robert Woodgate, but replaced him with Nash in 1802. Nash exhibited two drawings for the scheme at the Royal Academy in 1802. It was Nash's first castle in Ireland and reputedly cost £80,000 to build. Colonel Stewart sat as a Member of Parliament for County Tyrone in the first united Parliament that met at Westminster in 1801. As an absentee client, much of the supervision of the new castle fell to his wife, who is known through surviving correspondence to have been discussing the design of two cottages with Nash as late as 1805. Colonel Stewart is also notorious for having lost his new castle in a night's gambling, but the next day the winner — the Prince Regent, the future King George IV — told him he could keep his "little cabin" in Ireland.

The castle was described in the Irish Penny Journal in 1841 as "one of the most aristocratic residences in the province of Ulster", with state apartments consisting of "a breakfast-parlour, dining room, ante-room and drawing-room, all of which are of noble proportions and their woodwork of polished oak." When sold in the 1880s the sale particulars referred to a demesne almost entirely surrounded by a wall ten to twelve feet high, entered by four lodges and avenues, and containing two stone quarries, a lime quarry and kiln, a gravel pit, labourers' cottages, and two ornamental cottages; a walled garden and kitchen gardens with lawns and ornamental shrubberies; vineries, peach and fig houses, a conservatory, stove, mushroom and forcing houses, potting sheds, tool houses, two gardeners' dwelling houses, and an ice house. Sir Joseph Paxton expressed his admiration for the demesne in the following terms: "I have visited most of the celebrated country seats in the Kingdom and a very large number on the continent, and I have never seen one — for the extent of it — more compact, more perfect in itself, or where the highest natural beauties have been more aided by refined taste and judgment, than Killymoon."

In 1850, at the death of William Stewart who was unmarried, the property was sold and bought by the Moutray family. The demesne was cut up and sold off in lots, mostly for its timber, in 1922, when the present owner's family also acquired the castle. Many of the features described in the 1880s sale details — including the four gate lodges and the two gardeners' houses — no longer stand, and the conservatory is in complete ruins. However, substantial 18th century outbuildings for farm use and an 18th century sawmill remain intact near the castle.