Outbuildings, Lissan House Demesne, Drumgrass Road, Cookstown, BT80 9SW

Outbuildings, Lissan House Demesne, Cookstown

This is a group of outbuildings associated with Lissan House, dating from at least the late 17th century, with all buildings appearing on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833. The Great Barn and Turf Barn can be identified with structures recorded in an estate survey of 1703, suggesting a late 17th-century origin for at least those two buildings. The remaining structures are so similar in character and materials that they are considered to date from the same period. The group constitutes what may be the most complete and best-preserved collection of estate farm buildings of their type and period in Northern Ireland.

The buildings are largely two storeys in height and are arranged informally around an irregular yard, closed at one end by a screen wall and gateway. They stand to the west of Lissan House, with two of the blocks attached directly to the house. The group displays a high degree of unity in scale, form, materials, texture and colour. Individually, several buildings exhibit unusual and uncommon features. Together with the main house and other estate structures, they form a remarkably complete and unspoiled country house demesne.

THE GREAT BARN

The Great Barn occupies the west side of the yard. It is a long two-storey, ten-bay building roofed with Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with one chimney and a number of metal-cowled vents. The main front faces east and is finished in rubble stonework with brick dressings to openings and a harled surface. At the south end of this front are three large rectangular timber-sheeted doors set in elliptically arched openings, all sheltered by a later lean-to arrangement of corrugated sheeting carried on iron and timber posts. Other ground-floor openings are shallow segmental arched windows and doorways, mostly containing timber-sheeted doors and vertically hung sliding sash windows of eight over eight panes, without horns. First-floor openings are semi-circular arched, some containing timber louvres, others open or retaining remnants of small-paned windows with timber-sheeted panels above. Both gables are of exposed rubble stonework. The north gable is surmounted by a cut stone bellcote with a semi-circular arched opening — now missing its bell — and a gabled top. The rear elevation is also of rubble stonework, and partly forms the wall of the walled garden to the west.

THE AGENT'S HOUSE AND DONKEY HOUSE

This two-storey, L-shaped building occupies the north side of the yard and joins the corner of the long gallery wing of the main house. It comprises a donkey house to the west, a carpenter's workshop to the east, and the Agent's House at first-floor level. The donkey house, which projects southward, has lost its rear half following a fire; it now presents only half a gable to the front, and its roof has been reduced to a monopitch, which is not its original form. Roofs are of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with one brick-built chimney. The entrance fronts are finished in rubble stonework and brickwork with harling and smooth cement render. Openings are rectangular, containing timber-boarded doors and vertically hung sliding sash windows of six over six panes without horns; some windows are now boarded up, and the one above the central doorway of the Agent's House has been glazed with plate glass. Two external staircases — each semi-circular arched to the underside — rise to the first floor, one at each end of the main block, with a further short flight leading to a ground-floor door. At the east end of the main block, a larger arched coachway passes under a projecting rendered landing, providing vehicular access to the main yard from the north. The south-facing gable is harled; the rear walls are of exposed rubble stonework incorporating field stones, with brick dressings to openings, some of which are blocked with corrugated iron. At the east end is a large elliptically arched coachway leading into a vehicular passage with harled interior walls, an exposed timber-beamed ceiling, and a pair of old looped ironwork gates. Above the archway is a timber window with an exposed sash box, now in poor condition. The east gable is of exposed rubble stonework, mostly covered with overgrown creeper.

THE TURF BARN

The Turf Barn is a single-storey building occupying the south end of the east side of the yard, abutting the Creamery to its north. It has arcaded openings along both long sides, roofed with Bangor blue slates in regular courses. Walling is of rubble stone with brick dressings to the arches and a projecting brick eaves course, finished in part with a mixture of limewash and cement render. The arcading along the east side has been partly or wholly filled in with rubble stonework up to springing height or above. A notable and unusual feature is a set of twelve brick dovecote openings near the south end of the west elevation. Inside, the open-fronted main interior contains a timber mezzanine floor forming a loft that extends for most of the length of the building. The roof comprises a series of arched timber trusses of unusual form for farm buildings. The south end of the building, beyond the main interior, is in ruinous condition. At the north end of the arcaded main block is a later projecting extension of unusual form, uncertain function and picturesque appearance, forming an infill block between the end of the Turf Barn and the Creamery to the north. It has a gabled roof, a brick-built square corner pier, and a timber-slatted panel or door at first-floor level below a segmental arched lintel.

THE CREAMERY

The Creamery runs at right angles northward from the Turf Barn and joins the main house at its north-east corner. It is rectangular in plan and rises to two or three storeys depending on the level of the sloping ground on which it sits. Its main entrance elevation faces north. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. Walling is of rubble stonework with brick dressings to openings, finished with render and limewash. Openings are both rectangular-headed and segmental arched, filled with boarded doors and sash windows, mainly six over six panes without horns, and also including a tripartite rectangular window set within a segmental arched opening. The south or rear elevation contains several rectangular sash windows in very poor condition, and an unusual series of ocular windows at second-storey level; these circular windows appear to have been installed when the roof was raised around 1878. The east gable is entirely smooth cement rendered and contains an unusual first-floor window comprising a triplet of Gothic arched lancets, considered to be a later insertion dating from around the early 19th century. The Creamery was connected to the main house when the western extension to the house was built in 1878, and was later connected to the Turf Barn when the extension between the two was constructed sometime between 1854 and 1906.

SETTING

The main yard is enclosed at the south end by a screen wall and gateway. The gateway consists of a pair of square piers of roughly squared red stone finished with harling, surmounted by a sandstone coping and carrying a segmental arch. Mounted on the piers is a pair of iron gates with ornamented finials to the rails. A high rubble stone wall extends to the west from the gateway, and a lower wall extends to the east. The yard surface is grassed and contains a very old walnut tree. Set into the ground adjacent to the end of the Creamery is a cast iron weighbridge inscribed "A and W Smith & Co. Glasgow 1876".