Cabra House, 10 Cabra Road, Rathfriland, Co Down, BT34 5EW

Cabra House is an imposing two-storey (plus semi-basement), three-bay symmetrical neo-classical country house of mid-19th century date, set in mature grounds on the west side of Cabra Road, Rathfriland. It is approached through entrance gates and a screen along an avenue, and has a house yard behind, a farmyard to the west, and a walled garden to the south. The house is virtually unaltered and is of particular note for its top-lit stairwell.

ROOF AND CHIMNEYS

The main roof is hipped natural slate with black clay ridges and a large rectangular central valley not visible from ground level. Within this valley sits a rectangular lantern with its own hipped natural slate roof and fixed multi-glazed cheeks. The valley is accessed from the rear through a doorway set within a natural-slated dormer. There are five chimneys to the main roof — three to the front ridge and two to the rear. All are in ashlar granite with moulded bases supporting tall octagonal stacks. Each chimney has three stacks, with the exception of the front central one, which has two. Metal box-section gutters rest on the wall head and drain to the right elevation.

WALLS AND GENERAL ELEVATIONAL CHARACTER

The walls are lined rendered, with a projecting granite platband between basement and ground floor, and an overhanging Roman Doric-style eaves cornice. Six broad shallow rendered pilasters rise from the platband on the front elevation, each with moulded capitals supporting a plain advanced eaves frieze below the cornice. These pilasters divide the façade into five equal panels.

FRONT (SOUTH) ELEVATION

The front elevation is three bays wide, the central bay being half the width of the outer two. The main entrance at ground-floor centre is contained within an open Tuscan porch that abuts the pilasters to the left and right of the middle bay. Three dressed ashlar granite steps rise to a granite-paved floor. Two pairs of stout Tuscan columns, aligned with the top step, support an entablature consisting of a plain frieze with astragal, an overhanging cornice, and a blocking course. This porch has been covered with a modern timber and felt roof, which is in a state of collapse.

The front door is set to the centre of the middle bay and consists of two leaves, each with two moulded panels and a decorative brass knob. The timber jambs have capital heads supporting a timber frieze, above which is a four-by-two-paned transom with vertical margins between each frame. To either side of the door, square ashlar granite pilasters — aligned with the porch columns — frame the sidelights. These sidelights have ashlar apron panels with square recesses and projecting cills, and are glazed to match the transom. The pilaster to the right of the door has a brass bell inset.

Each remaining ground-floor bay has a single six-over-six sliding sash window with a granite cill. All first-floor bays have six-over-three sliding sash windows with granite cills. A projecting plain platband links the pilasters between ground and first floors.

Two sets of plastic soil pipes, abutting the wall to the right of the porch, drain from the central bay over the porch to basement level. There is a vaulted basement passage to this elevation, covered with concrete paving slabs, and lit by overhead grilles to each side of the porch. There are no front basement openings.

LEFT (WEST) ELEVATION

The left elevation is detailed in the same manner as the front but is only three windows wide. The basement is exposed here. The left and right bays each contain a three-over-three sliding sash window with a granite cill and security bars. The central bay has a similar opening that has been enlarged and fitted with a pair of modern plywood doors. Abutting this elevation is a modern timber-framed glasshouse with a corrugated Perspex roof, containing a swimming pool.

REAR (NORTH) ELEVATION

The rear elevation fronts a large house yard and is three bays wide, with the central bay slightly recessed, rising from the exposed basement. It is partially abutted at the left corner by a two-storey outbuilding. The basement wall is lime-dashed, with the platband between it and the ground floor; the upper floors are lined rendered with a second projecting platband between ground and first floors. The eaves cornice is as on the front elevation. Cast-iron downpipes run down the reveals of the recessed central bay. All openings on this elevation have granite cills.

Basement openings on the rear elevation are as follows: centred on the left bay is a one-over-one modern timber window within an original opening; at the left of the central bay is an original four-panelled painted timber door incorporating four fixed top lights; to the centre of that bay is a three-over-three sliding sash with security bars; to the right is a sheeted timber door with an original vent inset. To the centre of the right bay is a wide sheeted timber door inserted into an enlarged window opening from which the cill has been removed.

There are four windows to each of the upper floors — one to the left and right bays and two to the central bay. Ground-floor windows are six-over-six sliding sashes and first-floor windows are six-over-three sashes.

RIGHT (EAST) ELEVATION

The right elevation is detailed as the left. The basement walls are smooth rendered with three window openings. The left and middle windows are three-over-six sashes with granite cills and brick flat-arched heads, both with security grilles. The right window has a similar head and cill and is fitted with a modern fixed window with a top-hung transom. Each wall panel at ground and first floor has a window as on the front elevation. The first-floor right window has had its sash replaced with a six-paned sash from elsewhere in the building.

SETTING

The gardens to the south and east of the house are planted with mature beech trees. The ground falls to the south, where there is an ornamental pond. The drive runs south-east from the house to the entrance gates, screen, and lodge on the eastern boundary with Cabra Road.

ENTRANCE GATES AND SCREEN

The entrance gates and screen are set within a concave arrangement on the bend of the main road. The screen consists of a chamfered ashlar granite dwarf wall supporting decorative wrought-iron railings with cast details. The railings have a top rail of diagonal crosses between each vertical, and spear-headed finials. The railings are attached to the dwarf wall by occasional cast cushion balls. Ashlar granite piers with chamfered plinths, plain shafts, and overhanging moulded pyramidal copings terminate both ends of the concave screen.

The gates themselves consist of a pair of carriage gates and two matching pedestrian gates. These are detailed as the railings, with an additional dog rail at the bottom consisting of diagonal crosses set between the verticals. They are supported by large ashlar granite piers — taller than those to the screen — with chamfered plinths, panelled shafts, and moulded two-stage pyramidal copings. Each pier has a wheel stone with a rounded head. Inside the carriage gates is a cattle grid. The pedestrian gates are hung between the carriage gate piers and the inner screen piers.

HISTORICAL NOTE

A house is shown at Cabragh on Kennedy's 1755 map of County Down, and it is possible this was the residence of Arthur Maginnis (died 1737) and his wife Catherine (née Hall, died 1713), whose memorial is in Clonduff Churchyard. Hugh Magennis of the Royal Downshire Militia inherited the lands in 1802. The property was subsequently purchased by Alexander McMullan, a Castlewellan businessman and founder of the firm later known as Mooney Bros. Although a building is shown in the vicinity on the first-edition Ordnance Survey six-inch map of 1833, the complex does not assume its present form — complete with outbuildings and yards — until the 1859 edition, indicating a mid-19th century construction date by McMullan. McMullan also erected a mausoleum in the churchyard of St Mary's Roman Catholic Church for his son Patrick Francis, who died on 29th May 1841 aged 22 years. One of McMullan's daughters married George Henry Gartland, who was the occupant in 1861. His successors remained resident into the 1970s, the last being Major General Gerald Ian Gartland CBE, MC, DL, JP, who addressed the crowd at the unveiling of the war memorial in Rathfriland on 10th August 1955. The house passed through a succession of owners and was purchased by the present occupant around 1994.