Tamnaharry House, Derryleckagh Road, Mayobridge, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2EY

Tamnaharry House is an attractive picturesque mid-19th century two-storey, three-bay country house designed by Thomas J. Duff of Newry, set in mature grounds on the east side of Derryleckagh Road. It retains most of its original fabric and has fine internal detailing and plasterwork. The loss of the external render and hood moulds over window openings is reversible and does not greatly detract from the overall quality of the house. The yards, walled garden, north and south lodges, and gates contribute to its group value.

EXTERIOR

The front elevation faces south-west. The left bay is narrower than the central bay, and the right bay is set slightly back from and is wider than the central one. The roof is pitched natural slate, with each bay having a large picturesque gable. There are five pairs of chimneys aligned asymmetrically along the main ridge, and a sixth on the rear return roof. Each pair of plain coped sandstone chimney stacks is angled on a coped granite plinth — all are rebuilds of the originals. On the main ridge, the second and fourth chimney pairs are aligned parallel to the façade, while the others are aligned perpendicular to it. All three front gables, and the gable to the right end of the main block, have overhanging eaves and delicate fretted and cusped timber bargeboards. Metal rainwater downpipes are fitted throughout.

Walls are constructed in snecked squared granite blockwork with a chamfered granite base course. There are finely dressed stepped ashlar quoins to the left corner of the left bay, and to the right corners of the central and right bays. The walls were previously rendered with hood moulds over the openings.

The right bay contains the main entrance, set within a single-storey veranda constructed in ashlar granite. The veranda has a granite threshold and its roof is supported on four pillars with chamfered bases and plain Classical capitals, supporting a simple entablature with a quadrant curve at each end and a low balustrade above. The balustrade has a fretted lattice design and curves with the entablature. Above each pillar the balustrade is supported on a panelled block. The veranda soffit is plainly plastered, though the ceiling is slightly lower over the main entrance at its centre. At either end, where the veranda curves to meet the main wall, is a pilaster matching the veranda pillars. The wall at ground floor level within the veranda is built in modern red brickwork.

The main entrance is at the centre of this bay. A modern uPVC door is set within an original finely dressed granite door case, with a plain architrave, panelled block capitals, and a plain lintel with attractive moulded ends. A porch originally abutted here. To either side of the main entrance is a pair of 2-over-4-paned painted timber casement windows sharing a common opening, with dressed granite cills. All windows throughout are similar painted timber casements with chamfered red brick reveals, unless otherwise noted. At first floor centre is a pair of French windows opening onto the veranda roof; each door is 2-over-5-paned painted timber with a pair of transoms above. To the right of these is a 2-over-4 window, probably a later addition as its brick reveal differs from the other openings on the front elevation.

The central bay of the front elevation steps forward from the right bay, and its narrow exposed right cheek is blank. At ground floor centre, the central bay is abutted by a dressed granite bay window with three full-height windows to the front and a single window on each side. All are 6-over-9 sliding sash windows without horns, except for the central front one, which contains a 2-over-4-paned glazed timber door with a single transom above. The bay window has a plain entablature matching that of the veranda. Above, at first floor, is a pair of 2-over-4 windows each with a two-paned transom, all sharing a common opening.

The left bay of the front elevation has a pair of 2-over-4-paned French windows with two-paned transoms above each, and at first floor a window identical to that on the first floor of the central bay.

NORTH-WEST ELEVATION

Turning the left corner of the main block, the north-west elevation is two gables wide. The left gable is the rear return, and its left roof pitch cat-slides to accommodate the rear return, making it wider than the other bay. Both bays have fretted bargeboards, which are of a plainer design than those on the front elevation. There is a shallow single-storey bay window to the centre of the right bay, its pitched natural slate roof rising to first floor level and carrying a fretted bargeboard. Its front wall has a pair of 2-over-3 windows each with two-paned transoms sharing a common opening. At first floor, set to the left, is a 6-over-6 sliding sash window with horns.

The left bay has a similar but smaller bay window aligned with its gable apex, containing a pair of 4-over-4 sliding sashes. Above at first floor is a pair of 2-over-4 casements. At ground floor of the left bay, under the catslide roof, is a modern double-glazed 3-over-6 top-hung unit set in a horizontal opening with a concrete cill, with a 3-over-6 sash window above.

REAR (NORTH-EAST) ELEVATION

The left bay has a modern top-hung timber casement with a granite cill set to ground floor left. At a lower level at ground floor centre is a small modern top-hung casement window. Between ground and first floor to the right is a tall spoke-headed 6-over-6 margin-paned sash window with coloured margin panes. At first floor left is a pair of 2-over-4 windows in a common opening.

The centre bay advances slightly forward — its left cheek is blank — and is partially abutted on its right side by the catslide roof of the rear return. On the exposed portion at ground floor left is a pair of 4-over-4 sliding sash windows in a common opening, with a modern uPVC window to the right. At first floor is a pair of 2-over-4 windows in a common opening.

REAR RETURN

The rear return sits below the catslide roof of the left gable of the north-west elevation. Walls are as the main block. It is plain, and its yard-facing south-east cheek contains a modern timber and glass door where it meets the main block. The remainder of this cheek steps in slightly and is blank under a mono-pitched slate roof sloping to the north-west. Its south-east face is abutted at ground floor by a lean-to with an advancing gabled porch. The lean-to has a mono-pitched natural slate roof with plain modern eaves. The central porch advances with a gabled bargeboard, a modern door to the front, and modern 2-over-3 windows to each cheek. To the left of the porch on the main wall is a modern 2-over-4 window; to the right is a pair of 2-over-4 windows. The end north-east wall of the return abuts an outbuilding that encloses the rear yard.

The right north-west elevation of the return advances beyond the rest of the north-west elevation. Its main north-west wall has two window openings — the right is a 6-over-3 sash and the left is a similar opening now containing a nine-paned uPVC window. The ground falls away below the windows, and the wall has a door at basement level to the right; the remainder of this wall is abutted by a boiler house. The exposed right south-west cheek has a door at ground floor level, and the gable has a decorative bargeboard matching others on the north-west elevation.

SOUTH-EAST GABLE AND MODERN EXTENSION

The right south-east gable of the main block is slate-hung and abutted by a lower, modern one-and-a-half-storey red brick extension replacing an earlier structure. This extension has a pitched natural slate roof with two traditional-style dormers to each pitch, and bargeboards similar to those on the main house. The end south-east gable also has matching bargeboards. Walls are modern red brick in stretcher bond with a soldier course at window head level. All windows have granite cills. Yard-facing windows and the door are uPVC. All other windows in the extension are modern-style timber casements.

HOUSE YARD AND OUTBUILDINGS

The house yard is enclosed to the north-west by the return and is open to the south-east, where a wall has been removed. A large single-storey outbuilding running parallel to the main block encloses the north-east side of the yard. It has a pitched natural slate roof with overhanging eaves and a concrete skew with moulded kneelers to the right gable (as viewed from the yard), and a rendered chimney to the left gable. Walls are an irregular mixture of rubble stone and red brick, line-rendered but exposed in places.

The yard-facing south-west elevation is five bays wide. The first three bays are separated by single three-staged rendered buttresses, each bay containing a spoke-headed metal-framed 20th century window. The fourth bay has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door set in a lean-to porch with a pitched concrete roof. The fifth bay is stripped of render and has an infilled doorway. The right gable is blank with render stripped at lower level. The rear north-east elevation faces the farmyard and is in the process of being refaced in rubble stone; it has a large modern brick-dressed coachway and two windows matching those to the front.

The north-west gable of the outbuilding is abutted by a much-modernised two-storey L-planned farm outbuilding. This outbuilding is L-shaped in plan and of similar height to the houseyard building, with a pitched natural slate roof. Although much altered with uPVC and metal-framed windows, it retains much of its original character and has a coachway from the farmyard to the field on the north-west. Its south-west-facing wall advances beyond the line of the main house and is abutted by the boiler house. The boiler house has a hipped natural slate roof and a massive masonry chimney abutting the outbuilding and rising above eaves level. It has a small 2-over-2 sash window and a door on its south-west wall, a window on its north-west cheek, its south-east wall abutting the rear return of the house, and its north-east wall abutting the houseyard outbuilding.

The farmyard outbuilding is also abutted to its north-west by a single-storey return block with a pitched natural slate roof, hipped where it abuts, with a louvred lantern to the ridge and a cement-rendered chimney to the end north-west gable. The right end of its north-east pitch cat-slides over a lean-to that advances beyond the end north-west elevation. Walls are as the other buildings.

The south-west wall of the return block has a large sheeted timber carriage door at the left, a door at centre, and a modern door set higher to the right (the ground rises). Above the central door is a small 6-over-6 window. The end north-west wall is blank and abutted by the lean-to. The north-east wall has a modern oil tank abutting. The lean-to has a small 2-over-2 window on its north-west end wall and a similar window on its north-east elevation. Its south-west elevation is filled by a semi-elliptical-headed coachway with a tongue-and-groove sheeted door.

FARMYARD AND GROUNDS

The farmyard is enclosed to the south-east by a high rubble stone wall with tall cylindrical dressed granite gate piers at its north-east end. The main drive runs from the gates and lodge on Derryleckagh Road in a north-easterly direction, along the south-east side of the house, past the house yard, and along the south-east edge of the farmyard; it once continued eastward towards the east lodge.

The walled garden is set across the driveway from the main house to the south-east. Its walls are in granite random rubble brought to courses and lined in red brick. The south-west-facing boundary has a dwarf wall carrying tall wrought-iron railings with plain spiked finials. To the north-west of the house is a rubble stone grotto containing statues of Mary and St Bernadette.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

In 1787 David McCann, a linen draper, obtained a lease of half of Tamnaharry townland, where he built a substantial thatched house measuring approximately 25 feet by 25 feet 2 inches by 13 feet, as described in the circa 1835 valuation book. In 1828 he sold the estate to William Edward Reilly, Agent for the Marquis of Downshire. After his marriage, Reilly rebuilt and enlarged the house around 1840 to designs by Thomas J. Duff of Newry. Reilly also had the grounds landscaped and employed Duff to design the east and west gate lodges in a similar picturesque style. The demesne is shown in its present form on the 1860 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map and is similarly described in the circa 1861 valuation.

In 1847 Reilly's daughter married Charles Thomas Hamilton and was presented with the house as a wedding gift. The Hamiltons remained in occupancy until the mid-1860s. The Cuppidges were then in residence until 1896, when a Dr Bradley assumed ownership until his death in 1906. His wife continued to use the house as her summer home until 1925, when she presented it to the Roman Catholic Church. Two years later it became the convent of the Dominican Sisters and a chapel was added. The order occupied it until the 1960s, after which it reverted to private use.

RECORDED CHANGES

An early survey photograph shows the building prior to recent renovation. The chimneys are shown to have had a bead mould at the top of each shaft, a feature now lost. The walls are shown rendered and painted, with drip moulds over the window openings. A porch is shown between the central pillars of the veranda, with a pair of 2-over-4-paned casements to its front wall and a four-panelled raised-and-fielded bolection-moulded door — the former main entrance — on its right cheek.

The former extension to the right gable was detailed to match the main house, with the gable above rendered and painted rather than slate-hung. This extension is shown to have had a flat felted roof draining to the south-east with modern plastic rainwater goods. Its front elevation had a door matching the main entrance at ground floor left, a pair of 4-over-4 sliding sashes to its right, and to the far right a pair of windows matching those to the front porch. There were three similar windows at first floor level.