House Yard at, Cabra House, 10 Cabra Road, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5EW

House Yard at Cabra House

This is a large and imposing yard complex serving Cabra House, a two-storey neo-classical country house dating to the mid-19th century. The yard and its associated outbuildings remain virtually unaltered and are situated on the west side of Cabra Road within mature grounds, approached through gates and a screen along an avenue. The complex comprises a house yard, farmyard to the west, and a walled garden to the south.

House Yard

The yard itself is paved in granite cobbles and is enclosed by two-storey outbuildings. The building abutting the left of the rear elevation of the main house is a two-storey, three-bay structure that formerly served as the estate office. It has a pitched natural slate roof aligned north-south, with a dashed brick chimney between the left and central bays. An advanced ashlar granite eaves course carries semicircular plastic rainwater goods, and the left gable has granite skews. The yard-facing elevation is constructed of wet-dashed rubble stone, with the left and right bays narrower than the central one. At ground floor left is an infilled doorway containing a modern 1/1 window with concrete cill. To the centre is a wider original window with granite cill containing a modern window. The right bay features a segmental-headed doorway containing a modern glazed plywood door. First-floor openings align with the ground floor ones: at left is a 6/3 sliding sash with granite cills; to centre (in an opening matching the ground floor one) is a 10/5 sliding sash; and to the right is a small window with granite cill containing the frame of a casement. The left gable is abutted by other outbuildings (a coach arch) and is painted and rendered within.

The rear elevation facing east into gardens is much altered. At ground floor left is a modern 1/1 window with concrete cill. To the centre is a large modern bay window from the 1970s with tiled lean-to roof and plain timber windows. The right bay contains a plywood door. No first-floor openings exist, although marks in the dash render suggest single rectangular windows formerly occupied the left and middle bays. A small garden enclosed by rubble granite walls retains the higher ground level to east and south. The right gable is pedimented and meets the right-hand corner of the main house, with no openings.

The remaining three sides of the yard are enclosed by two-storey outhouses, all currently derelict. These have pitched natural slate roofs and whitewashed rubble walls. Openings consist mostly of sheeted timber doors, small rectangular windows (most timberwork is gone, though some contain 3/3 sliding sashes), and segmental-headed coach ways and cart ways. The eastern block contains a coachway to the gardens, two cart stores, and a small ground-floor workroom. The northern block comprises three workrooms and a coach house. The western block contains a coachway to a second yard, a flight of external stone stairs with a dog kennel incorporated below, two workrooms, and a pedestrian way to the second yard.

Farmyard

The second yard slopes westward. It is enclosed to the east by the western block of the house yard, and to the north by a two-storey, single-bay outbuilding (continuation of the northern block). The remaining boundary features a gateway and a much-altered lean-to block at the west end. The gates are set within a segmental-headed archway with dressed granite quoins and jambs, and are original wrought iron work with spiked finials leading to a rear lane. The southern boundary is a high rubble granite wall fronting the house gardens, abutted by a long range of lean-to animal houses. These have pitched natural slate roofs, granite skews, brick eases, granite walls, and low segmental-headed doorways with granite jambs (containing slots for door and gate bolts). These ranges step down in stages of five bays, three bays, and three bays, with the third containing a gateway through to the garden. A similar range of outbuildings beyond these has no roofs (possibly never had any), their walls forming small yards with small kennels and animal houses within each. The western boundary is a high rubble stone wall, from whose centre a modern single-storey concrete block outbuilding with corrugated asbestos roof advances into the yard. The areas to the north and west have been developed into a poultry farm with large low timber sheds in separate ownership. The northern group of poultry sheds appear to have been built on a third yard attached to the house yard; walls have been cleared but remnants are still visible.

Walled Garden

The walled garden forms the southern boundary of the demesne. Its high walls are constructed of granite rubble brought to courses, with access through several gates on the north wall and one on the east wall. The interior is grassed. Gardens to the south and east of the house are planted with mature beech trees, and the ground falls southward to an ornamental pond. The drive runs south-east from the house to a gate screen and lodge on the east boundary with Cabra Road.

Historical Background

A house is shown at Cabragh on Kennedy's 1755 map, possibly the residence of Arthur Maginis (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 hereabouts on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map, the complex in its present form with outbuildings and yards does not appear until the 1859 edition, indicating a mid-19th-century erection by McMullan. He also erected a mausoleum in the churchyard of St Mary's Roman Catholic Church for his son Patrick Francis, who died on 29 May 1841 aged 22 years.

One of McMullan's daughters married George Henry Gartland, who was 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 10 August 1955. The house had a succession of owners until approximately 1994 when the present occupant purchased it.