Horse Exercise Ring, Home Farm, Kilmory Castle

Horse Exercise Ring, Home Farm, Kilmory Castle

Probably built in 1816 and remodelled by Joseph Gordon Davis around 1830, this is a substantial classical courtyard steading comprising single and two-storey ranges arranged in a rectangular plan, with an isolated range to the east. The buildings are constructed in squared and snecked rubble with droved ashlar margins (some raised), large dressed ashlar, and roughly-squared quoins. Keystoned Venetian windows, voussoired segmental cart arches, and stone mullions are key architectural features throughout.

The northwest entrance elevation is dominated by a central gabled four-centred arch flanked by two Venetian windows on each side. The lengthy southeast elevation comprises a three-bay dwelling to the right of centre with a later porch projection at ground floor centre. Windows punctuate both floors, with those on the first floor breaking into tall gabled dormers. Beyond this section, a stone forestair rises to a blocked door at first floor left, with windows to the right at each level. Further bays contain doors at ground level, one with a hayloft door above, whilst outer left bays shelter behind a large roofless lean-to projection.

The northeast elevation features a broad gabled bay to the left with louvered openings at each floor, a single-storey central range with a blocked cart arch, and stepped bays to the right with varied elements. The southwest elevation shows two tall, slightly advanced outer gables with decoratively-stepped skews. The left gable contains an arch over a burn at ground level, a transomed opening above, and a narrow gablehead window. The right gable has an off-centre window at first floor left and a similar gablehead opening. Central bays contain a ground-floor door to the left and a cart arch to the right, with four windows above, whilst a roofless lean-to bay with a set-back window projects to the outer right.

Within the courtyard, the southeast entrance elevation displays a broad square-headed arch in a gabled bay at centre with a gablehead window. A spiral stair to the left is accessed from inside the return at the left of the arch. Flanking bays have sliding boarded timber doors at ground level, and two piended dormers break the eaves to the right. The northeast courtyard elevation comprises a long range with two widely-spaced windows and a roofless bay or link wall with a door to the left. The northwest elevation contains various ground-floor openings with two dormer windows breaking the eaves at centre and left, and a square window abutting the eaves at right. The southwest courtyard elevation has five irregularly-disposed doors at ground level, with those at bays 2 and 3 partially blocked. Two square louvered openings remain at first floor, with two similar openings blocked.

Interiors feature cobbled setts and some boarded timber walls. Windows include four-pane and vertical six-pane glazing in timber sash-and-case windows, with a Venetian window featuring decoratively-astragalled upper sashes over six-pane lower sashes. The roofs are covered in grey slates, though the southwest elevation of the courtyard range is corrugated. Ashlar-coped stacks, some with thackstanes and cans, rise from the buildings, with ashlar-coped skews to the southwest and plain bargeboarding to gabled dormers.

The isolated range to the northeast, possibly kennels, has gabled outer bays flanking a corrugated semicircular-roofed implement shed supported on cast-iron columns on the southwest elevation. The northeast elevation presents a low five-bay range beneath a lean-to corrugated roof, with three centre openings fitted with ventilated boarded timber doors, a taller two-leaf boarded timber door to the outer left, and a broad lean-to bay to the outer right.

A circular rubble-walled enclosure to the northwest serves as the horse exercise ring.