Gartinstarry

Gartinstarry

This is a substantial house of 1789 with additions from the mid-19th century onwards. The building has evolved into a complex U-plan arrangement, comprising a principal 2-storey double-fronted block with later 1-storey wings to the northeast and southwest, and adjoining ranges (one with an attic) set at right angles, creating an irregular courtyard formation.

The main structure is built of painted rubble stone with painted ashlar dressings. The principal southeast elevation displays symmetrical fenestration across the 2-storey central block, which features a central 6-panel 2-leaf timber door with architraved surrounds, flanked by windows to each floor and an additional window above. Pilaster-like vertical margins with corniced apexes emphasize the window arrises. The date "1789" is inscribed on the skewput of the left return. The main block has an eaves course and eaves cornice, with coped gables. Flanking this are two 1-storey bays (formerly screen walls), each with a segmental-headed entrance; the left has a boarded timber door while the right features a late 20th-century glazed door. Beyond these lie gable ends of outer flanking single-storey ranges, each topped with an oculus and a bracketed overhanging roof with projecting purlin ends.

The northwest elevation reveals the main block set back centrally, with the ground floor largely obscured by later additions. Several projecting gable ends of wings project forward at different depths, each fenestrated according to their period. A lean-to section adjoins the set-back portion to the left, continuing with a pitched roof to meet a formerly detached northeast range. This range features a large entrance with a glazed 2-leaf timber door, a boarded timber door entrance, an inserted garage entrance, and inserted or enlarged windows. The projecting gable end of the southwest wing shows an inserted or enlarged ground-floor window, an attic window, and a boarded lean-to porch with entrance; a small single-storey bay with a window links to the main block here.

The northeast elevation of the formerly detached northeast range displays two large inserted or enlarged architraved windows to the left of its left return.

The southwest elevation comprises a 3-bay section with an attic to the left of the left return, featuring a truncated gable to the outer left bay with windows to each floor. An entrance with a panelled timber door and flanking windows marks the 3-bay section to the right. A flat-headed roof extension inserted above contains two dormers.

Windows comprise 4-pane timber sash and case windows to the main block, with UPVC replacements and timber sash and case windows elsewhere. The roofs are finished in grey slate. Gable-head stacks are positioned to either side of the main block: the northeast stack is rendered and coped, while the southwest is partially rendered brick with a band course. A rendered gable-head stack adjoins one wing on its northwest side. Two ridge stacks serve the formerly detached southwest range, one rendered and one coped brick. A tall modern harled wallhead stack with a band course rises from the formerly detached northeast range. Stacks are topped with round and octagonal cans.

The interior was not inspected in 2000.

A low coursed rubble boundary wall of probable late-19th-century date encloses the front garden in a U-plan, with rounded stone coping largely replaced by concrete. Square-plan sandstone ashlar piers with pyramid coping mark the outer flanking corners, and similar rectangular-plan gate-piers stand at the centre of the roadside elevation. A replacement timber gate is hung between them.