Kingscourt

Kingscourt is a house dating to the later 17th century, with alterations and reordering of the front elevation around 1790. It is accompanied by an attached byre range to the right and a later stable to the left. The house has a whitewashed rubble facade, while the former byre is lofted and the stable is single-storied. The house has a steeply pitched slate roof with swept eaves, and the byre has a steeply pitched corrugated roof, with thatch surviving underneath. The stable has a moderately pitched corrugated iron roof. The house features rubble gable stacks with stone tabling and drips, one large and projecting to the right, while the byre has a 19th-century gable stack.

The front facade is set back, with tall, narrow window openings, most being 2-light, 4-pane casements. A 4-pane Victorian sash window is centrally positioned on the first floor. Timber lintels generally cover the windows, although a stone voussoir covers the ground floor window to the right and the central doorway. A half-glazed 19th-century door provides access to the principal entrance. A further door, thought to be the original entry, is set to the extreme right, giving access to a lobby-entry against the chimney, also with a half-glazed 19th-century door and a timber lintel. A small 4-pane window sits in the loft of the former byre, under a timber lintel and with a stone sill. An inserted 2-light casement window is on the ground floor to the right, beneath a timber lintel. A former doorway is on the left, with part glazing and part boarding, and is covered by a timber lintel. A small window is located at the left end of the stable.

The rear elevation of the house has a small 4-pane window set under the eaves to the left, alongside a similar window at stair-landing level. A 2-light casement window is located at the rear of the former byre, with a timber lintel. There is some brick infilling present. A divided door is on the rear of the stable, and a shallow, modern window with a timber lintel sits to the right. A tier of windows extends to the left of the gable end of the house. A loft door with stone stairs leads to the end elevation of the stables.

The interior was reordered around 1790, revealing stop-chamfered axial ceiling beams and wall plates, as well as a stop-chamfered bressumer and an 18th-century mantle-shelf. There’s also an 18th-century 4-panel door within an inserted partition. A passage has been cut into the former byre on either side of the stack. The first floor has transverse ceiling beams and a 4-bay roof featuring collar and tie-beam trusses. Corbels are visible in the wall, remnants of former raised cruck roof trusses.

The former byre retains a single axial beam and wall plates, a small inserted fireplace and a 2-bay roof with a crude scarf cruck truss and a low collar. A layer of bracken sits under the thatch upon closely-set poles.