Castle Dobbs - Carrickfergus, County Antrim
The house as built comprises a seven bay two storey double-pile main block over a substantial basement with five bay two storey projecting wings without basements. The two storeys of the wings are the same height as the basement and piano nobile together. Two quadrants link the three distinct parts of the building to create an impressive entrance front which embraces the visitor like the wings of a vast eagle ready to engulf its prey. The windowless elevations of projections the same height as the main block project to the rear of both wings.
The piano nobile is accessed by a 19th century double staircase of reddish stone with carved balustrades and piers. The whole arrangement is supported by two Greek Ionic columns flanked by plain pilasters which form a portico to the basement entrance below. A sense of arrival is guaranteed by this triumph in stone.
The basement entrance contains a double leaf timber panelled entrance door surmounted by a cornice on consoled brackets. Upstairs, the piano nobile has a pair of timber glazed entrance doors and a window on either side set in a slight three bay projection. The seven first floor windows all have a plain surround and key block.
Walls are ruled-and-lined render with - deep breath - chamfered vermiculated rusticated stepped quoins and plain raised quoins to the top floor and south elevation. A modillioned eaves cornice to the wings continues as a string course to the central block. Windows are timber sliding sashes, with exposed boxes to the entrance front, and masonry cills.
Now the wings. The west wing is detailed like the main block with vermiculated rusticated quoins and plain banded rustication to the basement. Its elevation overlooking the forecourt has five 12 pane windows at first floor with moulded lugged architraves. A central timber panelled door with plain raised stepped quoins with two plainly detailed nine pane windows to each side on the ground floor. The west elevation comprises seven bays slightly irregularly placed. A recessed section at the corner of this wing and the south elevation has stairs leading to the piano nobile with a door surmounted by a jaunty leaded corner canopy. Access to the basement is through a timber panelled door below the stairs. The gable end of the west wing is blank.
The east wing is faced with ruled and lined render similar to the west wing. A five bay elevation overlooks the forecourt. This five bay elevation is like an inverted view of the west wing with larger 16 pane sliding sash windows on the raised basement and smaller eight pane sliding sash windows above. The rear elevation is also similar to that of the west wing.
The south facing garden elevation has a more two dimensional quality with no projections. Instead, 13 bays stretch below a centrally placed plain pediment over the middle three bays. Plain solid parapets surmount the elevations and bracketed cornices finish the wings. Four ruled-and-lined rendered chimneys with square terracotta pots rising from the natural slate roof complete the picture.
And so for a century Castle Dobbs remained pretty much an executed variation of Gibbs' plate. Castle Dobbs was exquisitely restored in the late 20th century and now glistens. It is the antithesis of the crumbling Irish country houses beloved by coffee table book publishers. Incidentally Castle Dobbs is one of the few country houses of the British Isles never to have been published in Country Life. But in the early 19th century, it wasn't quite so pristine. In 1839 James Boyle said,
"The house is a spacious old fashioned mansion, the entrance front presenting in its central building and two projecting wings a somewhat Elizabethan appearance. It is three storeys high and presents a plain roughcast and whitened front - plantations, grounds and house are in a very neglected state."
The building appears with an additional extension to the west elevation on the first edition OS map of 1832. Valuations show the extension to have been farm buildings which were pulled down between 1857 and 1859.
It is likely that contemporaneous with this demolition was the restoration and remodelling of Castle Dobbs. On the south elevation, Italianate architectural dressing creeps like ivy across the two lower storeys. Meanwhile the top floor and its plain pediment look down in severity at the interloping detail. The fully vermiculated rusticated basement treatment dates from this time. Surely this hints at the author being Sir Charles Lanyon, king of rustication (think Crumlin Road Gaol which he rusticated to within an inch of its existence). Similar rusticated details were applied to the west wing but not to the east wing of the entrance front.
The windows of the piano nobile on the south front were embellished with entablatures on console brackets. The thick glazing bars of the multi paned Georgian windows were replaced with idiosyncratic fenestration comprising two vertical panes in the upper sash and a single pane in the lower sash. That's as far as the remodelling went, for whatever reason now lost in the sands of time.
A neoclassical rendered three bay gatelodge on the quiet Tongue Loanen marks the entrance to this piece of paradise. Built in 1875, unlike the house, its architect is known - S P Close. It has been restored. The same architect's gatelodge on the busy Carrickfergus to Kilroot road is also three bay but is faced with uncoursed squared quarry-faced basalt with limestone dressings and quoins. Tudor label mouldings to the windows, a door set between classical columns in antis and a polychromatic chimney on the hipped roof give it an eclectic appearance. It lies vacant and its avenue overgrown. Two earlier 19th century gatelodges have disappeared.
The house is approached by a gravel lane past a lake with a cascade and over a bridge. The demesne contains fine mature trees grouped in shelter belts, parkland, woodland and avenues. Informal glen side walks have been augmented with recent planting. The walled garden to the west of the house was redesigned in 1989 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Arthur Dobbs' birth. Dobbs was a plantsman and noted for providing the first written reference to the Venus fly-trap (Dionaea muscipula) while Governor of North Carolina. The potting sheds are back in use along with a remaining glasshouse.
A series of two story outbuildings forms a courtyard to the east of the house. Walls are random rubble with brick dressings and eaves course; roofs are pitched and slated; windows are timber casements and doors are timber sheeted. Together, the house grounds and associated buildings form an estate of great beauty and integrity.
The piano nobile is accessed by a 19th century double staircase of reddish stone with carved balustrades and piers. The whole arrangement is supported by two Greek Ionic columns flanked by plain pilasters which form a portico to the basement entrance below. A sense of arrival is guaranteed by this triumph in stone.
The basement entrance contains a double leaf timber panelled entrance door surmounted by a cornice on consoled brackets. Upstairs, the piano nobile has a pair of timber glazed entrance doors and a window on either side set in a slight three bay projection. The seven first floor windows all have a plain surround and key block.
Walls are ruled-and-lined render with - deep breath - chamfered vermiculated rusticated stepped quoins and plain raised quoins to the top floor and south elevation. A modillioned eaves cornice to the wings continues as a string course to the central block. Windows are timber sliding sashes, with exposed boxes to the entrance front, and masonry cills.
Now the wings. The west wing is detailed like the main block with vermiculated rusticated quoins and plain banded rustication to the basement. Its elevation overlooking the forecourt has five 12 pane windows at first floor with moulded lugged architraves. A central timber panelled door with plain raised stepped quoins with two plainly detailed nine pane windows to each side on the ground floor. The west elevation comprises seven bays slightly irregularly placed. A recessed section at the corner of this wing and the south elevation has stairs leading to the piano nobile with a door surmounted by a jaunty leaded corner canopy. Access to the basement is through a timber panelled door below the stairs. The gable end of the west wing is blank.
The east wing is faced with ruled and lined render similar to the west wing. A five bay elevation overlooks the forecourt. This five bay elevation is like an inverted view of the west wing with larger 16 pane sliding sash windows on the raised basement and smaller eight pane sliding sash windows above. The rear elevation is also similar to that of the west wing.
The south facing garden elevation has a more two dimensional quality with no projections. Instead, 13 bays stretch below a centrally placed plain pediment over the middle three bays. Plain solid parapets surmount the elevations and bracketed cornices finish the wings. Four ruled-and-lined rendered chimneys with square terracotta pots rising from the natural slate roof complete the picture.
And so for a century Castle Dobbs remained pretty much an executed variation of Gibbs' plate. Castle Dobbs was exquisitely restored in the late 20th century and now glistens. It is the antithesis of the crumbling Irish country houses beloved by coffee table book publishers. Incidentally Castle Dobbs is one of the few country houses of the British Isles never to have been published in Country Life. But in the early 19th century, it wasn't quite so pristine. In 1839 James Boyle said,
"The house is a spacious old fashioned mansion, the entrance front presenting in its central building and two projecting wings a somewhat Elizabethan appearance. It is three storeys high and presents a plain roughcast and whitened front - plantations, grounds and house are in a very neglected state."
The building appears with an additional extension to the west elevation on the first edition OS map of 1832. Valuations show the extension to have been farm buildings which were pulled down between 1857 and 1859.
It is likely that contemporaneous with this demolition was the restoration and remodelling of Castle Dobbs. On the south elevation, Italianate architectural dressing creeps like ivy across the two lower storeys. Meanwhile the top floor and its plain pediment look down in severity at the interloping detail. The fully vermiculated rusticated basement treatment dates from this time. Surely this hints at the author being Sir Charles Lanyon, king of rustication (think Crumlin Road Gaol which he rusticated to within an inch of its existence). Similar rusticated details were applied to the west wing but not to the east wing of the entrance front.
The windows of the piano nobile on the south front were embellished with entablatures on console brackets. The thick glazing bars of the multi paned Georgian windows were replaced with idiosyncratic fenestration comprising two vertical panes in the upper sash and a single pane in the lower sash. That's as far as the remodelling went, for whatever reason now lost in the sands of time.
A neoclassical rendered three bay gatelodge on the quiet Tongue Loanen marks the entrance to this piece of paradise. Built in 1875, unlike the house, its architect is known - S P Close. It has been restored. The same architect's gatelodge on the busy Carrickfergus to Kilroot road is also three bay but is faced with uncoursed squared quarry-faced basalt with limestone dressings and quoins. Tudor label mouldings to the windows, a door set between classical columns in antis and a polychromatic chimney on the hipped roof give it an eclectic appearance. It lies vacant and its avenue overgrown. Two earlier 19th century gatelodges have disappeared.
The house is approached by a gravel lane past a lake with a cascade and over a bridge. The demesne contains fine mature trees grouped in shelter belts, parkland, woodland and avenues. Informal glen side walks have been augmented with recent planting. The walled garden to the west of the house was redesigned in 1989 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Arthur Dobbs' birth. Dobbs was a plantsman and noted for providing the first written reference to the Venus fly-trap (Dionaea muscipula) while Governor of North Carolina. The potting sheds are back in use along with a remaining glasshouse.
A series of two story outbuildings forms a courtyard to the east of the house. Walls are random rubble with brick dressings and eaves course; roofs are pitched and slated; windows are timber casements and doors are timber sheeted. Together, the house grounds and associated buildings form an estate of great beauty and integrity.