Ballychristal House

Detached L-plan five-bay two-storey with attic house, built c.1700, with central pediment and flanking two-storey wings, c.1800. House is flanked by screen walls. Pitched slate roof with rendered chimneystacks and some cast-iron rainwater goods. Pebbledashed walls with smooth-rendered plinth and brick saw-tooth cornice. Square-headed window openings with sandstone sills to main house and tooled limestone sills to flanking bays with uPVC windows. Square-headed door opening with replacement timber panelled door. Random coursed screen walls flank house. Walled garden to rear of house. Single- and two-storey outbuilding to yard. Bellcote rebuilt in 2000. Site accessed through wrought-iron piers flanked by limestone walls.

Ballychristal House is an example of an early eighteenth-century house. The original house comprised the pedimented central block. Unfortunately the windows have been replaced however the unusual sandstone sills remain. These small roughly cut sills differ greatly from the larger nineteenth century sills on the flanking bays. The steeply pitched roof with chimneystacks located over the end gable walls and the symmetry created by the fenestration are features of architecture of this period and contribute to the architectural significance of the structure. Set within mature grounds the outbuildings, entrance gates and walled gardens present a positive setting for the house. The original bellcote deteriorated and the bell was removed and donated to the church in Ballingar. The present owners undertook the rebuilding of the bellcote in 2000 as a millennium project.