Ballynakill House

Detached three-bay two-storey over basement house with half-dormer attic, c.1750, incorporating fabric of medieval tower house, c.1550, retaining early fenestration with single-bay single-storey pedimented advanced Doric porch to ground floor. Extended, c.1775, comprising two-bay two-storey end bay with dormer attic to right (east). Renovated and extended, c.1850, comprising single-bay two-storey end bay to left (west). Renovated, c.1975, with half-dormer attic remodelled. Pitched slate roof (gabled to half-dormer attic windows; hipped to end bay to left (west)) with clay ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks, timber eaves to half-dormer attic windows, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered eaves. Unpainted rendered walls. Square-headed window openings with stone sills. 6/6 timber sash windows, and 1/1 timber sash windows having margins. Timber casement windows, c.1975, to half-dormer attic. Square-headed door opening under cut-stone pedimented Doric porch on two cut-stone steps with timber panelled door. Interior with timber panelled shutters to window openings. Set back from road in own grounds with gravel forecourt, landscaped grounds to site, and random rubble stone boundary wall to perimeter.

An important house of many periods, the earliest of which is reputed to be a medieval tower house, and the evolution of which is clearly expressed on the exterior through the random arrangement of openings of various proportions. Subsequently well maintained, the house presents an almost entirely intact early aspect – however, the remodelled openings to the half-dormer attic do not enhance the visual appeal of the composition.