Castle View House

Detached five-bay three-storey house, c.1775, possibly over basement with round-headed door opening to ground floor. Extensively renovated, c.1970, with single-bay single-storey gabled projecting glazed porch added to centre. Extended, c.1990, comprising two-bay two-storey return to rear to south. Gable-ended roofs. Replacement fibre-cement slate, c.1970. Clay ridge tiles. Red brick chimney stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods on eaves course. Gabled roof to porch. Glazed in timber frame. Replacement render, c.1970, to walls. Unpainted. Square-headed window openings (round-headed to centre first floor). Stone sills (concrete to return). Replacement timber casement windows, c.1970, retaining one early 2/2 timber sash window to first floor side (east) elevation. Round-headed door opening. Replacement glazed timber door, c.1970. Overlight. Fixed-pane timber windows, c.1970, to porch with glazed timber door. Set back from road in own grounds. Tarmacadam forecourt/carpark to front.

Castle View House is an imposing, substantial house composed on a symmetrical plan of graceful proportions centred about a round-headed door opening. The house is of social and historical significance, representing the continued development of Leixlip in the late eighteenth century, and the scale suggests that it was originally built by a patron of considerable status in the locality. Comprehensively renovated in the late twentieth century, little of the original fabric remains, although the original form has survived in the main. The reinstatement of traditional-style timber fenestration – using the important surviving early model to first floor side (east) elevation as a reference point – might restore a more accurate representation of the original appearance of the house. Set back from the line Main Street, and fronted by a forecourt, the house is nevertheless an imposing landmark in the historic core of Leixlip.