Crystalbrook

Detached two-bay single-storey complex-plan Arts and Crafts-style house, built c.1905, with canted-bay window to west elevation and box-bay window to east, latter forming part of open-sided wrap-around corner porch. Now vacant. Pitched tiled roofs, slightly lower to return, with overhanging eaves and timber bargeboards. Square-plan, original, moulded red brick chimneystack, cast-iron rainwater hopper and downpipe, with diamond-panel detail, and replacement uPVC rainwater goods. Roughcast rendered walls, having Tudor-style painted timber panels to apex to south and west gables, with 'CB' painted to east gable, and render plinth course. Gauged-brick and square-headed window openings, with rendered sills. Timber casement windows throughout, varying in size and pane arrangements, some with leaded glazing having foliate detailing. Bay windows have overhanging lean-to tiled roofs, rendered stone sill courses and terracotta floor vents. South elevation has canted window built into wall, with render sill and gauged-brick opening. Open-sided hipped tiled roof porch to south-west corner, with square-plan rendered columns and five rendered elliptical-plan diminishing steps. Square-headed original part glazed timber panelled door having bull-nosed surround, and square-headed timber panelled door to north elevation. Single-storey outbuilding to north-east and former house to east, with pitched corrugated-iron roofs and rendered red brick walls, outbuilding having segmental-headed openings, former house having red brick chimneystacks, and both having timber battened or metal doors. Located on hill, approached by private laneway from north-west, situated north of Derryvally Presbyterian Church.

This interesting Arts-and-Crafts style house, built at the turn of the twentieth century, has many attractive surviving features including tracery windows and a detailed moulded brick chimneystack. The Arts-and-Crafts international design movement flourished between 1860 and 1910, and promoted traditional craftsmanship, often incorporating floral motifs and a revival of medieval-style architecture, particularly that seen in central Germany. This influence is seen here in the stepped roof levels, the irregular opening sizes and plan form, and the timber work to the gable walls. These elements afford many interesting and varied elevations and add to the structures aesthetic appeal. Crystalbrook likely had a terracotta, or timber shingled, roof, which was replaced in the mid- to late twentieth century. The porch to the south-west corner was replaced at the same time, and probably consisted originally of a carved timber canopy and steps. Crystalbrook is a particularly attractive example of late nineteenth or early twentieth-century domestic architecture. The house is picturesquely located on a height, overlooking a rural country road, to the north of Shantonagh Junction on the Dundalk to Enniskillen railway and Derryvally Presbyterian Church and school.