Joristown House

Detached multi-bay two-storey house/farmhouse, built c.1795, having a single-bay flat-roofed entrance porch to the centre of the front façade (west). Outbuildings to the west and to the north creating a courtyard on U-shaped plan. Now out of use and derelict. Half-hipped natural slate roof (graded with larger slates to lower courses) with a pair of rendered chimneystacks and cast-iron rainwater goods. Terracotta pots over chimneystack to the north. Roughcast rendered walls over rubble stone construction. Smooth rendered plinth to base. Square-headed window openings, irregularly spaced, with cut stone sills and two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows. Wyatt window to front face of porch (east). Square-headed doorways to the north face of porch and to the south end of main façade (east) having timber sheeted doors. Detached four-bay two-storey outbuilding to the west, aligned along alignment of former house/farmhouse, having half-hipped hipped natural slate roof with rendered chimneystacks. Randomly coursed rubble stone walls with roughly dressed quoins to the corners. Date inscribed to one the quoins to the southeast corner of building, reading ‘Anno Domini 1795’. Square-headed window openings to east and west elevations with brick dressings and cut stone sills. Window fittings now gone. Segmental-headed window openings with dressed stone surrounds to the south gable end at first floor level. Square-headed integral carriage arches and square-headed doorcases to the east elevation with the remains of timber sheeted doors/double-doors having overlights above. Single-storey former stable range to the north, having corrugated metal mono-pitched roofs and timber sheeted walls having square-headed doorways with timber sheet doors. Rubble stone boundary wall to the rear of stable ranges having an integral segmental-headed carriage arch to the centre with dressed limestone voussoirs. Set well back from road in own grounds, shared with modern farmyard to the west. Located to the west of Raharney.

An interesting and well-built collection of buildings associated with the former Joristown Estate. Well designed and robustly constructed with a variety of interesting features, including a fine segmental-headed carriage arch to the stable range to the north, the Wyatt window to the farmhouse and the engraved corner date stone. The chronology of this complex is difficult to ascertain. The farmhouse/house to the east end of the complex appears to have been originally built as an outbuilding and later converted to a dwelling house/farmhouse (before c.1914). Its form and scale is very similar to the outbuilding to the west. The original Joristown House lay to the north of this complex (now demolished) but this appears to have been succeeded by the present building sometime between c.1850 and c.1900. This estate was in the ownership of a P. Purdon Esq., in 1837 (Lewis). The Purdon family were an important landholding family in this part of Westmeath during the nineteenth century and had further seats in the area at Lisnabin Castle (15402014), Huntington House (15402011) and Curristown House (15312035). This complex is an interesting historical reminder of the extensive resources required to run and maintain a country estate in Ireland during the nineteenth century. It remains an important element of the built heritage and history of the Raharney area.