Castle Bellingham, Castlebellingham, Co. Louth

The crenellated parapets, turrets and bartizans (small overhanging turrets, usually at a corner, once used for watching or defence) suggest a medieval stronghold, but look closer at the main elevations and the windows give the game away: tall, orderly, nine-over-nine sashes on the ground floor, unmistakably Georgian in their classical restraint. The Gothic theatrics were added later, layered onto an eighteenth-century body, and the result is a building that argues with itself on every wall, gargoyles and battlements set against the calm geometry of sash windows and quoins.

The story behind that contradiction reaches back to the late seventeenth century, when an earlier castle on this site was burnt by the forces of King James before the Battle of the Boyne. Colonel Thomas Bellingham, for whom the house and the village that grew up around it are named, was fighting on the opposing side, for King William of Orange. The house that eventually rose here dates to 1712, but its present character owes most to two later campaigns of work: a remodelling in 1798 that added a third storey, and further alterations around 1820 that gave the building its crenellations, its square corner turrets and its octagonal bartizan, all Gothic flourishes fashionable among landed families keen to dress plain Georgian bones in a costume of medieval romance. The gargoyle boss at the base of the east turret and the carved head stops on some window hoods belong to this later phase, decorative rather than defensive, but convincing enough at a glance. The house was never merely a private residence; it shaped the village around it, much of which grew up as estate housing for those who worked the land and grounds in the property's working years.

The approach itself is part of the experience: a long avenue through the grounds leading to the entrance front, where the crenellated porch with its own corner turrets frames a round-headed doorway with a traceried stone fanlight and leaded lights. On the garden side, a three-storey bow and a squat turreted tower give the west elevation a different silhouette altogether, while dressed limestone steps lead down to what were once terraced gardens. It rewards a slow circuit rather than a single glance from the front, since each elevation was treated slightly differently, and the contrast between Gothic ornament and Georgian proportion is easiest to catch by walking the full perimeter rather than admiring the entrance alone.