Exteriors

Main Door, Woodstock House

Photograph of the Main Door, Woodstock House, Inistioge, County Kilkenny

Main Door, Woodstock House

Main Door, Woodstock House

Photograph of the Main Door, Woodstock House, Inistioge, County Kilkenny

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The main block like many other houses in 18th century Ireland, had most of its decorative elements placed upon the facade, which even in its deteriorated state can still be seen today. The house itself was a three-storey block over a basement with a square plan. The walls are of rubble stone, lined inside and rendered externally.

The entrance, still largely intact, is a classic Palladian doorway. This is formed by the grouping of two flanking windows and a portal into a single piece. The front doorway, along with the windows on the ground and first floors, all have Gibbsian surrounds, which are named after James Gibbs and popularized by him, though they were also used by other architects. These are designs of a window frame or doorway in which blocks of stone are set at intervals around the architrave or jamb, the head is generally finished by a triple keystone. Above the door is a lunette (a semicircular opening, window or panel usually found above doorways) which rests on scrolled consoles (a decorative bracket, often placed on the side of a door frame to hold up the cornice of the frame) which are connected to each other with by raised vertical bands.

The niche, which I have described previously, was directly above the doorway. An oculus (a round window) lies above the niche and like the remaining windows on the top floor are surrounded with plain limestone surrounds. The quoins (dressed stones forming the external angle of a building) were not emphasised: this was possibly due to their more functional nature as they contained drain pipes for the house inside.

The rear elevation of the house, by contrast with the front façade, is considerably plain. Like the front it is three stories over a basement. The windows have limestone surrounds, and while the ground floor and first floor windows have blocked keystones, those of the basement and second floor have single keystones. The ground and first floor windowsills do however have unusual cyma moulded ends.

The side elevations of the house, as with many other 18th century buildings, were not intended to be visible. They are completely lacking in any form of decoration or design.