Tag Archives: County Down

A Noble and Commanding Appearance


‘The history of Mourne is associated with that of the Castle of Greencastle – one of the finest specimens of Anglo-Norman architecture military architecture in the County of Down – which constitutes such an important feature in the scenery of that coast, from every point of which it presents a noble and commanding appearance. It was erected by the early English invaders to guard the entrance to the Lough of Carlingford and to secure a line of correspondence between the Pale and their outlying possessions in Lecale.’
From An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor by the Rev. James O’Laverty (Dublin, 1878)




‘Greencastle, situated in the barony of Mourne, County Down, province of Ulster. It stands upon a gut or inlet of the sea and was reputed a strong castle, fortified by the Burghs, earls of Ulster and lords of Connaught. It was remarkable for two eminent marriages celebrated here in 1312; one between Maurice Fitzthomas and Catherine, daughter to the Earl of Ulster, on the 5th of August, and the other between Thomas Fitz-John and another daughter of the said earl, on the 16th of the same month. It was destroyed by the Irish, A.D. 1643, but soon after repaired and better fortified. Green Castle and the Castle of Carlingford, appear by a record, 1 Henry IV, to have been governed by one constable, the better to secure a communication between the English pale of the County Louth and the settlements of the English in Lecale and those northern parts; and Stephen Gernon was constable of both, for which he had a salary of 20l. per annum for Green Castle and 5l. for Carlingford. In 1495, it was thought to be a place of such importance to the crown, that no person, but of English birth was declared capable of being constable of it.’
From An Improved Topographical and Historical Hibernian Gazetteer, by the Rev. H Hansbrow (Dublin, 1835)




‘The castle stands upon an elevated rock, about a quarter of a mile from the sea. The walls are double, and the outer ones is looped at regular distances for archers, with passages to each floor. The central building is strengthened and protected by four square flanking towers at the corners, with a spiral staircase in each. Upon gaining the battlements, a beautiful view of the Lough scenery is obtained; the most striking object, however, is the Castle of Carlingford, which looks to great advantage from this point.
Green Castle rendered important services in the rebellion of 1641. It served not only to protect the Protestants of the district, but exercised considerable influence in keeping the insurrection in check. A part of this old Castle is now in occupation, and the rest turned into out-offices for cattle.’
From Tours in Ulster: A Handbook to the Antiquities and Scenery by J.B. Doyle (Dublin, 1855)


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A Somewhat Institutional Air



By the late mediaeval period, the lands now occupied by the Castlewellan estate in County Down had come into the possession of the Magennis family. In 1542 Donal Óg Magennis travelled to London where he received a knighthood from Henry VIII at Greenwich Palace. At the time he was living in the area of Castlewellan, and although the precise location of his residence is unknown, it may have been on one of the islands of the lake lying directly below the present castle. In his account of a journey through this part of Ulster in 1602-3, Captain Josias Bodley wrote ‘We now came to the island of Magennis [Castlewellan] where, alighting from our horses, we met Master Morrison, with many others. They had tarried there, at least three hours, expecting our arrival, and in the meantime drank ale and usquebaugh with the Lady Sara, the daughter of Tyrone, and wife of the aforesaid Magennis, a truly beautiful woman. We also drank twice or thrice, and after we had duly kissed her, we each prepared for our journey.’ The beautiful Lady Sara mentioned here was a daughter of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone and wife of Sir Arthur Magennis, later created first Viscount Iveagh. During the course of the 17th century and its many upheavals, somehow the Magennises managed to retain their lands at Castlewellan and indeed, descendants of the family remained there until 1741 when penury required that it be offered at public auction, where the freehold was bought by one William Annesley, a Dublin-based barrister and Member of Parliament whose family had already been leasing the property. 





Created first Baron Annesley and later Viscount Glerawly, William Annesley was the great-grandson of Francis Annesley, first Viscount Valentia, who had moved to Ireland in the first decade of the 17th century and was involved in the Ulster Plantations. Three years before buying the Castlewellan estate, William had married Lady Anne Beresford, a daughter of the Earl of Tyrone. Mrs Delany, who knew the couple well (her husband, Dr Patrick Delany, being Dean of Down), wrote ‘’they are very rich and know it, and spend their lives in increasing not enjoying their fortune; but he is a very honest man in all his dealings, still would be more agreeable as well as more useful if he thought less of his possessions. His lady suits him exactly; she does not want sense, and is comical enough in a satirical way.’ The couple made Castlewellan their principal country residence, building a house south-west of the present building, as well as the Grange, an extensive series of outbuildings, most of which still survive: while walking around the estate in 1758, Mrs Delany declared them ‘indeed very fine. Three large courts: round the first, which is arched round a kind of’ piazza, are houses for all his carriages and over them his granaries; the next court are stables and cow houses, and over them haylofts; the third court two such barns as I ncver saw, floored with oak and finished in the most convenient manner for all the purposes of winnowing etc and in that court are the stands for hay and corn.’ What form the main house took is unknown, since it was replaced by Annesley’s heir Francis (created first Earl Annesley in 1789), the new residence being called Castlewellan Cottage, a long single-storey (or single-storey over basement) building with shallow end bows. This remained the family’s home until 1851 when the estate was inherited by William Richard Annesley, the fourth earl, who commissioned a new mansion from the Scottish architect William Burn. The latter’s patron did not have long to enjoy his new residence, however, since he died in 1874 at the age of 44 still unmarried and so both the title and Castlewellan estate accordingly passed to his younger brother, Lt-Col Hugh Annesley, who had hitherto had a career in the army but now settled to live in County Down where he was a pioneering photographer and, like his sibling before him, an ardent gardener (see In Circles « The Irish Aesthete). It was during the second half of the 19th century that Castlewellan’s exceptional arboretum became established, its collection  of some  3,000 species of rare trees, plants and shrubs being among the finest in Ireland. Unfortunately the sixth earl died in 1914 at the age of 30 and responsibility for Castlewellan passed to his eldest sister Lady Mabel Annesley, who in 1927 transferred it to her son Gerald Francis Sowerby (who took the Annesley surname) at the time of his first marriage. He retained the property until 1967 when it was acquired by the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. Two years later the grounds were opened as a forest park, but the house itself remained empty and suffered from a terrorist attack in 1973. It was subsequently leased to a Christian organisation which since then has used the building as a retreat and conference centre





By the time he was commissioned to design Castlewellan, William Burn had already worked for a number of Irish clients, being responsible for the likes of Muckross House, County Kerry (see Institutionalised « The Irish Aesthete) and Bangor Castle, County Down (see Uncertain Future II « The Irish Aesthete). Built at a cost of just over £18,000 and standing on a terrace above the lake with dense woodland to the rear, granite-faced Castlewellan has, as noted by Philip Smith, a somewhat institutional air. The potentially monotonous south-facing five-bay garden front, of three storeys with dormer attic windows, is relieved at either end by a four-stage square tower to the east and a five-stage circular tower to the west, both these carrying bartizans. The west front side shows more variety, with a four-storey gabled bay at the northern end and, attached to this, a slender round turret with pitched roof. There was formerly a conservatory on this side, which may explain the rather odd first-floor bow window found here. The main entrance is on the east side, another stocky square tower with bartizans and battlements. Directly above the doorcase of dressed stone is a tablet carrying the Annesley armorials. Immediately inside the door is a steep flight of stairs, not unlike that found in the Brownslow House, Lurgan (see This Beautiful Mansion « The Irish Aesthete). Unlike the latter property, however, in this instance and stairs lead to a galleried central hall, this space lit by a series of windows on the north side. Off the hall and facing south are the principal reception rooms – drawing room, library and dining room – all with the same Jacobethan ceilings. The library still has its elaborately carved bookcases but otherwise almost all the original decoration, and furnishings, are no longer in the building. The main staircase, located off the west end of the hall, was badly damaged when Castlewellan was bombed in 1973 with the loss of its window’s armorial glass. Upstairs, most of the bedrooms are now used as dormitories for the religious organisation’s retreats. While the present decor may not be to everyone’s taste, it is important to appreciate that the building is being well maintained and kept in good repair, ensuring, unlike so many other such properties in Ireland, that Castlewellan survives into the future.



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A Philanthropist’s Bequest



The 19th century philanthropist Charles Sheils has appeared here before, in relation to the almshouses built according to the terms of his will in Dungannon, County Tyrone (see In Demand « The Irish Aesthete). Sheils spent the greater part of his life in Liverpool where he amassed a fortune through involvement with a trans-Atlantic mercantile partnership. On his death in 1861, as his will explained ‘I propose building alms houses…to relieve as many as I can of those who from their former lives are entitled to a better provision in old age than the Workhouse.’ The first of these were built in his native village of Killough, County Down, designed by Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon and incorporating a U-shaped terrace with belltower and superintendent’s residence. Further terraces in the same style were added in 1883 (by William Henry Lynn, formerly of Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon, who also came from this part of the country) and 1912 (by Young and McKenzie), so that eventually there were 31 units. By the start of the present century, the complex had fallen into disrepair, with a third of the houses in a derelict state. Fortunately in 2013 a £3 million programme of restoration began, assisted by a number of governmental and private bodies, and in 2021 the project won an Angel Heritage Award. Today the complex continues to serve the same purpose intended by Charles Sheils.



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Boldly and Picturesquely Seated



‘Dundrum Castle is usually supposed to have been erected for the Knights Templar by the renowned Sir John de Courcey, and that powerful body possessed it till the abolition of the order in the year 1313. It was afterwards granted to the Prior of Down, who held it, with a small manor adjoining, till the final suppression of religious orders; and the reversion of this house and manor, with the yearly rent of 6l. 13s. 6d. reserved out of it, was granted to Gerald, Earl of Kildare.’
From the Dublin Penny Journal, No.36, Vol.1, March 2 1833.





‘This Castle was granted to the family of Magennis; on their forfeiture, it became the property of the Earl of Ardglass, and afterwards was in the possession of the Lord Viscount Blundell; the ruins are of an irregular multangular ſorm, with a fine round tower, which is about thirty-five feet diameter in the inside.”  Thus far Mr. Archdall. In addition to which, Harris says, “When the Castle was in repair it often proved a good guard to the pass, and as often an offensive neighbour to the English planted in Lecale, according to the hands that possessed it. Anno 1517, the Earl of Kildare, then Lord Deputy, marched into Lecale, and took it by storm; it being garriſoned at that time by the Irish, who had driven out the English ſome time before. It was again possessed and repaired by the Magennises, and re-taken by the Lord Deputy Gray, with seven castles more in Lecale, anno 1538. lt afterwards got into the hands of Phelim McEver Magennis, who was obliged to yield it to the Lord Mountjoy on the 16th of June in the year 1601, It met with another fate during the progress of the war of 1641, when it was demolished by the order of Cromwell, though then garrisoned by Protestants, and has ever since been suffered to run entirely to ruin.’
From The Antiquities of Ireland, Vol.1 by Francis Grose (1791)





‘The old Castle of Dundrum, boldly and picturesquely seated on a high rock covered with verdure, commanded in the ages of warfare the entrance to the harbour — if to the inner Bay, or rather the estuary of the Blackstaff Water, the appellation may be applied. This was considered one of the finest castles erected by the first Anglo-Norman adventurers; and its ivy-mantled ruins contribute materially to the strikingly romantic features of the landscape. These ruins consist of a great circular keep or tower, with detached fragments of towers, and ruins of other outworks, and a barbican. At a little distance southward of the castle are the mouldering remains of a large mansion, partly a fortalice and partly a dwelling-house of the sort in use in the sixteenth century. From these ruins we command a wider sweep of the magnificent scenery described at Newcastle.’
From A Picturesque Handbook to Carlingford Bay by Robert Greer (1846)


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Unspoilt



Sitting in a graveyard on the edge of Strangford Lough, his little Roman Catholic church at Ardkeen on the Ards Peninsula, County Down dates from 1777, as legislation against dissenters from the Established Church was beginning to be revoked. It was erected by general subscription overseen by a local priest, Fr Daniel O’Dorman and initially served the entire peninsula but in the 19th century, as other churches were constructed, the building became less used and was reduced to the status of a mortuary chapel: seemingly it now hosts a service only once a year, on All Souls’ Day (November 1st). The church retains much of its original appearance, including arch-headed sash windows and a roof covered in rough-hewn ‘Tullycavey’ slates. Inside also little has changed, with the box pews still in place and on the south side of the altar a simple confessional box. In 2019 the church won one of the Ulster Architectural Heritage’s Angel Awards for Best Maintenance of a Community Building, but it now looks once more in need of  attention, as the condition of the window frames indicates.



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Uncertain Future II



After Monday’s text about Mount Melleray Abbey, County Waterford, here is another historic property with an uncertain future. The Tudorbethan Bangor Castle, County Down dates from c.1847 when commissioned by Robert Edward Ward to replace an earlier house on the same site. There is some disagreement over who might have been the architect responsible, most authorities arguing in favour of William Burn, but both William Walker of Monaghan and Anthony Salvin have also been proposed: Charles Brett proposed that while the original concept was by Walker, Burn designed the main block and Salvin the somewhat different stable wing. Ward had only one child, Matilda who married the fifth Baron Clanmorris. Following her death in 1941, the building and 150 surrounding acres was sold to Bangor Borough Council for £35,000. After making some alterations to the building, including the removal of tall chimney-stacks, the authority moved into Bangor Castle in 1952 and have been there ever since. Last year, however, the council asked a consultancy firm to ‘explore viable options for the future use of Bangor Castle and develop a preferred option.’ A short list of five possible uses of the building was drawn up: a boutique hotel and events centre, a larger hotel and events centre, a creative hub and cultural arts centre, a small business workspace, or a small business workspace and museum. In recent weeks the council has announced its intention to move out of the property to new premises and to find a new purpose for Bangor Castle.



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Towering over the Town



Herewith the old Tower House in Bangor, County Down. Overlooking the harbour, it was built in 1637 by James Hamilton, a Scotsman who had originally arrived in Ireland in 1587 and settled in Dublin where he was one of the first Fellows of Trinity College, founded five years later. Following the accession of fellow-Scot James Stuart to the English throne as James I, Hamilton moved north and established a settlement in County Down, which he represented in the House of Commons until created Viscount Claneboye in 1622. While an abbey had been established in Bangor in the mid-sixth century, the town owes its present existence to Hamilton who made it a borough and encouraged trade. The tower house was constructed to serve as a custom house, Bangor having been granted port status by James I in 1620. In later centuries it had a chequered history but in recent years has served as a tourist information centre (although firmly closed to tourists – and everyone else – when the Irish Aesthete visited in mid-August…)


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In a Disused Graveyard


The living come with grassy tread
To read the gravestones on the hill;
The graveyard draws the living still,
But never any more the dead.




The verses in it say and say:
‘The ones who living come today
To read the stones and go away
Tomorrow dead will come to stay.’

So sure of death the marbles rhyme,
Yet can’t help marking all the time
How no one dead will seem to come.
What is it men are shrinking from?




It would be easy to be clever
And tell the stones: Men hate to die
And have stopped dying now forever.
I think they would believe the lie.

In a Disused Graveyard by Robert Frost
Photographs of St Mary’s church and graveyard, Castlehill, County Down

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Pagan Inspiration


On 6th-7th January 1839 Ireland was struck by what subsequently became known as the Night of the Big Wind. Such was the ferocity of the hurricane-force gales that many buildings throughout the country suffered damage, one of these being the Presbyterian Church in Portaferry, County Down. Originally dating from 1694 but almost entirely rebuilt in 1751, in the aftermath of the storm this structure was left in such a poor state of repair that services could no longer be held there. Accordingly the decision was taken to demolish the older church and erect a new one of the same site. The architect given the task was Belfast-born John Millar, known to have spent time in the office of Thomas Hopper in London before returning to this country. Millar’s brother was a Presbyterian minister, which explains why, between 1829 and 1839, he had been given commissions to design a number of other Presbyterian churches in Ulster. His later life seems to have been blighted by misfortune. According to an entry in the online Dictionary of Irish Architects (www.dia.ie) , after being declared bankrupt in 1854 he went to Australia, then returned home before leaving again for Australia the following year: on this second voyage, his ship was wrecked off the coast. Moving to New Zealand, he was appointed engineer to the town board of Dunedin, dismissed from the post in 1864, reinstated and then dismissed again. That same year he also lost all his possessions when his house was burned down. He died in 1876, of ‘hepatic disease, dropsy and exhaustion’. The DIA describes him as ‘a man of extravagant claims, exuberant schemes and quixotic behaviour.’  




From the start, the Portico Church won plaudits. In 1842, barely a year after it had opened for services, the local Down Recorder enthused, ‘The style of architecture which Mr Millar has adopted is that which prevailed in Greece during the architectural age of Pericles; its dimensions are sufficiently large to produce an impression of grandeur and sublimity.’ More recently, in 1970 J.S Curl commented that the building ‘would not look out of place in Helsinki or Leningrad [St Petersburg]. Indeed, this marvellous Greek temple is one of the most distinguished Neoclassical buildings in Ulster, and is in the first rank of Neoclassical designs in the whole of the British Isles.’ Various alterations have been made to the building since first constructed, not all of them necessarily beneficial; for example, at some date in the early 20th century, probably owing a problem with damp, the exterior was painted. Also in the last century, coloured glass was introduced into the windows, thereby disrupting the purity of the interior’s light. Clearly the local congregation in the 1840s must have been substantial, given the scale of the church (its predecessor seemingly had 90 seats in the aisle and another 14 in a gallery). However, in more recent decades the number attending services declined sharply and in consequence the building began to suffer from neglect. Happily in 2015 responsibility for the church was taken on by a charity, ‘Portico Ards’, which then raised £1.6 million for its complete restoration (thanks to support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and over 30 other grant raiders). While it continues to serve its original purpose on Sunday mornings, holding services for members of the Presbyterian faith, today the building also functions as an arts and heritage centre, hosting a wide variety of cultural activities.
Built at a cost of £1,999 and formally opened by Rev. Henry Cooke in September 1841, Portaferry’s Portico Church, as it’s known, is a building of very distinctive and rather unexpected character. Many of Millar’s designs for other Presbyterian communities had been classical in style, but this is something else again. The primary source of inspiration was the Temple of Nemesis, built c.460-420 BC in Rhamnous, an ancient Greek city on the north-eastern coast of Attica. The church’s north-west and south-east pedimented facades are almost identical, the former providing the main entrance to the interior via steps that lead into a porch set between the Doric columns, derived from those of the Temple of Apollo at Delos.  Six monumental columns, tapered and showing entasis, rest on top of the ground floor and rise unfluted to the entablature which encircles the structure. Clearly not based on ancient models but meeting the requirements of the congregation, the building’s glazed enclosures accommodate a vestibule for the gallery at one end and an organ chamber at the other. The church’s base takes the form of a battered podium. On the south-east side, the two outermost columns rest on battered corners bases separate from the main support; the open portion thus created by these separate bases permits access to smaller doorways into the building. Also on this side and set between the two central columns is what appears to be a miniature temple: inside this accommodates a staircase allowing the minister taking services to ascend to the pulpit. 




From the start, the Portico Church won plaudits. In 1842, barely a year after it had opened for services, the local Down Recorder enthused, ‘The style of architecture which Mr Millar has adopted is that which prevailed in Greece during the architectural age of Pericles; its dimensions are sufficiently large to produce an impression of grandeur and sublimity.’ More recently, in 1970 J.S Curl commented that the building ‘would not look out of place in Helsinki or Leningrad [St Petersburg]. Indeed, this marvellous Greek temple is one of the most distinguished Neoclassical buildings in Ulster, and is in the first rank of Neoclassical designs in the whole of the British Isles.’ Various alterations have been made to the building since first constructed, not all of them necessarily beneficial; for example, at some date in the early 20th century, probably owing a problem with damp, the exterior was painted. Also in the last century, coloured glass was introduced into the windows, thereby disrupting the purity of the interior’s light and the first organ installed. Clearly the local congregation in the 1840s must have been substantial, given the scale of the church (its predecessor seemingly had 90 seats in the aisle and another 14 in a gallery). However, in more recent decades the number attending services declined sharply and in consequence the building began to suffer from neglect. Happily in 2015 responsibility for the church was taken on by a charity, ‘Portico Ards’, which then raised £1.6 million for its complete restoration (thanks to support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and over 30 other grant raiders). While it continues to serve its original purpose on Sunday mornings, holding services for members of the Presbyterian faith, today the building also functions as an arts and heritage centre, hosting a wide variety of cultural activities and thereby ensuring that it has a viable future.  

Well Fort



Hillsborough Fort, County Down has been considered here before (see Hillsborough Fort « The Irish Aesthete) but on that occasion the Irish Aesthete was unable to gain access to the building at its centre. Completed c.1650 by Colonel Arthur Hill, the little square forthouse was Gothicised just over a century later, perhaps to the designs of Christopher Myers and, having been a place of defence became instead a place of delight, used for entertainments. Inside, the ground floor consists of a narrow entrance hall with vaulted ceiling, doors to front and rear, and a number of small rooms on either side. A staircase in one of the flanking towers leads upstairs to a great chamber occupying the entire space, lit by three arched windows and with a high flat roof. At the moment, the building sits empty but there plans are afoot for its restoration and reuse.