Walled Garden, Rosemount House, Greyabbey, Newtownards, Co Down, BT22 2QA

Walled Garden at Rosemount House, Greyabbey

This is a walled garden of probably 18th century date, of considerable extent, which remains largely intact and forms an important element in the demesne of Rosemount House.

The garden comprises an extensive area of orchard and partly cultivated ground partly enclosed by a tall rubble stone wall of irregular trapezoidal layout. The walls to the north-west and south-east sides are roughly parallel; those to the north-east end are curved and angled, while the south-west side lies open without a wall, although its line is partly marked by a water-course. On the northern side of the garden the western extremity of the wall is abutted by later building development in the town outside the demesne, and then continues intact to the eastern end. On the southern side of the garden the western extremity of the wall stands flush, but after a short distance toward the east there has been some collapse of the masonry; from thereon eastwards the wall is intact but it leans outwards in places and has been buttressed, using both rubble stonework and modern concrete blocks laid flat.

The main entrance is located on the south side, at an intermediate point in line with Rosemount House and its outbuildings: a wide segmental stone and brick archway with stone parapet to top, but missing gates. There is another gateway to the west of this, which appears to be of later insertion, containing a pair of rectangular timber boarded doors; a new derelict door in the wall angled northwards to the north-east of the main entrance; a diagonally boarded rectangular timber door set below a stone flat-arched head, in the wall along the north-east end; and on the north side to the east of the orchard, is a rectangular timber sheeted door set below a stone flat-arched head.

Within the walled area standing just to the north-west of the main entrance is a small gabled brick shed, a derelict wooden shed, and a brick greenhouse, none of any special interest; to the east of the main entrance, standing against the wall, is a rendered single storey lean-to hen-house with corrugated iron roof, of no special interest; in the northernmost corner, part of the inner face of the wall is rendered where a small building formerly stood, now removed. Fences and hedges subdivide the overall ground area into grassed area, orchard, and areas cultivated with trees; there is a flower-bed border along part of the northern side. Within the area to the north-east is a modern tennis-court and a modern swimming pool. The present modest glass-house and adjacent shed are 20th century additions, appearing for the first time on the Ordnance Survey map of 1933.

The walled garden was built as a garden for the Montgomery family of Rosemount (or Grey Abbey House). Its precise date is not known, but it appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834. It was not specifically identified by Walter Harris in 1744 when he referred to an orchard lying between the Cistercian Abbey of Grey Abbey and Rosemount House. Part of that orchard was later contained by the walled garden, which suggests the date of the walled garden sometime between 1744 and 1834, probably dating from the mid-to-late 18th century, that is from at least as early as the 1760s when the present house was built by the second William Montgomery, or possibly as late as the 1780s when Hugh Montgomery was making improvements to the estate.

The walled garden stands within the demesne of Rosemount House, to the north-east of the main house along part of the north-western boundary of the demesne. At the north-eastern end the outer face of the wall overlooks the ruins of Grey Abbey Cistercian abbey. Part of the walled garden lies inside the area of a scheduled monument, the Cistercian abbey of Grey Abbey.