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

Rosemount House (also known as Grey Abbey House) is an unusual, compact Palladian mansion of the 1760s, rendered throughout and covered by a hipped roof. It is one of the more distinctive country houses in County Down, comparable in its mixing of Palladian and Gothick elements to the contemporary Castle Ward. The house stands within its own demesne to the south-east of Greyabbey village, on or near the site of an earlier house of perhaps around 1700, which itself replaced a defended house of 1634 that was destroyed by fire in 1695.

The entire building is finished in plain render with chamfered quoins to most corners. The main roof carries large rendered chimney stacks.

OVERALL COMPOSITION

The central main section of the house is three storeys, hipped-roofed, with a decorative balustraded parapet and a cornice with modillions. To either side — north-west and south-east — are two wings, each with rounded ends, hipped roofs and parapets matching those of the central block. Projecting diagonally from each of these wings are single-storey, flat-roofed porches. On the south-west (entrance) front, the ground floor of each two-storey wing sits flush with the main façade, while the upper floor is set back. The original position of the main entrance is uncertain; the house is currently entered through one of the two diagonal side porches.

SOUTH-WEST (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION

The south-west elevation of the central three-storey block has six sash windows with Georgian glazing bars to each floor. Those on the ground and first floors have partly fluted pilaster surrounds, an entablature and a cornice; the smaller windows on the second floor have plainer surrounds. The windows reduce in height at each successive floor. A cill course runs at first-floor level. The south-west façades of the two-storey side wings each have a single window to each floor, similarly detailed.

The diagonal porch projections have matching windows on their south-west elevations. Timber panelled double doors — with surrounds similar to the ground-floor windows of the main south-west façade — open from the south face of the south-east porch and the west face of the north-west porch. At the corners of each porch are engaged Doric or Tuscan columns supporting an entablature with a modillioned cornice.

The ground level immediately to the north of the north-west porch slopes away to expose a section of the basement, so that the porch reads as a visual bridge over this change in level when seen from the north. The north face of this porch is entirely plain and appears to have been rebuilt, possibly quite recently.

The rounded end of the south-east side wing has a tripartite sash window to the first floor with a simple surround, and evidence of a now-blocked Venetian window at ground-floor level. The north-west end of the other side wing similarly shows evidence of a former Venetian window at ground-floor level, along with a further blocked window opening at first-floor level.

NORTH-EAST (REAR) ELEVATION

The rear elevation of the central three-storey block has a central, broad, full-height canted bay with a hipped roof and a decorative balustraded parapet matching the rest of the building. The ground-floor faces of this bay have Gothick ogee window openings with narrow decorative surrounds and sash frames — an arrangement comparable to Castle Ward. The first and second floors of the bay, and the remainder of the rear façade, have windows matching those on the south-west elevation. A cill course runs at first-floor level.

The north-east façade of the north-west side wing has a single window to each floor as on the front, though unlike the front elevation, the ground floor of this façade does not sit flush with the main central block.

Attached to the ground floor of the north-east façade of the south-east side wing is a relatively plain single-storey extension of the 1890s, with a tall plain parapet, a hipped roof, and a three-sided bay on its north-east elevation. The first floor of the south-east wing rises set back and above this extension. Built into this façade, and rising out from the decorative balustrade, is a tall chimney stack bearing a decorative moulded plaque inscribed with the date 1895.

HISTORY

Rosemount was built in the 1760s by William Montgomery, whose father — also named William — had acquired the estate from a kinsman in 1718, that kinsman himself being a descendant of Viscount Montgomery. The house was constructed on the site of an earlier dwelling of perhaps around 1700, which had replaced a seventeenth-century manor house — probably located where the stable block now stands — accidentally burned down in 1695.

The architect remains unknown. James Boswell, who visited Rosemount in the summer of 1769, described it as "an excellent house of Mr. Montgomery's own planning", suggesting that the owner may have had a significant input into the design.

Alterations were carried out in the 1840s, apparently including the construction of the diagonally placed porches and the addition of the balustraded parapets. The two side wings may also have been reduced in height at this stage: an anonymous oil painting showing the house around 1780 suggests they may originally have been slightly taller. The rounded ends to the wings may likewise date from the 1840s. Whatever the full extent of these alterations, they were probably carried out to designs by the architect James Sands, who was paid £2,580 in December 1846 for "sundry works proposed to be done at Greyabbey House." The single-storey extension at the eastern corner of the house was added in 1895 and was originally built primarily as a smoking room.

SETTING

The house stands in its own demesne to the south-east of Greyabbey village. The demesne comprises parkland with mature trees and woodland, with some ornamental planting to the east and west of the north front of the house, and an extensive lawn to the south entrance front served by a sweeping carriage drive.

Immediately to the north stands a group of outbuildings, with a walled garden to their north-west. In the parkland to the north and east stands a well house. Beyond the garden to the north and east is a ha-ha comprising a sunken drive with stone revetments and a footbridge. To the east of the house, standing in the garden, is a stone sundial pedestal of around 1830, now missing its dial and of no special interest.

To the south-west of the house, near the estate boundary, is a mound and enclosure identified by the Ordnance Survey as a rath, surrounded by trees, with a 19th-century stone and brick lime kiln of no special interest built into its eastern side.

The estate has two sets of entrance gateways, each with an associated gate lodge: the Abbey Gate Lodge to the north of the main house, and the Front Gate Lodge to the west. To the south-west of the main house, south of the main driveway, stands Rosemount Cottage, formerly an early 19th-century gate lodge, rebuilt as a larger single-storey house in 2003 and of no special interest.