Swimming Pool, Portaferry Road, Mount Stewart, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2RU(?)

The remains of a 1930s kidney-shaped open-air swimming pool are located on the western side of the Portaferry Road, west of the Mount Stewart estate in Newtownards, County Down. The pool itself is now filled in and sits within a low, stepped stone terrace. Remnants of semicircular arched gateways are set into a low, rounded rubble wall to the south and east, though much of the structure is obscured by vegetation. A stone-built pavilion, originally with round-headed doorways in projecting return wings at each end of a colonnaded loggia, stood on the north side of the pool but was removed around 1995. Stone seats, previously located by the pool and featuring carvings of swans amongst rushes, are now housed within the reception building at Mount Stewart.

The pool was constructed between 1937 and 1938 by Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry. A “bathing house” existed on the site as early as the 1780s, with accounts showing expenditure of £259 between 1802 and 1804. A wooden bathing house is depicted on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map, and a boathouse and landing stage were present in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A concrete gun emplacement from World War II overlooks the rocky shoreline to the southwest. A Celtic cross memorial to former household staff is located on the south side of the track leading to the pool. The site is now owned by the National Trust and is recorded as derelict.