House Keeper Lodgings, Rathmoyle, 40 Craigdarragh Road, Helen's Bay, Co Down, BT19 1UB

House Keeper Lodgings, Rathmoyle

A one-and-a-half storey two-bay house built in 1901 to designs by Vincent Craig as part of the main eclectic-style Rathmoyle estate. The house keeper's lodgings form part of one of the best complete houses of its type in the region, retaining its original setting and demonstrating the work of a prominent local architect.

The building is arranged on an L-plan with attached garages, stores and stable, forming a courtyard to the south-east of Rathmoyle. The courtyard is accessed from the north via a segmental-headed arch with a curvy screen wall above, and is enclosed to the west by a garden wall. The roof is hipped and half-hipped with clay tiles, bargeboards and exposed rafter tails supporting half-round cast-iron gutters, with roughcast chimneystack. A distinctive timber ventilation stack rises from the east ridge, mounted on a tapered tiled base with a curvy pavilion roof, tall finial and weathervane.

The walls are roughcast. Windows throughout are 1/1 horned timber sashes with projecting concrete cills. The north-east entrance elevation is symmetrical with three openings and features a breakfront porch with catslide roof. A garage wing extends to the north with a segmental-headed window and a casement set into a gable. The south-east elevation is abutted by a flat-roofed porch and has two windows to each floor on the right, with stores featuring catslide roofs to the left. A single window at attic level on the south-west elevation overlooks the garden.

The courtyard elevations show two timber-sheeted garage doors on the south-west side beneath a canopy, and further garage doors on the north-west elevation, accompanied by a stable door with transom light and a loading door set into a gable. A kitchen window is set into a diagonal bay to the angle. The north-west elevation has a loading door flanked by small sashes.

The house bears a date stone of 1901 and appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1900-02. It was designed by Vincent Craig, elder brother of Lord Craigavon, for himself. Valuation records from 1902 describe it as comprising a house, offices, gate lodge and land valued at £143 15 shillings, with construction costs estimated at about £5,000. Craig occupied the property while leasing from the Marquis of Dufferin. He moved to England in 1911 and sold to Herbert Brown, a Belfast linen merchant, who occupied it by 1913. Brown subsequently sold to the Mitchell family in 1927. By 1933, William Charles Mitchell was listed as occupier, with accommodation comprising thirteen bedrooms, three reception rooms, a kitchen, scullery, two pantries and two bathrooms. The house was let to Captain Sam Duffin from 1933 until 1947, after which it was acquired by owners who have continuously used it to accommodate overseas visitors, for hospitality, training and conferences while retaining its domestic character and period furnishings. The house was refurbished and redecorated in 1993 under the supervision of Michael Priest of London.