Pigeon House, Ballywalter Park, Ballyatwood, Ballywalter, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2PP

Pigeon House, Ballywalter Park

A small single-storey gabled pigeon house set within wooded surroundings at the north-west edge of the Ballywalter Park estate, less than one mile south-west of Ballywalter. The walls are stone-faced and rendered, with an entrance door on the south side and a small opening near the west gable apex. An unusual thin projecting slate course or ledge runs around the building approximately 1.5 metres from ground level. Above the door is a small slate plaque, now partly broken, inscribed 'H.H. 1750' (possibly 1758 or 1759). The gables are finished with kneelers. The building is now roofless, with only a truss and some laths remaining.

The slate plaque indicates this pigeon house dates from the mid-eighteenth century. The land originally formed part of the estate of Ballyatwood House, property of the Hamill family. The initials 'H.H.' refer to Hans Hamill, the then owner of Ballyatwood, mentioned by Walter Harris in his 1744 account. The 1837 Ordnance Survey Memoirs described Ballyatwood House as 'rather small', having 'nothing remarkable in its appearance' and 'old fashioned in style'. Between the writing of the Memoir and 1852, a flax steam mill was constructed just to the west of the house. By around 1875, Alexander Knox noted that the house had been 'formerly in possession of the Hamill family', suggesting it had been abandoned by that time. The estate was purchased in the later nineteenth century by the Mulhollands, who incorporated it into their neighbouring lands at Springvale. Ballyatwood House no longer survives; this pigeon house is all that remains of the estate's former independent existence.