Glenganagh, 39 Bangor Road, Groomsport, Co Down, BT19 6JF

Glenganagh is an evolved former dower house, originally built in the early 19th century — likely before 1819 and possibly earlier still — for the Dufferin family of Clandeboye. It subsequently grew through substantial Victorian and later Edwardian extensions into a modest country house. The building is set within extensive mature grounds on the shores of Ballyholme, to the west side of Bangor Road, and the listing covers the house and glasshouse together.

ARCHITECTURAL OVERVIEW

The house is U-shaped on plan, comprising an L-shaped main block with its principal front aligned north to south. An extended original return and a later 19th-century extension — now forming the entrance front — are both aligned west to east. There is a single-storey kitchen extension to the north and, to the south, twin ornate cast-iron conservatories with a connecting veranda.

Roofs are pitched and hipped, covered in natural slate with blue-black angled clay ridge tiles. Chimneystacks are roughcast rendered with clustered lozenge-shaped flues grouped in twos, threes and fours, all topped with terracotta pots. Rainwater goods are ogee-section cast iron fixed on drive-in brackets. Bargeboards to the gables are simply profiled, with a finial to the south gable only. Walling throughout is roughcast rendered, with a smooth render platband at first-floor cill level on the original main block.

WINDOWS AND FENESTRATION

Windows fall into two main types. The L-shaped block has a variety of timber sliding sashes, including tripartite 6-over-6 and 6-over-3 lights to the beach-facing elevation. The later 19th-century windows are double-hung casements with four-centred arched heads set within square-headed timber frames, with cast-cement surrounds and label moulds. All windows have projecting masonry cills.

PRINCIPAL ELEVATIONS

The principal, west-facing (beach-facing) elevation is three windows wide at each floor.

The north (kitchen garden) elevation is varied in character. To the right end is a single-storey canted bay window in ashlar sandstone with transom and mullion glazing. A single-storey kitchen extension sits to the right of centre, and a full-height projecting bay at the far left end is linked to it by a single-storey lean-to addition. The kitchen extension has a hipped roof, is lit by an enlarged plate-glass window to the north, and is accessed from the west by a Gothic-panelled timber door with a plain glazed window to its immediate left, all surmounted by a multi-pane metal transom and timber canopy. The elevation is further extended by a two-storey outbuilding, described below.

The rear elevation is complex, comprising a series of late 19th- and early 20th-century extensions, each abutted by outbuildings that enclose a rear courtyard. The courtyard is accessed from the house through a six-panelled timber door opening onto the passage formed between the inner cheeks of the two returns. This passage has smooth rendered walls and a variety of timber casement and sash windows. The yard is entered from the east through a pair of wrought-iron gates and is enclosed by single- and two-storey outbuildings with pitched slate roofs, roughcast walling, timber sash windows and timber sheeted doors.

The south (entrance) elevation comprises the south gable of the original block to the left and the south elevation of the later 19th-century return to the right. The gable has a window at first-floor level and, at ground floor, French doors and an elliptical-arched three-light casement window, each enclosed within an ornate cast-iron conservatory with a raised central lantern. The remainder of this elevation is three openings wide at each floor, arranged around a four-centred-arched timber sheeted entrance door, which is offset to the left of centre and set within a Roman cement Gothic door case with sidelights. A slightly larger cast-iron conservatory counterpart at the right-hand end abuts the rear of an outbuilding, and the two conservatories are connected by an ornate cast-iron canopy supported on cast-iron columns, spanning the entire ground floor.

OUTBUILDINGS

The outbuilding complex to the east of the main dwelling consists of a variety of single- and two-storey structures.

The early garage is a single-storey double-height building with a hipped slate roof, ogee cast-iron rainwater goods, roughcast walling and a multi-pane timber window. The entrance gable retains its original timber sheeted and glazed garage doors. The north elevation has a single window; the south and east elevations are blank.

To the north of the garage is a single-storey outbuilding with a hipped slate roof, half-round cast-iron rainwater goods and roughcast walling. Two timber sheeted doors are positioned symmetrically on the west elevation; the remaining elevations are blank.

To the north of that is a two-storey outbuilding with a half-hipped slate roof, cast-iron rainwater goods, smooth rendered walling with a smooth rendered plinth, 3-over-6 timber sliding sash windows and timber sheeted doors. The west elevation has a single central timber sheeted door at first-floor level above two rectangular ventilation openings. The north and south elevations each have paired window openings at ground-floor level. The east elevation is abutted to the right by a single-storey return; the remainder of the east elevation has a single door opening at ground-floor level with two rectangular ventilation openings above, surmounted by two glazed and louvred openings. Attached to this building is a two-bay single-storey rear return with two timber sheeted doors to the south elevation. Its east elevation abuts the estate wall, its west elevation abuts the two-storey building, and its north elevation abuts a single-storey timber store.

The timber store is a long, single-storey multi-bay mono-pitched structure with a corrugated iron roof. Its west elevation is open-sided with a timber post-and-lintel construction. The east elevation abuts the estate wall and the south elevation abuts a single-storey outbuilding.

WALLED GARDENS AND GARDEN STRUCTURES

The large walled garden to the rear of the dwelling is enclosed by tall stone walls to the north, east and west; the south side is formed by the dwelling and outbuildings. To the north of the walled garden is a further enclosed garden, its south, east and west sides bounded by a tall stone wall and its north side enclosed by a tall hedge.

To the north of the enclosed garden stands a small rustic octagonal timber structure with a timber shingle roof and random log walling. Its entrance elevation has a single glazed and timber sheeted door with a triangular stained-glass overlight set within a timber pediment.

GLASSHOUSE

To the east of the walled garden is a fine late 19th-century glasshouse of fourteen bays, with a pitched timber frame, iron bracing and a full-length ventilation lantern running the entire length of the ridge. The structure is glazed with panes having curved leading edges set in a timber frame, raised on a waist-height rendered plinth wall to the south, east and west elevations; the north elevation has a three-quarter-height rendered wall. The south elevation has an off-centre pitched entrance bay with a half-glazed timber panelled door.

Internally, the glasshouse is divided into two sections by a glazed and timber screen incorporating a half-glazed timber panelled door. A central aisle runs the full length of the building, with a raised bed along the south side and raised benching along the north. A sunken pit opposite the entrance door is filled with water, and the original mechanism for opening the high-level ventilation windows remains intact.

SETTING

The house is set within extensive mature grounds accessed via a winding gravel lane from the south-east. The formal lawn to the west is open to Ballyholme beach. The grounds are planted with native woodland species and wild flowers. Two walled kitchen gardens lie to the north, one still active and one given over to lawn, each enclosed by a rubble stone boundary wall. A small group of 20th-century outbuildings to the east has half-hipped slate roofs, smooth rendered walling and timber sheeted openings.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The name 'Glenganagh' appears, captioned, on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, though architectural historian C.E.B. Brett considered the house was probably at least fifteen years earlier, perhaps more. The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 lists it as the residence of Lady Dufferin, with the house and offices valued at £25 6s. Dimensions recorded at that time cover a house, porch, three returns, two passages, three outbuildings and a porter's lodge.

Lady Dufferin was Anna Dorothea, daughter of John Foster, Lord Oriel, and widow of Sir James Blackwood, who had inherited the estates of Dufferin and Clandeboye in 1808. She is thought to have moved to Glenganagh shortly after his death in 1836, and she lived there until her own death in 1865 at the age of 93. She was a noted gardener; Lord Dufferin's rent books record an expenditure of £31 7s 9d on her garden in 1865–6.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 the house had risen in value to £38, indicating that improvements had taken place, and the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 shows the house considerably extended with a courtyard formed to the rear.

In 1871 the house became the property of Andrew Cowan, a Justice of the Peace, barrister and Director of the Belfast Royal Botanic and Horticultural Company, who had previously lived at Ballylintogh House near Hillsborough. In 1880 the house passed to Samuel Kingan, and by 1882 the valuation had risen to £60 5s, increasing further to £65 5s in 1883. A gate lodge, designed by architect James Hanna, was added in 1882. The contemporary writer Lyttle observed that Kingan "has expended vast sums in ornamenting and beautifying the place, since he became the proprietor of the townlands of Ballyholme and Ballycormick. The vineries, fernery &c are constructed and heated on the most improved principles." The Ordnance Survey map of 1900–02 shows considerable further expansion of the outbuildings to the rear.

Samuel Kingan was a successful businessman who, with his brothers Thomas and John, had opened a meat-packing plant in Belfast in 1845. The firm prospered selling pork products to the British Navy, and in 1851 and 1853 they opened plants in Brooklyn, New York and Cincinnati, Ohio respectively. After both plants were destroyed by fire, a third plant was opened in Indianapolis in 1862. In 1875 the firm merged with another Belfast firm, J & T Sinclair. Many of their workers were Irish, some recruited in Ireland; an 1893 advertisement for 'Kingan & Co, Pork Packers' appears in the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis, depicting their factory in that city.

On Samuel Kingan's death in 1911 the house passed to his sons William and Thomas, and the Annual Revision records show a large rise in valuation in 1916 to £110. Brett, who was a relative of the Kingan family, records that family history attributes the major alterations of this period to the brothers' energetic sister Elsie. According to Brett: "the inner and outer hall and dining-room were panelled in the Edwardian manner, a canted stone bay window in Jacobean style was added to the dining-room, and a large new panelled and top-lit square stairwell and staircase inserted at the centre of the house, with a gallery round the upper level serving the bedrooms." These alterations were carried out under the supervision of James Hanna, the same architect who had designed the gate lodge some years earlier. Brett notes that it is unclear whether the massive cut-stone archway dividing the inner from the outer hall was also Hanna's work or is earlier in date, and that Hanna appears to have made no material changes to the exterior.

The house retains group value with its gate lodge and gate screen, as well as Glen Cottage, and has connections with nearby Islet Hill Farm. It remains in use as a private residence.