St Columbanus, 57 Craigdarragh Road, Helens Bay, Bangor, Co Down, BT19 1UB

St Columbanus is a two-storey-over-basement detached Italianate stucco house, built around 1850 in the style of Charles Lanyon, and situated on a lawned slope overlooking Belfast Lough on the northern outskirts of Helens Bay. If not designed by Lanyon himself, it is so heavily influenced by his work that it stands as a building of genuine architectural importance and merit. Historical sources suggest it may have been largely the work of Lanyon's assistant Thomas Turner, who worked with him during the 1840s and early 1850s.

The house is rectangular in plan with a projecting single-storey porch to the front. Two later extensions adjoin the original building: a three-storey wing to the east dating from the 1950s and a large three- to four-storey extension to the north-east added in the 1990s. Together these form an L-shape and are considered to be of no architectural interest. Both detract from the symmetry of the original design.

The roof is hipped and covered in natural slate. Rendered chimneystacks have corbelled plinths and tall decorative clay pots. Cast-iron rainwater goods are carried on overhanging corbelled eaves. The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render with raised quoins and a moulded plinth. Decorative detailing is exceptionally rich: there is a floriated frieze and a dentilled cornice with raised and moulded metopes between corbels, and a raised and moulded panel sits between a continuous sill at first-floor level and a moulded string-course below.

Most windows are currently boarded. Those remaining at first-floor level are six-over-six timber-framed sliding sash windows. All windows are aediculated. At first-floor level they have projecting moulded cornices; at ground-floor level they feature ovolo moulded corniced canopies on scrolled console brackets and corbelled sills, some with scrolled lugs.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged. It is dominated by a large central Doric porch, with a single window opening to either side. Above the porch is a wide window flanked by two narrower ones, divided by narrow strips decorated with overlapping paterae, and a single opening to either side mirrors the arrangement at ground-floor level. The porch itself has paired Doric pilasters to the left and right of segmental-headed slender windows. The central doorway has a fanlight set in a moulded surround and is flanked by semi-engaged columns on a plinth, raised on a stone step. Both the doorway and the windows have scrolled keyblocks. The entablature is decorated with triglyphs and an ovolo moulded cornice and is surmounted by a pierced balustrade. The left and right cheeks of the porch each contain a window of the same type as those in the main elevation, flanked by pilasters, with corbels to the sill.

The west elevation has a slightly recessed bay to the right with two windows to each floor. Railings enclose steps down to the basement. There are four window openings at basement level. The left bay has a single opening at first-floor level, while at ground-floor level there is an entrance with columns in antis, served by a ramped access with modern railings.

The north elevation is four windows wide. The east elevation is abutted by the 1950s extension.

The house stands in extensive mature grounds, partly open lawn and partly woodland, accessed by a long tree-lined driveway to the south-west. This driveway runs over the railway line, past a gate lodge, and continues to the house. The grounds are mainly intact and the setting is largely unspoilt, with a screen of mature trees concealing the house on the main approach. The North Down Coastal Path runs along the northern boundary of the site. The garden slopes to the north giving access to the coastal path, and agricultural land belonging to a nearby farm lies to the south. The entrance from Craigdarragh Road has a rubble stone boundary wall and round gate piers with pointed caps, with replacement timber gates.

The house was formerly known as Craigdarragh. It first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, described as being in a prime area of coastal land overlooking the sea. The surrounding area is shown as open fields on the first edition map of 1833, and when the house was built around 1850 it provided a substantial residence in spacious grounds for what were, for the most part, wealthy merchants. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 records the house as the residence of George Bowen Hamilton, who leased it from Robert Francis Gordon. It was valued at £100, later raised to £120. The valuer at the time described it as "a very elegant house, stone-fronted and all in excellent repair," and recorded dimensions for a range of structures on the site including the house with its portico and basement, a felt shed, coach house, stable, gatehouse, cowsheds and piggery.

In 1863 the property was taken over by Lord Dufferin and Clandeboye, who leased it from the representatives of Robert J. Kennedy in chancery. Daniel Joseph Jaffe, a linen merchant, lived there briefly from 1872 to 1874. Jaffe was the founder and organiser of Belfast's Jewish congregation and had laid the foundation stone of the synagogue in Great Victoria Street in 1871, shortly before taking up residence at Craigdarragh. His son went on to become Belfast's first Lord Mayor in 1899. In 1874 the house was let again, briefly, to John Patterson, also apparently a linen merchant. A newspaper clipping from 24 May 1879, preserved in the valuation fieldbook for the 1870s, advertises the property as available to let unfurnished, at a rent of £325 per annum, describing it as situated on the County Down shore of Belfast Lough between Craigavad and Clandeboye railway stations.

By 1882 Thomas Workman was in residence, and in 1886 he became the owner. The valuation was raised to £150 that year, with a marginal note recording that part of the farmyard had been built upon. Thomas Workman (1843–1900), of John Workman and Sons, linen merchants, and later one of the founders of Workman Clark shipbuilders, was a keen amateur naturalist with a particular interest in spiders. He collected specimens locally and abroad, and in 1882 had recently returned from Brazil with several examples. He published a list of Irish spiders in The Entomologist, and his major work was Volume I of Malaysian Spiders, which he illustrated himself using specimens from his own collection. Volume II was printed posthumously; Workman died in 1900 from a chill caught while crossing the Rocky Mountains. At least two tropical spider species are named after him. His daughter, Jane Service Workman (1873–1949), became a well-known artist and assisted her father with his spider illustrations. She exhibited at numerous venues including the Paris Salon in 1901 and the Royal Academy in 1903, though she is not represented in any public collections.

The house remained in the Workman family until at least the 1930s. By 1933 it was the property of Major Robert Workman, son of Thomas. The valuation had risen to £205. The valuer described it as "rather old-fashioned" and noted that the main portion was built of sandstone with a slated roof, and that a wing or return was built in red brick and rubble masonry, also slated. The house was said to stand well back from the road approached by a carriage drive, with a good view of the lough, electric light, Helen's Bay water, grazing land, eight acres of pleasure grounds, an electric plant, and one gardener. At this time the accommodation comprised, in the basement: a billiard room, stoke hole, laundry, disused scullery, two disused pantries, washhouse, coal store, disused servants' hall, disused cellar, and disused dairy. On the ground floor: entrance hall, library, drawing room, dining room, still room, two larders, kitchen, servants' hall, bathroom, water closet, pantry, water closet and cloakroom. On the first floor: five bedrooms, two dressing rooms, water closet, store room, two bathrooms with baths, water closet, nursery, sewing room, and a servants' bedroom. On the second floor: five servants' bedrooms, a store room, and two tank rooms.

Major Robert Workman had served in the First World War at Ypres and was a traveller and yachtsman. He was active in public life, serving as Chair of Down County Council, Commodore of the Royal North of Ireland Yacht Club, and President of the Linen Hall Library from 1928 to 1949. During the Second World War, huts were constructed in the grounds of Craigdarragh to house some of the first American troops to arrive in Europe. After Major Workman's death the house was sold to the Sisters of Mercy and converted into a care home for the elderly in 1952. The former stable block to the east was demolished and the new eastern wing added in the 1950s. A further extension was added in the 1980s, abutting the first. The building subsequently fell vacant and was purchased by a developer with the stated intention of restoring it.