Castle Espie House, 72 Ballydrain Road, Castle Espie, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 5ST

Castle Espie House is a fine, large two-storey residence built around 1870–75 as the manager's house for the nearby Castle Espie brick works. It is constructed, quite appropriately, from Castle Espie brick. The house sits within its own grounds to the north of Ballydrain Road, approximately two miles south-west of Comber. Its style is vaguely Regency in character, though the front façade is asymmetrical rather than formally balanced. The entire exterior is finished in unpainted lined render, with a plain projecting course running between ground and first floor level on all sides. The roof is hipped with an overhang and is covered in natural slates. Three rendered chimney stacks carry tall decorative pots, and metal rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

The front (east) façade has at its centre a large elliptical arched recess containing the panelled entrance door, which is flanked by plain sidelights and topped by an elliptical fanlight. The recess is framed by plain moulded pilasters and an archivolt with keystone. To the left of the entrance rises a full-height canted bay with a hipped roof; each face of the bay contains a sash window on each floor, with the slightly larger window to the broader west face having vertical glazing bars in a two-panes-over-two arrangement. To the right of the entrance is a large tripartite sash window with a two-over-two arrangement to the central light. At first floor level, the centre and right of this façade have two sash windows with vertical glazing bars, also two over two. The east and south façades have in-and-out quoins at ground floor level.

The south façade is arranged in two bays, with the centre and right section projecting. At ground floor level on the left is a large tripartite sash window matching those on the front. To the far left are a pair of French doors, which appear to be a fairly recent insertion — it is possible a window originally occupied this position. On the first floor, the left has a sash window matching those on the front elevation, and at the centre is a tall stairwell window with a semicircular head and a sash frame with margin panes.

The north façade has a large tripartite sash window to the right at ground floor level, with a matching first floor window directly above. At the far right (west) edge of this façade, the house is abutted by a single-storey section that merges with a line of outbuildings to the north; the short west face of this section contains a doorway leading into the house proper.

The west façade is also in two bays, with the centre and right section projecting. On both floors, to the left of centre, there is a sash window with a semicircular head.

To the north of the house is an enclosed yard with outbuildings on the north and west sides and a high wall fitted with timber electrically operated gates. The outbuilding on the west side is single storey with a gabled and hipped roof and a roughcast façade; its west face has small windows and its east face has three doorways. The outbuilding on the north side is largely two storey with a hipped roof; its south face has two stable doors and a sash window, with a loft door at the upper level. A small gabled bird house is also attached to this south face. To the west of the house, the front drive is approached through low wrought iron gates with decorative cast iron posts.

The history of the Castle Espie site is a long one. Limestone quarrying had been carried out on a small scale here since at least the 17th century. By 1740 activity had largely ceased due to lack of demand, but by 1834 the Ordnance Survey Memoirs recorded extensive limestone quarries whose stone was principally sent to towns around the shores of Strangford Lough, and by 1837 Samuel Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of Ireland reported the quarries were extensively worked. At that time much of the land at Castle Espie belonged to the See of Down, which in 1802 had leased it to a Mr Henry Waring Knox. Waring Knox appears to have sub-let the quarry lands to a local farmer named McKee. Around 1850, most of Waring Knox's lands in the area were purchased by Samuel Murland, a prominent linen merchant from Castlewellan (Annsborough). Murland did not acquire the land on which the quarries actually stood, as this remained the subject of a suit in the Court of Chancery until 1864. Once that suit was settled, the land was acquired by Samuel's son Robert, who began large-scale production of lime for agricultural purposes in 1865, installing new kilns and building the present pier. To make use of the large quantities of clay extracted during quarrying, Robert also installed new Hoffman kilns from Germany, capable of both burning lime and firing brick. Robert Murland died in 1867 at only thirty years of age, before the business was fully established. The Castle Espie works were then taken over by his father, who ran them with his nephew Charles Murland and his son-in-law John Fenton. They purchased two vessels, the Jessie Ray and the Woodland (possibly the Woodlawn), and began shipping burnt lime and bricks throughout Strangford. A description of the Castle Espie site in 1874 noted that what had previously been a bare beach had been transformed into a hive of industry employing nearly two hundred people. In addition to lime, the works produced one hundred thousand bricks per year, tiles, and unglazed and half-glazed crockery including bowls, jugs, teapots and flower pots; a small quantity of fully glazed ornamental wares was also made. A terrace of workers' houses known as the Red Row was built on the site. Despite its apparent prosperity, the production techniques were costly and Samuel Murland appears to have heavily subsidised the enterprise from his own resources. When he died in 1878, the driving force behind the whole scheme was lost, and the works closed in 1879. Though offered for sale in 1885 — at which point the plant was stated to be capable of producing twelve thousand tons of lime per annum and twenty-four thousand bricks daily, a sharp rise in brick output since 1874 — the works were never reopened, except for a small quantity of lime burned by a local man named Petticrew. In 1885 the site was bought by the Craig family, who sold it in 1912 to William Dickson, a local man whose family had owned the neighbouring Quarry Farm since at least 1724. Dickson used the land for grazing and the buildings for livestock and farm produce. In 1966 the Quarry Farm and the former works lands were sold by Mr Dickson's daughter-in-law to a Mr McCleery, who built a small runway for light aircraft and in doing so cleared away the kilns and the workers' houses. McCleery sold the lands in 1978 to Paddy Mackie, who landscaped the former quarry holes into freshwater lakes and introduced waterfowl. Today, largely through Mr Mackie's efforts, Castle Espie is a thriving conservation centre providing habitat for over eighty species of wildfowl. Castle Espie House was built as the works manager's residence within this industrial and agricultural landscape, and remains in private use as a house.