Ballooly House, 69 Knockgorm Road, Balloolymore, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 3TE

Ballooly House

Ballooly House is a single-storey Georgian cottage, constructed between 1760 and 1779, that was substantially altered and enlarged around 1850 to create its present T-shaped plan form. It stands off the Knockgorm Road, south of its junction with Gall Bog Road, approximately two miles east of Banbridge, and sits on an elevated terrace screened from public view by trees. The house retains architectural character from both the Georgian and Victorian periods, and much historic fabric survives, though a number of modern alterations detract from its overall historic character.

Architecture and Appearance

The earlier Georgian front range is symmetrical, single-storey, and five-bay in composition, with its principal elevation facing west. The roof is hipped natural slate with overhanging eaves, clay ridge and hip tiles, and cast-iron rainwater goods. The chimneystacks are yellow brick with a dog-tooth course and moulded cornice, and carry tall octagonal clay pots. The walls are finished in ruled-and-lined render with a projected plinth. The windows are large 6/9 timber sliding sash with no horns, plain reveals, and painted masonry cills at floor level. The Georgian fenestration to the earlier single-storey cottage front has survived and is of particular note; the house was formerly thatched.

The front door is a six-panelled raised-and-fielded door with a beaded muntin, embraced by tripartite sidelights with panelled aprons and a large round-headed radial fanlight with margin panes. It is accessed by six stone steps. The central door is flanked by two windows on each side. The left elevation has a single centrally positioned window, and the right elevation similarly has one centrally positioned window.

The rear elevation is largely abutted by an L-shaped two-storey block of matching materials with gable ends, though replacement uPVC windows have been fitted throughout this section. The detailing to the rear is representative of the later Victorian alterations, which are evident throughout the house. A single-storey flat-roofed porch sits in the re-entrant angle of the rear return, with a rubble left cheek wall and built-in masonry steps. The south elevation rises to a gable on the left, with a variety of replacement windows and doors. The east gable abuts a single-storey pitched-roof linear outbuilding that incorporates a timber-framed lean-to conservatory on its south elevation. The blank gables facing the yard have a variety of replacement windows and doors.

Setting and Outbuildings

The site is approached from the west through cast-iron gated piers with associated decorative railings, which are modern. A sweeping tree-lined driveway leads to the front of the house, which overlooks the surrounding rural landscape from its elevated terrace. A large concrete yard to the rear is accessed via a separate entrance and is largely enclosed by single- and two-storey outbuildings and stables, possibly pre-dating 1830, though largely modified. These are roughcast rendered with pitched natural slate roofs and timber sheeted doors. The two-storey outbuilding immediately adjacent to the rear of the house has a small bell cote with bell. Beyond the historic outbuildings are various mono-pitched stables and larger corrugated-iron agricultural units, as well as a large commercial warehouse to the east. Various other historic gates and piers are isolated throughout the site, including a cast-iron water pump located in the middle of the yard. The original setting survives to a great extent.

Historical Background

The house first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, which records the single-storey cottage with a long rear return or adjoining outbuilding, though the two-storey rear extension had not yet been constructed. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1834 record the property as occupied by Roger Magennis, a Roman Catholic landlord and proprietor of the townland, which he let at 42 shillings per acre. The Townland Valuation of around 1830 valued his house at £16 10s.

By the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1859, the current two-storey Victorian block to the rear of the original cottage had been constructed, along with a number of additional outbuildings to the east. The two-storey Victorian extension was built over, and incorporates a portion of, the original single-storey rear return dating from 1833. That earlier fabric constitutes part of the ground floor, while the upper floors are Victorian in style and design. Griffith's Valuation of 1861 records Magennis still in occupation, with the main house valued at £15 and a caretaker's house of unknown location valued at £1 5s.

Roger Magennis continued to reside at Ballooly House until his death around 1873, when his relative Anne Magennis took possession. On Anne Magennis's death in 1882, the farm passed to the diocese and came into the hands of the Reverend William McCartan, parish priest of St Colman's Roman Catholic Church in Dromore. Between 1894 and 1908 three further Roman Catholic priests joined McCartan at the site, and the house appears to have been used as the parochial house for the nearby Church of All Saints on the Ballela Road. The 1901 Census, however, records McCartan as resident at the St Colman's Parochial House on Gallows Street in Dromore, with Ballooly House lying vacant at that time. McCartan died in 1907 and the house appears briefly to have lain unoccupied.

In 1910 Joseph Hale, a butcher based in Dromore, purchased Ballooly House for £1,100. The 1911 Census records the house as occupied by his caretaker Annie Hillan, aged 45, and describes it as a first-class dwelling of twelve rooms with an extensive farm comprising two stables, four cow houses, two piggeries, a boiling house, and two barns in the outbuildings to the east. Hale used the farm to fatten cattle transported from Dublin before slaughtering them at his Dromore butcher's shop, which employed a dozen men. He continued to occupy Ballooly House until at least 1929. During the economic pressures of the Second World War, Hale let the property to tenants to generate income, and at his death in the mid-20th century the house was sold to a Major Gribbens for £28,000. Gribbens was also involved in cattle farming, modernised the farm, and constructed the modern corrugated-iron barns to the east of the farmhouse. In the 1970s Ballooly House was sold to a Mr Radcliffe, and the building was listed in 1977.

The Magennis family connection gives the property particular local and historical significance. Writing in the Dromore Leader in the 1970s, local historian C. J. Robb identified Ballooly House as the residence of the last members of the Gaelic Magennis Clan, who maintained ownership of land in the townlands of Ballooley, Knockgorm, Killaney, and Castlevenon. By 1778 Richard Magennis, likely the father of Roger Magennis, was resident in the townland, and by at least 1786 had erected the single-storey cottage from which the current house evolved. Robb described the house in that period as a one-storey bungalow type with a long back return, a thatched roof, and red brick Elizabethan-style chimneys with French windows. In the prelude to the 1798 Rebellion, Roger Magennis was a member of the Society of United Irishmen and was listed among approximately 200 suspects in the so-called Black Book of the North. He continued to reside at Ballooly after the Rebellion and in the 1840s served as a magistrate for County Down, participating in 1849 in the investigation into the sectarian battle known as the Dolly's Brae Affray. The Magennis Clan is of broader note in County Down as a Gaelic landowning family that managed to retain a hold on their estates through the wars and confiscations of the late 16th and 17th centuries; Anne Magennis, who died in 1882, was the last member of the landowning line. Following her death, McCartan occupied the house but entrusted administration of the Magennis estate to his nephew.