Scarvagh House, 31 Old Mill Road, Scarva, CRAIGAVON, Co. Down, BT63 6NL

Scarvagh House

Scarvagh House is a fine early 18th-century country house set in extensive private grounds to the south of Scarva village, County Down. Built approximately between 1720 and 1739, most likely around 1717 by Myles Reilly (though some sources suggest c.1740 by his son John Reilly), it is an asymmetrical two-storey, multi-bay house of considerable architectural and historical interest. The house is arranged in a U-shape around a large forecourt and is notable for its late Baroque decorative elements — Dutch gables, open scroll pediments, and cusped Gothic details — alongside early 19th-century Romantic Gothic Revival additions that are unusual in the Northern Ireland context. The main historic fabric remains largely intact, and the house retains strong associations with the Williamite tradition in Ireland, being the long-established setting for the annual Scarva 'sham fight'.

Architectural Overview

The plan comprises a double-pile central three-bay block, flanked by perpendicular east and west wings, with a two-storey extension to the rear west. Walling is cement-rendered throughout, except where noted otherwise, with a moulded string course between floors on the principal elevations. The roofs are hipped and pitched, finished in natural slate with leaded hips and ridges to the central block and ridge tiles to the wings. Chimneystacks are replacement red brick with decorative brick detailing. Profiled cast-iron gutters sit on a fascia, with exposed rafter tails visible to the wings only.

Windows are generally timber sliding sash, with timber casement replacements to the east wing's principal elevation. Windows to the central block have label mouldings; all others have plain reveals. Cills throughout are granite — those to the principal façade are original, while most to the rear are replacements.

Principal (South) Elevation

The principal elevation faces south and is nine openings wide, with a full-height porch projecting from the centre. The porch is decorated with a slender profiled Dutch gable topped by a ball finial. Its corners at ground floor are articulated by columns with heavy entasis set on pedestals, and at first floor by scrolled diagonal buttresses, with string courses between floors and at eaves level. The entrance is a four-centred arched timber door with cusped panelling, set in a chamfered reveal; the cheeks are lit by diminutive segmental-arched latticed stained and painted glass windows.

To either side of the porch are full-height breakfront bays, also with profiled gables, each lit by tall tripartite windows at ground floor surmounted by open scrolled pediments. To the left and right of these are three windows to each floor. To the right, there is a projecting box bay with a quinquepartite window, and at the far right a painted glass Gothic arched window set in a square frame.

Courtyard Elevations

The courtyard-facing elevations of the east and west wings are similar but not identical. The west wing is eight windows wide, with aligned but unevenly spaced openings and an off-centre replacement timber door with square-headed overlight to the left; there is also a Gothic arched plate glass window inserted at the left end at ground floor. The east wing is set at a higher level and is six casement windows wide, with a central entrance set in a brick surround and accessed by granite steps flanked by carved stone urns at the top. At the far right of the east wing at ground floor is an infilled Gothic arched doorway, also accessed by steps.

Each wing terminates at its south end with a crow-stepped parapet. The west wing's south end is lit by a tripartite window to each floor flanked by sidelights, and is pierced with a bellcote; at first floor there is a replacement margin-paned round-arched window.

West and Rear Elevations

The west elevation is abutted by a full-height extension flush with the gable of the east wing. This features a variety of windows on each floor, including several replacements and a fully glazed canted bay insertion with French doors. The extension also has a modern entrance door to the north and a pointed arched window insertion to the west.

The rear elevation is abutted to the right by a two-storey extension, sympathetic in character but of no special interest. To its left are three closely spaced openings on each floor, including a modern timber door with Gothic panelling, a square-headed overlight, and sidelights. Left of centre is a tripartite stained lattice window lighting the stairwell, with a smaller but similarly detailed window at ground floor to the left. The left side has a timber-sheeted loading door in a segmental-arched opening and first-floor windows above.

East Elevation

The east elevation shows the exposed gable of the rear pile of the main block, abutted at the front by a lean-to outbuilding with a chamfered corner, and to the left by the east elevation of the east wing. The rear gable is of exposed coursed rubble stone with some snecking, red brick quoins, and red brick apex and dressings to openings. There are two slightly staggered first-floor windows, the left one with decorative glazing, and a single ground-floor window whose reveal has been rebuilt in concrete block. The outbuilding itself is plainly detailed.

The east elevation of the east wing is dominated by two large square-headed coach openings with decorative segmental-arched detailing to their heads, infilled with modern timber and glass screen doors; each opening is flanked to the right by a timber entrance door with a decorative triangular pediment. There is a small canted bay window to the left and an additional entrance bay set within a lean-to porch. Otherwise the elevation is lit by small plain casements.

Stables

The only outbuilding of note is a red brick, multi-bay, storey-and-a-half stable block to the east of the house, built in the early to mid 20th century. It has a natural slate roof with corbelled verge and eaves, exposed rafter feet, and a chamfered brick string course at first-floor level on the front and side elevations.

The south-west-facing front elevation has six square-headed timber-sheeted half doors, each surmounted by a natural slate-roofed lean-to canopy supported on cast-iron brackets, and flanked by segmental-arched fixed-pane timber windows (the far right opening flanked to the left only; the far left opening is louvred). Gabled end bays each contain a single 4/2 timber casement window at first floor. The south-east elevation is blank. The north-west elevation is abutted by steps rising to the rear with a half-landing; the exposed section is blank. The north-east rear elevation has six diminutive square-headed timber-sheeted doors at ground floor and a square-headed timber-sheeted door within a pitched-roof wall-headed dormer at first floor right, accessed by a modern cantilevered steel walkway. Internally the stable block is divided into stalls by masonry walls; the loft was not viewed.

Setting

The house overlooks an expanse of farmland to the south and east, with woodland to the west. The forecourt to the south is finished with tarmac and a shrub perimeter. The 'Dane's Cast' ancient earthwork runs on a north-east/south-west axis to the north of the house. The house is accessed via a tarmac drive from the north, passing through the listed gatescreen, and the historic main entrance is reached via a tree-lined avenue to the west. The north entrance leads to an extensive stud farm immediately to the north-east, comprising stables and modern buildings ranging in date from the early 20th century to the present. There is alternative access at the eastern boundary of the site, with a concrete pillbox adjacent, outside the listing boundary.

Historical Background

Scarvagh House was built in the early to mid 18th century and has undergone several phases of addition and alteration since. It was built by the Reilly family, a branch of the ancient House of O'Reilly, Prince of Breffni, who had dropped the 'O' prefix by the mid 18th century. Local tradition holds that Myles Reilly received his land in recognition of his services to the Williamite army in the 1690s — specifically, as much land as he could walk and plant with acorns in a single day. The house is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, captioned 'Scarva House', with broadly the same plan form as today. An orchard and formal garden are shown to the rear, and the Dane's Cast is also marked. Writing in 1744, Walter Harris described the property as standing "pleasantly on a rising ground near the new canal and Scarvagh Bridge," owned by Mr John Reilly, who was then establishing a village nearby and developing salt works in partnership with others. Scarva village was established by the Reillys by 1746.

The Reilly family continued to develop and improve the property across several generations. John Reilly (1745–1804) served as Chief Commissioner of Public Accounts, Member of Parliament for Blessington, High Sheriff of County Down in 1776, and High Sheriff of County Armagh in 1783. His son John Lushington Reilly (d.1842), High Sheriff of County Down in 1810, is thought to be responsible for much of the house's present appearance. According to the Archaeological Survey of County Down, he added two double-height wings to the original main block in the early 19th century, creating the forecourt arrangement, and carried out Gothic Revival interior alterations within the main block, as well as adding a north-west extension. Between 1834 and 1860, the south façade of the main block was remodelled in a Jacobean style, the porch was added, and the two flanking windows are thought to date from this period. Contemporary internal decoration also took place at this time.

Writing in 1855, Burke suggested that the building was originally stables and offices converted to residential use after plans for a larger associated mansion were abandoned. The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 lists the house as the residence of John Lushington Reilly Esq, valued at £28 11s. Two gatehouses are noted, suggesting the gatescreen was added shortly after the 1834 Ordnance Survey was drawn. Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 lists Scarva House as the home of John T. Reilly, valued at £30 and later raised to £48, indicating further improvements at about that time. Dimensions recorded at this time include the new porch, four two-storey outbuildings, one single-storey outbuilding, and gatehouses.

By the 1901 census, the occupant was John Temple Reilly DL JP, living with his wife, daughter, sister, niece, and three servants. The house had sixteen rooms, twenty outbuildings, and was classified as first class. Subsequent occupants included Sir John Tuthing (spelling unclear) from 1905, and from 1906 Henry Thomson of Henry Thomson & Co, wholesale wine and spirit merchants, and Member of Parliament for Newry from 1880 to 1885. In 1907 the valuation was raised to £60, indicating further improvements, and in 1910 a new drainage system was installed to designs by architect and engineer William Samuel Barber. Henry Thomson died on 30 December 1916 while still resident at the house. A relative, possibly his son Henry B. Thomson, took over in 1926. Before the Second World War the house passed to Alfred Buller, who continued the tradition of opening the grounds each year for the Scarva sham fight. More recent work has included refurbishment of the east and west wings for rental purposes.

During the 19th century, the Dane's Cast earthwork to the north of the house yielded numerous archaeological finds including, as recorded by Knox, "the head and horns of an enormous elk... a gold tiara, brazen swords, spear heads," some of which were preserved at Scarvagh House, in keeping with the then-common practice of private collections of curiosities and artefacts.

The Sham Fight

Scarvagh House is particularly well known as the setting for the annual Scarva 'sham fight', a mock re-enactment of the Battle of the Boyne held on 13 July each year, which forms the centrepiece of a Royal Black Preceptory parade. The tradition draws on a strong local belief that King William III camped under a tree — later enclosed within the Scarva demesne — on his way to the Boyne in 1690. The mock battle, lasting around 30 minutes, concludes when the green standard of King James is cornered and lowered by the red-shirted Williamite 'soldiers'.

The earliest documented reference to the sham fight at Scarva dates from 1835, when evidence given to a House of Commons inquiry into Orangeism stated that by that year the fight had already been taking place "for several years," attracting large crowds and refreshment tents. A detailed account in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1838 describes how the battle, fought in imitation of the Battle of the Boyne, began at the eastern boundary of the parish of Ballymore on the western bank of the Newry Canal, which was crossed in imitation of the crossing of the Boyne, continuing on the eastern bank in County Down. The memoir records that in 1836 more than 5,000 persons assembled and were dispersed by the military, who arrived in great force with six pieces of artillery; in 1837 participants met at two o'clock in the morning and the day passed quietly.

At one time, sham fights commemorating the Battle of the Boyne were held in various towns across Armagh, Down, and beyond — the Newry Telegraph of 28 July 1825 reports the battle being fought that year in the Altnaveagh Hills near Newry, and at Portadown, Markethill, Tandragee, Newtownhamilton, and Poyntzpass. The origins of the custom remain uncertain and may pre-date the foundation of Orangeism. Over time the undisciplined character of the early event has given way to a more symbolic and dignified representation. The tradition of holding the fight within the demesne itself was well established by 1886, and Scarva demesne has hosted the event almost continuously for at least 125 years, when on 13 July the village's 300 residents are joined by tens of thousands of visitors from across Ireland and beyond.