Parkmount, 225 Castlewellan Road, Tullyconnaught, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 3SF

Parkmount House

Parkmount is a privately owned two-storey house with attic, set on a rectangular plan form with full-height bowed bays and a double-pile rear return. The earliest part of the building predates 1830, with substantial Victorian alterations carried out between 1833 and 1859. It sits on the south side of the Castlewellan Road, west of Corbet Milltown, in the townland of Tullyconnaught, with a wooded landscape falling sharply to the River Bann to the south.

Architectural Description

The principal, south-facing elevation is a symmetrical stucco-moulded façade three windows wide. Double-height bowed bays flank the central entrance bay, and the whole is surmounted by a continuous dentilled parapet entablature. The main entrance is framed by a Corinthian portico with a dentilled entablature. The front door is timber with six bolection-moulded raised and fielded panels and brass ironmongery, surmounted by a decorative round-headed cast-iron fanlight (originally from Mount Panther). The roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles concealed behind an eaves cornice and a leaded blocking course, with cast-iron rainwater goods and smooth chimneystacks with replacement capping. Walling is stucco rendered with quoins, and exposed squared coursed rubble masonry is also present. Windows are 1/1 timber sliding sashes with horns; curved sashes serve the bowed bays. Continuous moulded masonry cills run across the bowed bays, with stucco-moulded and red brick surrounds.

The left gable is exposed rubble masonry and brickwork with granite quoins, asymmetrically arranged, with a ground-floor door to the left and a first-floor window directly above. The left cheek is also asymmetrical, with a round-headed window over a reduced-scale ground-floor window to the left, and ground- and first-floor windows to the right.

The rear elevation comprises a full-width double-pile return. The right cheek has single ground- and first-floor windows to the right, with a single-storey early 20th-century lean-to block abutting to the left and a first-floor window above it. The rear right gable has two ground- and first-floor windows — the ground-floor right window has a raised cill — along with a single fixed-pane attic window in the gable head. The central flat-roofed bay has a ground-floor window with raised cill and a round-headed sliding sash window with spoked glazing bars directly above. The left gable has a single central first-floor window with an attic window above; at ground-floor level it is abutted by a single-storey lean-to bay with a door and window, offset to the right with a portion incorporating lattice lights. The right gable is exposed rubble masonry and brickwork, asymmetrically arranged, with a ground- and first-floor window to the right.

Setting and Outbuildings

The gated entrance has smooth rendered squared piers and walls with a projected plinth and two-stage pyramidal caps. A tree-lined driveway with timber fencing and open rural landscape beyond leads to a gravel forecourt. Immediately to the rear are painted rendered single- and double-height outbuildings with slated roofing. Two rear yards are present: the first, closest to the dwelling, is enclosed by historic outbuildings featuring hipped slated roofs, smooth rendered walling, metal-framed glazing, timber-sheeted half doors with strap hinges, and portholes at upper level throughout; this yard is accessed through a segmental arched opening. The second yard is enclosed by rubble masonry walls with brick piers, partially rendered, with a replacement single-storey stable block to the north. Lawns and a rubble masonry garden wall lie to the south of the house, beyond which the wooded landscape falls sharply to the River Bann.

Historical Development

The Mulligan family, of Irish descent, had resided in the townland of Tullyconnaught from the early 18th century. John Mulligan was established there from the early 19th century and is recorded in Piggott's Directory of 1824 as a linen bleacher and merchant. He owned a bleach works on the southern side of the River Bann, directly across from the house. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 shows the northern portion of the dwelling as the earliest built, at that time an L-shaped building captioned "Parkmount" with a single outbuilding to the north-west. The Townland Valuations of the 1830s record Parkmount House as occupied by John Mulligan and valued at £7 6s. According to historian K. Rankin, the rear of the house probably originated as a rectangular two-storey rubble masonry structure with a chimneystack. Mulligan died in 1845, and possession passed to his son Gilbert.

It was Gilbert Mulligan who rebuilt the house between 1833 and 1859, incorporating elements of the original dwelling to the rear and creating the current two-storey, three-bay building. By the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map in 1859, the current southern façade had been constructed, and a number of outbuildings to the north of the dwelling had been erected — including the western outbuilding now connected to the house by an extension, and the outbuilding to the far north. By around 1862, Griffith's Valuation recorded Parkmount House as occupied by Gilbert Mulligan and valued at £35, reflecting the extent of rebuilding and new construction. Gilbert operated an extensive linen business comprising a beetling mill and the original bleach works. By the start of the Annual Revisions in 1864 the valuation had risen further to £45, though the reason for this increase is not recorded. Gilbert Mulligan continued to reside at Parkmount until his death in 1869, after which his widow Martha took possession.

In 1872 occupation of the house and linen factories passed to John Simms, a local landowner and factory owner, who vacated the property in 1889. Simms later resided at Moorlands, where he died in 1911. In 1889 Isaac Bell came into possession of the site; following a successful appeal against its rating, the property's valuation was reduced to £30. The 1901 Census records Bell — then aged 36 and a member of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church — as a farmer residing at Parkmount with his large family. The Census Building Return described Parkmount as a first-class dwelling of 20 rooms, with out offices including a barn, cow house, dairy, piggery, fowl house, boiling house, and a further barn. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902–03 confirms that between 1859 and that date, the extension linking the house to its western outbuilding and the rectangular outbuilding on the north side of the house had been constructed. By 1916, the Annual Revisions noted that all of the outbuildings had been neglected and were only partially in use.

Isaac Bell remained at Parkmount until 1925, when a Mrs. Sarah O'Hagan took over occupancy, residing there until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929. The property continued to be let by the Mulligan family throughout this period. In the mid-to-late 20th century, Parkmount was home to Edward Lamont, a director of the Ballymena linen company Samuel Lamont and Sons Ltd., and Rankin notes that the house continued to be occupied by textile manufacturers until quite recently in its history.

Seventh-Day Adventist Association

Parkmount House holds a significant place in the history of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Ireland. Isaac Bell was a member of the church and provided his home for a national congregational meeting. On 5th July 1891, the first congregation of the church in Ireland was called at Parkmount House, with representatives attending from Banbridge, Tandragee, Clones, Coleraine and Belfast. At that meeting, the following covenant was signed: "We the undersigned, hereby associate ourselves together as a church, taking the name of Seventh-Day Adventists, and covenanting to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."

Parkmount House was listed in 1977 and remains in private residential use.