Ormiston, Hawthornden Road, Belfast, County Antrim, BT4 3JW

Ormiston is a detached, asymmetrical, multi-bay, two-storey house with an attic over a concealed basement, built in the Scots-Baronial style and dated to 1865–66, with the date 1867 recorded on the building itself. It was designed by David Bryce (1803–1876), an Edinburgh-based architect also responsible for several prominent insurance company offices in Dublin during the 1860s, including the Standard Life Assurance Company building on O'Connell Street, the Life Association of Scotland building on Dame Street, and the North British and Mercantile Company building on College Green. Ormiston is considered one of the earliest and most accomplished examples of the Scots-Baronial style in Ulster, and was probably the most extravagant residential development in East Belfast during the mid to late 19th century. The house was built of imported Scottish Giffnock sandstone on land originally owned by Thomas McClure of Belmont House.

The mansion was originally built for James Combe, a Scottish-born local magistrate, linen manufacturer, and owner of Combe & Co., an iron foundry on the Falls Road. Prior to moving to Ormiston, Combe had lived on Ardmoulin Place near his foundry. He named the house Ormiston in memory of his mother's birthplace at Orbiston in Scotland. The Scots-Baronial style had become fashionable across the United Kingdom following the reconstruction of Balmoral Castle in that style between 1852 and 1856. The total rateable value of the house and its outbuildings was assessed at £284 in the 1860s. James Combe lived at Ormiston until his death in 1875, after which his widow remained there until around 1880.

The house then passed to Edward James Harland (1831–1895), born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, who had trained under Robert Stephenson & Co. in Newcastle-upon-Tyne before coming to Belfast in 1854 to manage Robert Hickson's shipyard on Queen's Island. He purchased the yard outright in 1859 and, together with his German business partner Gustav W. Wolff, founded Harland & Wolff in 1861. Harland served as Chairman of the Belfast Harbour Commission from 1875 to 1886, was knighted and granted a baronetcy in 1885, served as Mayor of Belfast in 1885–86, and was elected Member of Parliament for North Belfast from 1889 until his death in 1895. Harland vacated Ormiston by around 1890.

The next occupant was William J. Pirrie (1847–1924), born in Quebec and educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution. Pirrie was apprenticed to Harland & Wolff in 1862, became a partner in 1874, and succeeded Harland as Chairman of the firm following Harland's death in 1895. Under his direction the company greatly expanded and constructed ambitious luxury liners including the RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic. Pirrie served as Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1896, was knighted in 1908, created Viscount Pirrie in 1921, and following the Partition of Ireland was elected to the Northern Ireland Senate. Upon taking possession of Ormiston around 1890, Pirrie carried out alterations in 1896–97, including the installation of a timber-built ballroom to the rear of the house, the addition of new outbuildings to the east of the mansion, and the construction of glasshouses to the south-east of the estate's formal garden. The 1894–96 Ordnance Survey map of Belfast shows Ormiston in its current irregular layout, indicating that no major structural additions have been made to the building since Pirrie's late 19th-century alterations. The 1901 census described Ormiston as a first-class dwelling with 41 rooms and a large number of out-offices including four stables, two coach houses, a store, a laundry, and a forge, most of which were located in the south-eastern stable block. Pirrie also occupied dwellings in England but was buried in Belfast on his death in 1924. Although Pirrie was the principal occupant, by the 1920s Ormiston was owned by Harland & Wolff and partially occupied by several of the yard's company directors, including George Cuming, recorded as occupant in 1918.

In 1927 Harland & Wolff sold Ormiston to Campbell College, which converted it into a junior school and boarding house. During the Second World War, when Campbell College was requisitioned as a military hospital, Ormiston was used as quarters for the hospital nurses. In the mid-20th century the southern half of the grounds was sold off for housing development. By the end of the Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956–72) the rateable value of the building stood at £800. Ormiston continued to serve as a school and boarding facility for Campbell College until the 1970s, when the college could no longer afford its upkeep. In 1974 the house was sold to raise funds for a new college building, was listed in the same year, and was subsequently acquired by the government and converted into office premises. The final occupants were the Police Authority, who used the building until 1996, after which it fell vacant. At the time of the most recent survey the building had fallen into disrepair, with its original windows removed and most openings boarded over. Ormiston was added to the Buildings at Risk (NI) Register, but was purchased by a new owner in 2015 and is currently being restored.

The house is irregular in plan, facing north, with two two-storey wings to the east. The roofs are steeply pitched in natural slate with roll-moulded ridge tiles and several sandstone ashlar chimneystacks with splayed capstones and clay pots. The roofline sits behind slightly raised gables with stone coping and crow-stepped gables throughout. The principal entrance gable carries a decorative wrought-iron rail to the ridge and a cartouche with a lion statue at the apex of the gable. Decorative wall-head dormers have carved gables. Cast-iron guttering runs to a moulded eaves course, with decorative box hoppers bearing the raised lettering "JC 1867" and square-profile downpipes. The walling is uncoursed tooled squared sandstone ashlar with moulded trim to a flush plinth course. Window openings are square-headed with chamfered surrounds and flush sills; most are boarded up, with the original timber sash windows surviving behind the boards.

The north front elevation is composed of a central block with a clasping crenellated tower at the south-west corner, an advanced gabled three-storey entrance bay, a recessed two-bay west wing to the right, and a linear lower two-storey east wing to the left. The central block has a decorative bartisan at the left corner with a fish-scale slate conical roof, a lead finial, and diminutive square-headed window openings. The entrance gable features a corbelled-out three-sided canted oriel window with a stone roof embellished with ancons to the square-headed window openings and a carved head and arms to the base. A compound cable moulding corbelling spans the entire gable and continues at a lower level across the remainder of the block, interspersed throughout with stone cannon tips. A square stone plaque bears the raised lettering "TRUTH / WILL / PREVAIL". The principal entrance is square-headed with an elaborate carved stone doorcase consisting of an architrave surround flanked by oversized stone newels supporting a stepped lintel with circular plaques to either side, a central rectangular panel with raised lettering and the monogram "MLJ" and "AN.DOM.1867", surmounted by a diminutive scalloped pediment. Double-leaf rustic sheeted timber doors with iron furniture open onto a stone platform and two steps enclosed by a swept stone balustrade, that to the right carrying a cast-iron lamp. A single bay to either side of the central block is flanked by two-storey crow-stepped gables, and the lower two-storey wing to the left has 6/6 timber sash windows to the first floor.

The east elevation to the east wing comprises a two-storey crow-stepped gable to the right and a single-storey wing to the remainder. The south elevation to the east wing is single-storey with a crow-stepped gable at either end.

The main south elevation comprises a recessed three-bay two-storey block to the right and an advanced three-bay two-storey block to the left, with a two-storey bowed rear entrance bay in the re-entrant angle, which has a conical slate roof with a lead ball finial. Both blocks have wall-head dormer windows with tall pediments embellished with carved panels and decorative stone finials. The entrance tower has a tripartite transomed-and-mullioned sandstone window and a square-headed door opening flanked by sidelights, opening onto a paved area with steps to the rear lawn. The advanced block has a further crow-stepped gable to the left, surmounted by a thistle and wreath finial, with two tripartite ground-floor window openings, that to the left having a flight of stone steps leading to the west lawn. Two stone plaques on this elevation carry the raised lettering "DO / RIGHT / AND / TRUST / IN GOD" and "HE THAT / THOLES / OVERCOMES".

The west elevation is symmetrical with three bays, a central advanced gabled bay with a crow-stepped gable and finial, and a further wall-head dormer to either side. The gable has tripartite window openings at each level, with canted sides at ground-floor level, and the upper floor is corbelled out.

The interior features a finely detailed scheme of ornate plasterwork.

The house stands on a large mature site to the south of Hawthornden Way and to the west of Hawthornden Road, surrounded by suburban housing and accessed via a long tarmac avenue off Hawthornden Road, passing a single-storey mews building and opening onto the road through a security lodge and a single-storey stone gate lodge. The U-plan single-storey mews block to the east, believed to have been constructed at the same time as the house, has pitched slate roofs with stone chimneystacks, random-coursed rock-faced basalt ashlar walling, painted brick walling to the inward-facing elevations, and red brick walling to the south elevation. A further single-storey red brick range runs along the south elevation of the mews, forming a laneway. There are two gate lodges associated with the estate: the eastern lodge, a single-storey symmetrical stone building with a pitched natural slate roof, single stone chimneystack, and square-headed window and door openings with chamfered surrounds, was not added until around 1902; the lodge to the north of the estate on Belmont Road was the first to be constructed, dating from around 1874. Together, the house, gate lodges, and stable block constitute one of the largest and most intact residential ensembles in the Belmont area, and the listed extent includes the house, its steps, balustrade, and lamp.