Walled Garden Sir Thomas And Lady Dixon Park, Old Forge Tl, Belfast

Walled Garden, Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park, Belfast

A red brick walled garden located southwest of Wilmont House within the 134-acre parkland demesne now known as Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park. The garden is contemporary with Wilmont, a detached Italianate country house of circa 1859, and was part of the estate gifted to Belfast Corporation in 1959 by Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon.

The walled garden forms part of a group of heritage structures that includes the gate lodge at the southernmost entrance on Upper Malone Road and the former stable block, now converted to café and offices. The park is bounded by the M1 to the west, Upper Dunmurry Lane to the northeast, and the Lagan Navigation to the southwest.

Approaching from the south of Wilmont House, a tarmacked path leads to a yew walk featuring a cast iron gate and a raised pond with a dressed stone surround and crown centrepiece. An early survey card references a cherub holding a fish at the centre of this pond, suggesting it may have been replaced, possibly during refurbishment in 2002.

The walled garden itself is roughly rectangular in plan, sloping gently from north to south. It is enclosed by red brick walls laid in English Garden Wall bond with precast concrete copings. The north wall features a segmental-headed pedestrian gateway, roughly centred on the pond, flanked by brick pilasters with stone capitals and entablature, framing an ornate wrought iron gate. The enclosed garden is largely plain, with paths laid out in cruciform pattern between plants and lawn. Three stone plaques set into the perimeter wall along the west side are dedicated to Reade and Dixon family pets, dating from 1905, 1932 and 1938. Unusually for its age, the walled garden has no carriage arch. Evidence of a former opening along the west side, now blocked with modern brick, shows it was too narrow for carriages.

Attached to the north side of the walled garden is a former gardener's bothy and potting sheds, built circa 1890s in red brick laid to English Garden Wall bond. Now used as a store, the building originally had glasshouses on the reverse side, now gone, though remnants of chimneys remain.

The walled garden has red brick walls in English Garden Wall bond with precast concrete copings. The roof features natural slate on the west and east bays, with the east bay later replaced, and a mix of artificial and natural slate with red clay ridge tiles on the central bay. Rainwater goods are uPVC. Windows are timber-framed single-glazed casements, now boarded over.

The bothy and potting sheds comprise three bays, symmetrical in arrangement. The taller central bay has an attic with a gabled roof, flanked by single-storey mono-pitched bays. Windows are boarded up with faux glazing bars painted on boards, with timber-framed casement windows remaining behind. The central bay is roofed in a mix of artificial and natural slates with a projecting bargeboard, tie beam and curved struts, with a single window centred on the ridge. Three windows to the ground floor have concrete cills and a continuous lintel; the central window replaces an original door, evidenced by brick infill below the cill. The west bay has two windows with a continuous lintel at eaves, raised concrete skews and a slate roof thought to be original, and a flush timber door in the west face. The east bay is divided in two, each containing stores with a single window and sheeted timber door, a continuous lintel at eaves and a replacement slate roof. uPVC rainwater goods are present. The east face is blank except for a corner chimney.

Further information is available from the Northern Ireland Heritage Gardens Inventory (reference AN-068).