Inchmarlo Prep School, Cranmore Park, Belfast BT9 6JR

Inchmarlo Preparatory School (formerly known as Cranmore House and later Mount Randal) is a substantial multi-period complex centred on an original two-storey-with-attic, symmetrical stone house built in 1881 in the Scottish Baronial style for James Anderson Bulloch, of the linen shirt manufacturers Messrs Bulloch Bros, who had premises in Donegall Square South and Linenhall Street, Belfast. The complex occupies a prominent, secluded position at the centre of a large, mature site on the south-east side of Cranmore Park, to the north-west of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution's (RBAI) playing fields, within the Malone Conservation Area. The grounds include remnants of a former walled garden, a sweeping entrance avenue, and extensive belts of mature trees. The building is now in use as the preparatory department of RBAI, known as Inchmarlo.

The complex comprises four main phases of development: the original 1881 villa; extensions and remodelling carried out in 1935; a new dining hall and kitchen block added in 1956–57; and a further hall and gymnasium wing added in 1967–68.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The lands on which the building stands form part of the townland of Lower Malone, originally granted to Sir Arthur Chichester in the early 17th century. The Malone area was subsequently divided into large estates and planted with English tenants, the earliest known occupant in the vicinity being John Eccles, resident from at least 1669, whose former dwelling house (later known as Cranmore) survives as a scheduled monument to the south-east of the present building. In the mid-18th century, leases in the Malone area began to be taken up by prosperous Belfast merchants, whose land was farmed by undertenants. Early dwellings were modest — typically single-storey, thatched, and often mud-walled due to the scarcity of building stone locally.

The original road south out of Belfast, the Malone Road, follows the crest of a sandy ridge and is believed to be of ancient origin. A significant prehistoric find, the Malone Hoard of hand axes, was discovered near Danesfort, close to the Malone Road. What is now the Lisburn Road was laid out between 1817 and 1819. At the end of the 18th century, the Marquess of Donegall — a title acquired by the Chichester family in 1790 — began to grant longer 61-year leases to his Malone tenants, encouraging improvements to their properties. The 1831 map shows modest country lodges for town merchants, such as Eglantine Hill and Maryville. As Belfast grew increasingly prosperous, noisy, and congested, wealthy merchants began to build more substantial villas in Malone, occupying elevated sites near the Malone Road and typically set within small demesnes. The present building formed part of this wave of development, which reached its peak towards the end of the 19th century.

James Anderson Bulloch (also spelled Bullock in some sources; 1837–1914) was born in Airdrie, Scotland. He moved to Belfast at the age of 15 and in 1864 established, with his brothers, the firm of Messrs Bulloch Bros, manufacturers of linen shirts and woollens. The firm was founded during a boom period for the Belfast linen industry, stimulated by disruption to cotton supplies caused by the American Civil War of 1861–65. In 1869, Bulloch married Agnes Knox, daughter of James Knox, a noted linen thread manufacturer of Kilbirnie, Ayrshire (the firm W & J Knox, established 1778). Bulloch was a staunch Unionist and an original member of the Ulster Reform Club, an active member of Fisherwick Presbyterian Church, and a founder member of the Belfast Benevolent Society of St Andrew, a charitable society for Scotsmen resident in Belfast, launched in 1867. He served as president of the Society in 1877 and 1907.

Bulloch leased the plot between the Malone and Lisburn Roads from William Coates of Glentoran, County Down, and built the present house on higher ground within a five-acre demesne in 1881, valued at £100 for rating purposes. The site was beside a lane connecting the Malone and Lisburn Roads, laid out between the first and second Ordnance Survey editions (i.e. between 1832–33 and 1858), initially known as Musgrave's Avenue, referring to the Musgraves of Drumglass House. The road was renamed Cranmore Park around 1892, after the present dwelling had been built. A gate lodge, now demolished, on the corner of the Malone Road and Cranmore Park — unusually, at some distance from the dwelling house — also appears to have been built by Bulloch and was occupied around 1900 by William Adams, his coachman. The lodge later became part of the Cranmore demesne, briefly served as a groundsman's cottage, and was removed in 1923 during road-widening works.

The house was originally known as Cranmore or Cranmore House. The earlier 17th-century dwelling built by the Eccles family had previously been known as Cranmore — a name meaning Great Tree, given in reference to a large oak under which William III is believed to have sheltered — by the botanist John Templeton, who occupied it in the late 18th century. However, by the early 1880s the earlier house was more commonly referred to as Orange Grove, owing to its traditional association with William of Orange; in 1690, the Eccles family had offered hospitality to William III on his way to the Battle of the Boyne. It continued to be known as The Grove into the early 20th century. Bulloch may therefore have felt entitled to adopt the name Cranmore for his new house.

The architectural features of Bulloch's house reflect Scottish revival styles, including crow-stepped gables and castellated bays — a manner described by architectural historian Paul Larmour as "muted Scottish Baronial." A carved stone panel above the front door, depicting thistles, shamrocks, and roses, alludes to Bulloch's Scottish origins and his connections with Ireland and England. The architect of the original house is unknown, though the firm Young & Mackenzie later made additions that were required to blend seamlessly with the existing building, and it is possible that the firm were the original designers.

In 1887, Bulloch formally left the partnership with his brothers, sold Cranmore, and retired to Fairlie in Ayrshire. The house was advertised for sale as "of recent construction, substantially built of stone" with grounds described as "beautifully laid out, and well stocked with fruit and other trees." Having been appointed a justice of the peace in Scotland and served as one of the original members of Ayrshire County Council, Bulloch later returned to Belfast and purchased a house in Osborne Park around 1903, close to his former home, where he lived until his death in 1914. Around the time that Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States, it was noted in the local Belfast press that Bulloch was related to the president through Roosevelt's mother, Martha Bulloch.

The next resident was William Crawford JP, a director of the York Street Flax Spinning Co Ltd, who purchased the house for £3,000 in 1888 and renamed it Mount Randal. The first cartographic depiction of the house appears on the large-scale Ordnance Survey map of 1896, showing a roughly square structure with two small rear extensions and a glazed conservatory to the south-east elevation. The driveway, whose course has been preserved, sweeps up from the entrance and the house is surrounded by trees, some of which appear to survive. An amateur painting, reproduced in a biography of Mary Crawford Brown, shows the house as it appeared at this time. A plan produced for the Belfast Revaluation of 1900 shows a glasshouse within the walled garden, a summerhouse on the lawn to the south-west of the main house (now gone), and a fowl house on the western edge of the demesne.

William Crawford was born in 1840, the son of the Reverend Alexander Crawford, a Scottish missionary to India and minister of First Randalstown Presbyterian Church. Educated at RBAI, Crawford was apprenticed to the York Street Flax Spinning Company in 1857 and was subsequently sent to manage the company's Paris branch in 1862. He was resident in Paris with his family during the siege of 1870–71, remaining there until 1887, when he was elected a managing director and returned to Belfast, taking up residence at Mount Randal, where he lived for 35 years until his death. The house was named Mount Randal in memory of Crawford's childhood home, Maine Mount, north of Randalstown. He served as Chairman of the York Street company from 1913 until 1918, as president of the Belfast Chamber of Commerce, as president of the Linen Merchants' Association, as a member of the Royal Commission of the Paris Exhibition of 1900, and as president of the Paris British Chamber of Commerce. He was a ruling elder of Windsor Presbyterian Church and was closely involved in the building of the Royal Victoria Hospital as chairman of the Committee of Management. His services to the hospital were recognised with a knighthood in 1906, and a portrait bust of Sir William was unveiled at the hospital in 1921. He was also one of the first members of the Queen's University Senate on its elevation to university status, and a staunch Unionist who addressed numerous political demonstrations. He died on 12 May 1922 at the age of 82 and is buried in Belfast City Cemetery.

Sir William had strong connections with India and China, as well as Paris. His wife was born in Gujarat, a daughter of one of the first missionaries sent to India by the Presbyterian Church. Three of his four sons lived overseas: the Reverend Alexander Robert Crawford was a missionary to Manchuria in north-east China; W M Crawford was a member of the Indian Civil Service; and the remaining two sons were managers for the York Street Flax Spinning Company in Belfast and Paris. Sir William's only daughter, Mary, was a talented artist and musician and a committed supporter of missionary work, serving as editor of the missionary magazine Woman's Work. A biography of Mary Crawford Brown was published after her early death from pneumonia in 1918, in which she was described as "the St Brigid of the twentieth century." Mount Randal was also the birthplace of Sir William's granddaughter, Agatha Randal Crawford (1913–1999), a QUB medicine graduate who served as a medical missionary to Manchuria in the 1940s, teaching at Moukden Medical College, whose correspondence — held at PRONI — records her life in China and the arrival of the communist army.

The 1901 census records William Crawford resident at the house with his Indian-born wife; his Paris-born son the Reverend Alexander R Crawford; and his grandsons Laurence Crawford Brown, later killed at Ypres on 16 August 1917, and Oliver N Brown, who would serve in the Army Medical Corps in two world wars, spend 32 years as head of Ahmedabad mission school in India, and become a finalist in the BBC's Brain of Britain. The household also included four servants: a cook, a parlour maid, a house maid, and a nurse.

In 1905, a new road was laid out to the east of the Mount Randal site, and an additional acre of land was acquired for the grounds. A second entrance to the house was created opening off the new road. Minutes of Belfast Corporation's Improvement Committee record that it was at William Crawford's instigation that the new road was named Osborne Gardens. Around 1900, a row of glasshouses was built to the south of the house within the walled garden; these are now gone.

Building Control records show that the rear north-west wing of the house, originally single-storey and containing a billiard room, power house, WC, and wash-house, was remodelled to designs by Young & Mackenzie in 1908. The wing was raised by a further storey to provide three additional bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor, and its external elevation was altered to blend seamlessly with the existing building. The Young & Mackenzie archive at PRONI contains correspondence, specifications, and plans dated September 1912 for the erection of a peach house for Sir William at Mount Randal (later sold by RBAI in 1940). The former fowl house was replaced by a motor house and garage for two cars, built to designs by William John Waterman Roome in 1913; original plans are held by Building Control. The garage survives but has been extended to the north-east in recent years.

Following Crawford's death, Mount Randal was advertised for sale in 1922 as a two-storey-with-attic gentleman's residence, stone-built in rock-faced sandstone. The accommodation comprised a dining room, drawing room, morning room, billiard room, cloakroom, kitchen, servants' hall, pantries, scullery, cellar, strong room, and sun parlour on the ground floor, with six bedrooms, three dressing rooms, bathrooms, and lavatories on the first floor, and five bedrooms and a bathroom in the attic. The sale particulars also noted the garage for two cars, electric light, and central heating.

The next resident, from around 1925, was James Heron Stirling (1867–1928), chairman of directors of the York Street Flax Spinning Co Ltd, who purchased the freehold of the site before his death in 1928. Building Control records, including a partial ground-floor plan from 1908 and an "existing" plan prepared before conversion to a school in 1934, suggest that the entrance hall of Mount Randal was remodelled around the time that Stirling became resident, with at least one wall removed to create a more open-plan entrance. The distinctive hall fireplace may also date from this remodel and is therefore probably of 1920s date. On his death, Stirling left the house to the discretion of his trustees, recommending that it be donated to RBAI as a preparatory school. Stirling had been a pupil at RBAI and later became a governor, retaining a keen interest in the school throughout his life. The six acres of grounds were seen as a valuable asset for recreation.

RBAI had first established a preparatory department in 1864, but closed it in 1898 due to falling numbers, partly a consequence of the relocation of wealthier families to the suburbs. In 1904, following Belfast Corporation's acquisition of a large portion of RBAI's grounds for the new Technical Institute, the school had purchased approximately five acres at Osborne Park, with an option on the adjacent Cranmore and Maryville lands, initially considering relocating the entire school to the suburbs. Those lands at Osborne Park became the RBAI playing fields. In 1916, when RBAI formally acquired the additional grounds at Cranmore and Maryville — having abandoned the idea of a full relocation — it was suggested that a preparatory school should be built nearby or housed in a converted building. Wartime building restrictions prevented the conversion of Maryville House, and instead a villa at 106 Marlborough Park North, called Inchmarlo, was chosen. Built around 1897 to the designs of Robert Young of Young & Mackenzie — the firm that had later designed the peach house at Mount Randal — the house had been named Inchmarlo, after a village in Aberdeenshire familiar to Young, whose watercolours frequently depicted the Dee area. Young suggested the name to his client, John Killen Wilson, a woollen merchant, who adopted it for the new house. The name was retained by RBAI when it took over the Marlborough Park property for its preparatory school in 1917, and was carried with the school when it transferred to Mount Randal. The building formerly known as Cranmore and then Mount Randal is now sometimes referred to as Stirling House in memory of the school's benefactor.

CONVERSION TO A SCHOOL, 1934–35

The former villa was extended and remodelled for its new use as a school to designs by William David Redmond Taggart in 1934–35, at a cost of £5,750. The contractor was William Dowling Ltd. The south-east wing — including the former maids' sitting room, kitchen, scullery, larder, coal store, and conservatory — was removed entirely and replaced with a covered playground and drill yard at ground level, with classrooms above and toilet and cloakroom facilities. The new wing was constructed using trademarked Truscon Hy-rib combined centring and reinforcement, manufactured by the Trussed Concrete Steel Co, a company established in London in 1907 by Moritz Kahn to bring the Kahn method of reinforced concrete construction to the United Kingdom. This technique, initially employed mainly in industrial buildings, permitted large wall openings and in this case enabled the creation of a wide, open playground area with a floor above strong enough to carry an additional storey.

The ground floor of the north-west wing — formerly a second study, store, and boiler house — was partially rebuilt to become the school kitchen, dining room, scullery, and larder, with two additional windows inserted into the main elevation of the former study to form the new school dining room. The upper floor of this wing was repurposed as domestic accommodation for the headmaster, comprising two bedrooms, a scullery, and a bathroom. A new single-storey extension to the north-west wing contained the boiler house for the extended central heating system; radiators bear the maker's mark of Musgrave & Co.

Within the main body of the house, the internal layout was largely retained, with rooms reassigned to school use: the study, drawing room, and dining room with buffet recess became classrooms, while the adjacent store and pantry became the kindergarten cloakroom following the removal of a stud wall, and the former cloakroom was converted to the headmaster's office. The walls of this area have since been partially removed and replaced with glazing. On the first floor, former bedrooms and dressing rooms became three further classrooms, a staff room, and the headmaster's and house master's sitting rooms. Former bedrooms and a bathroom in the attic appear to have remained untouched at this stage; no rooflight is indicated on the drawings of this period, suggesting that the existing rooflight was a later addition. The main entrance gate screen also appears to have been remodelled around this time.

A formal opening ceremony was held at Stirling House on 22 November 1935, performed by Lord Charlemont, Minister of Education.

Shortly after the school opened, preparations were made for armed conflict following the declaration of war with Germany on 3 September 1939. Plans were submitted to Building Control for three substantial air raid shelters of the brick-built, above-ground public shelter type, with 14-inch-thick brick walls, reinforced concrete roofs and floors, baffle entries to prevent crushing, long internal benches, and earth closets. The shelters, intended for the lawn to the rear of the school, have not survived.

In 1956–57, a new dining hall and kitchen block was added to the north-west, with a glazed link to the main building, constructed in Dungannon rustic brick, to designs by Samuel Stevenson & Sons of Royal Avenue. In 1958, following the relocation of kitchen and dining facilities to the new block, the interior of the north-west wing was remodelled: the former kitchen became a cloakroom with slatted timber seating and coat hooks lining the walls — the seating and hooks survive — while the former scullery and larder were converted to urinals and wash-hand basins, and the former coal shed in the boiler extension became WCs with three new window openings created.

To mark the school's 50th anniversary in 1967–68, a new wing was added, again to designs by Samuel Stevenson & Sons, at a cost of £26,500. This provided a hall and gymnasium at ground-floor level with three classrooms above. The side elevation of this wing bears a Clipsham limestone panel with the school crest.

The school's 75th anniversary in 1992 was commemorated with a further extension: a stand-alone classroom block of four rooms, costing £300,000, added to the east of the main building. This was officially opened in October 1993 by Lord Lowry — Sir Robert Lynd Erskine Lowry, commissioned officer and High Court judge, appointed Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland and knighted in 1971 — a distinguished former pupil.

EXTERIOR DESCRIPTION

The original 1881 house is constructed of rock-faced coursed stone with sandstone surrounds and dressings, and faces north-east. Roofs are natural slate, with the central section now flat-roofed and fitted with a central rooflight. Modern extensions to the south-east were added in 1935 and 1967.

Front elevation (north-east): The front elevation is symmetrical, with a canted central bay flanked by advanced, flat-gabled bays on each side. All bays carry crow-stepped sandstone eaves detailing. The flanking bays have a shallow bay window at ground-floor level with triple window openings and castellated parapet detailing, paired window openings on the first floor, and a single window opening at attic level. Toothed sandstone quoins appear at the corners of each flanking bay. The canted entrance bay has a centrally positioned entrance door within a carved sandstone surround with leaded, coloured glazing to the window openings on the canted sections. Above the entrance, paired windows are aligned on the first floor and a single window opening sits at attic level. Stone corbels appear above the first-floor windows on the side cant. Between each flanking bay and the central canted bay there is a narrow section of wall with single window openings at both ground and first-floor levels. Windows throughout are original 1-over-1 double-hung timber sliding sash windows with double and single glazing, with sandstone lintels and surrounds to all openings. A sandstone string course runs above ground-floor window-head height. The front door is approached via three stone steps and is an original bolection-moulded, painted, panelled door with original ironmongery and a plain arched overlight. The original doorbell is set within the sandstone surround. An original cast iron lantern is positioned centrally above the main door, below an individual carved stone plaque.

Side elevation (south-east): Three bays with two stepped gables matching those on the north-east elevation. The right bay is of the same design and detailing as the flanking bays on the north-east front. The narrow middle bay has a large window opening at ground-floor level and a smaller window aligned above. On the left side there is a two-storey canted bay with castellated parapet and a stepped gable above, with a single window opening. The left side of the original building is abutted by the two-storey 1935 extension with a hipped roof, aligned north-east to south-west. This extension is constructed in red rustic brick in stretcher bond with a painted rendered concrete frame expressed on the façade at ground-floor level. A wide opening at the centre of the ground floor forms a semi-open covered area leading into a courtyard on the north-west side of the extension. The ceiling of the covered area is exposed concrete; the side walls are brown brick. The windows on this extension are aluminium with concrete sills; two window openings flank the wide opening at ground-floor level and nine window openings run along the first-floor level. A single-storey, single-bay flat-roofed section at the far left has a single window opening. To the left of the 1935 extension is the brown brick gymnasium and assembly hall block added in 1967, with a flat roof. The south-east façade of this block has a row of three short uPVC/aluminium windows at low level with three more aligned above, and a tall expanse of brick above carrying a carved and moulded concrete school crest bearing the motto QUAERERE VERUM, centred on the façade.

Rear elevation (south-west): A flat façade with a strip of floor-to-ceiling aluminium windows running the full length, including integral doors, and six window openings above, all in uPVC/aluminium. The canteen extension, constructed around 1956–57, is accessed via a stepped link following the terraced lawn from the main building. It is of brick and concrete construction with original Crittall windows that frame views over the playing fields.

Side elevation (north-west): Original windows remain in place with the exception of one uPVC replacement at upper level. A single-storey brick building with chimney flue, constructed in 1935, serves as the cloakroom. Some windows have been replaced with uPVC units. The 1935 extension adjoins the two-storey 1967 building at the rear.

The site is entered via a gateway flanked by two stone piers with rounded stone coping stones at the northern end. The principal entrance is to the south-east and is screened by a brick entrance screen. A secondary entrance opens off Osborne Gardens.

INTERIOR

Despite changes made in recent years, the house retains its internal layout largely intact, together with many original internal features from both its period as a private villa and its life as a school. The hall fireplace, which may date from a remodelling of around the 1920s, is distinctive. The former cloakroom, converted in 1958, retains its slatted timber seating and original coat hooks. Original window furnishings and light switches have been retained throughout.

The 1956–57 dining hall, designed by Samuel Stevenson & Sons and constructed in Dungannon rustic brick with Crittall windows, is intact and in good condition. The Crittall windows frame views over extensive portions of the mature grounds and the original window furnishings and light switches in this part of the building are original and have been retained, adding to the quality of the space.

MATERIALS

Walls to the main building are of rock-faced coursed stone with stepped stone quoin edges and sandstone features around window surrounds and the main entrance. Roofs are natural slate, hipped and pitched. Rainwater goods are in cast metal and uPVC. Windows are a combination of double-hung sliding sash timber windows, aluminium frames, and uPVC units.

SETTING

The building occupies a prominent, secluded position within a substantial mature site at the confluence of Cranmore Park, Osborne Gardens, and the rear gardens of residential properties on Bawnmore Road. The grounds include terraced lawns, mature belts of trees, a sweeping avenue leading from Cranmore Park, and remnants of a former walled garden — within which a 3G playing surface was installed in 2019. The complex lies within the Malone Conservation Area.

NOTABLE FORMER PUPILS

Distinguished former pupils of Inchmarlo include: visually impaired rower, distance runner, cross-country skier, and motivational speaker Mark Pollock; Sam K McCausland, agricultural seed merchant; John D Laird (Lord Laird of Antigarvan), Professor of Public Relations at the University of Ulster, chair of the Ulster Scots Agency, and Life Peer appointed in 1999; Air Vice-Marshal Desmond H Hughes, Battle of Britain pilot, Commandant of the RAF College, Cranwell, and ADC to Queen Elizabeth II; Sir Peter Froggatt, Professor of Epidemiology and Social and Preventative Medicine at Queen's University Belfast; Brian D Faulkner (Baron Faulkner of Downpatrick), sixth and last Prime Minister of Northern Ireland; Tom Carr, artist awarded the OBE in 1993 for his services to art in Ulster; and Sir David Robert Bates, physicist, knighted in 1978 for his contributions to planetary and space science.

CONDITION AND ALTERATIONS

Chimneys visible from the front elevation and shown in a photograph of around 1955 have since been removed. In 2011, works carried out by Alastair Coey Architects included correcting two outward-leaning gable walls and re-slating part of the roof. A 3G playing surface was installed in the walled garden in 2019. Notwithstanding these changes, the building retains its internal layout largely intact, together with many internal and external features evocative of its first fifty years as a villa residence built and occupied by wealthy linen merchants, and of its subsequent adaptation as a preparatory school almost a century ago.