Beltrim Castle, 86 Killymore Road, Gortin, Co Tyrone, BT79 8PL

Beltrim Castle is a detached, five-bay, two-storey rendered country house built circa 1780–1820, located to the northwest of Gortin, County Tyrone, on the edge of a large escarpment above the Owenkillew River. It is approached from the south via a long gravel avenue through a large farm with much mature woodland. The house is L-shaped on plan, facing west, with a substantial multi-bay two-storey rendered return to the rear. The formal west front was the result of early 19th-century improvements, which also incorporated the remains of a 17th-century bawn into the long rear return. The house has been in continuous ownership by the same family and is considered significant not only locally but nationally, with its associated outbuildings, former bawn, and gardens adding considerably to its architectural and historic interest.

EXTERIOR

The roof is an M-profile hipped natural slate roof, pitched to the return and terminating in a gable at the east end. There are five redbrick chimneystacks to the main house and four rendered stacks to the return, all fitted with replacement terracotta pots. Black clay ridge tiles and lead valleys are present throughout, with cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets fixed to a rendered eaves course, and cast-iron downpipes. All walling is painted roughcast render. A section of crow-stepped wall survives to the northwest of the front elevation.

Window openings throughout are square-headed with stone sills. The main house and return are largely glazed with eight-over-eight timber sliding sash windows without horns. Six-pane timber casement windows are used on the rear (east) elevation of the main house, and the north elevation of the return features a variety of timber or steel casement windows, including some horizontally-glazed two-over-two timber sliding sash windows.

The symmetrical five-bay two-storey west front elevation has a central elliptical-headed door opening containing a double-leaf timber panelled door flanked by sidelights with iron glazing bars on timber panels. Above the door is a lintel cornice with a spoked fanlight fitted with iron glazing bars. The entrance opens onto a concrete step and platform with a further four concrete steps descending to the front gravel area. On the north side elevation of the main house, a short section of crow-stepped wall continues from the front elevation, with one window to the ground floor and one to the first floor on the left; the rear pitch of the roof falls to cover a lower rear section.

The two-storey rear elevation of the main house is abutted by the earlier return. Three small window openings appear to the right side of the return, while a more formal arrangement of three bays with eight-over-eight timber sash windows and a pair of double-leaf timber glazed doors at either end is found at ground floor level. The six-bay two-storey south elevation of the return includes a single-bay two-storey entrance bay projection, left of centre, with a lean-to section to the east of this projection containing a square-headed door opening fitted with a replacement timber panelled door. The rear north elevation of the two-storey return has a lean-to five-bay single-storey extension added to the left end, dating from approximately 2000.

SETTING AND OUTBUILDINGS

The rear return is abutted by a single-storey outbuilding, the south wall of which forms part of the ruined 17th-century bawn. This rubble-stone wall forms a projecting turret with a gothic stone window opening, matched by a gothic stone door opening to the right fitted with a modern timber door. A further pair of taller towers to the right, also of 17th-century origin, remain the most conspicuous surviving remnants of the early fabric of the site. Spanning the two towers is the rear south elevation of a two-storey outbuilding, which in turn forms part of the south end of the main farmyard to the east.

An extensive range of multi-bay two-storey rendered outbuildings is arranged around a yard. The range to the south has been completely renovated to provide additional entertaining accommodation and has an outdoor swimming pool on its south elevation. The range to the north is single storey to the yard and two storey to the rear, with an arcaded front of elliptical arches — two to the left are infilled with a door and window, and three to the right remain open — with an interior of no special interest. At the northeast end of the yard stands a tall stone wall with an elliptical-headed carriage arch containing a pair of wrought-iron gates, stone coping, and a carved stone bell-cote with a gothic arch and ball finial.

The principal entrance to the property is at the top of Main Street, Gortin, and comprises a pair of cast-iron gates on stone piers flanked by matching pedestrian gates, with a modern four-bay single-storey gate lodge.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The house is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map, captioned "Beltrim Castle." The second edition of 1854 shows an additional building not present on the third edition of 1905–6. The gate lodge to the south of the complex first appears on the second edition OS map of 1854, captioned "Gate Lodge."

The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records the occupier as Cole Hamilton, describing the property as a "dwelling house and offices," with the building valuation revised from £67 10s to £50. Griffith's Valuation of 1858 also records the occupier of Beltrim Castle as Major Cole Hamilton, with a building valuation of £50 and a note that reads "house and demesne valued for sale at £250." Three gate lodges are entered on the property in total; the lodge in question was occupied by a Robert [N] and later by a John Donnelly, and was valued at £1. Valuation Revisions record the occupier as Arthur Hamilton, with the house and lodges together valued at £65 10s. In 1892 the occupier is recorded as Richard Hamilton, and the house is listed as vacant in 1893.

Architectural historian Alistair Rowan wrote in 1979 that Beltrim Castle was "granted in the early 17th century to William Hamilton who erected a house and bawn here on a steep bank… parts of the bawn remain in the garden wall east of the house: the shell of a flanker, and a round tower of rubble and lime. Beside these is a more picturesque 18th-century turret with gothic windows dated 1785; so the other bawn remains were possibly 'improved' as well. By 1815 the house had become L-shaped, with a long thin wing running west from the ruins, probably along the line of the original bawn… [and] about 1820 the house was given its present appearance… the turrets and tower were removed to leave a pleasant Georgian five-bay, two-storey front… At the north a brief section of wall with crow-steps may remain from the 17th century."

According to the Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Database, the bawn was described in the 1622 Treadwell Survey as follows: "…of lyme & stone, 42ft square 7ft high with noe flankers. There is within the Bawne the foundation of a castle 5ft high, but no gates to the Bawne nor any body dwelling there." The database also notes that the ruins of the bawn are incorporated into the garden of Beltrim Castle, but that the present remains are difficult to distinguish from 18th-century garden features.

The Civil Survey of Ireland, carried out in 1654–56, records that "the lands in this parish [Bodoney] weare possest in ye year 1641, by Sir William Hamilton knight & Sr Henry Titchburne knight, the only propitiers heare of temporall lands." Sir William Hamilton is described as a "Knight; Scottish Protestant." Arthur Hamilton is separately listed as the owner of the lands of Gortin/Beltrim: "Arthur Hamilton claymeth a fee farme of therire two bollibose…Gortyn alias Belltrim…" ("bollibose" referring to a particular unit of land). Although Sir William Hamilton is the main landowner in the area, it is Arthur who appears to own the lands at Beltrim specifically.

George Hill's An Historical Account of the Plantation in Ulster 1608–1620 prints the Pynnar Survey of 1618, which records that the precinct of Strabane was allocated to Scottish undertakers under the Earl of Abercorn as chief undertaker. A footnote records that Hamilton was the First Earl of Abercorn, son of Lord Claude Hamilton, fourth son of the second Earl of Arran.