Eglantine House, Harry's Road, Carnbane, Hillsborough, Co. Down

Eglantine House is a large detached Italianate country house standing on an elevated site in the townland of Carnbane, Hillsborough, County Down. The original building on the Eglantine Estate likely dates from the late 18th century, though it is not entirely clear when it was first constructed. It is thought to have been originally intended as a dower house for the Hill family. The house was comprehensively refurbished around 1845 to the designs of the architect Charles Lanyon, who refaced the building in a neo-classical Italianate style, added a central projecting open Doric porch, refurbished the interior, and replaced the two earlier gate lodges. It is possible that Lanyon may have completely rebuilt the house at this time, as no evidence of an earlier style has been identified in the fabric. The building was reduced to a roofless ruin following a devastating fire in September 1990, resulting in the loss of most internal fabric and some external fabric. It was acquired by its present owner around 2008 and fully restored by 2012.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The house is symmetrical, three-bay, two-storey over a concealed basement, with a stucco-fronted Italianate exterior. It is square on plan, facing east, and features a full-height central canted entrance bay with a portico, and a single-storey over basement wing to the south. The south wing was destroyed by fire and is currently being reconstructed to the interior and restored to the exterior. A range of two-storey rendered townhouses built around 2008, in the form of a range of outbuildings, sits to the south.

The roofs are hipped and finished in natural slate with lead ridges, set behind a balustrade parapet wall. Decorative rendered chimneystacks with decorative clay pots rise above parapet level. Replacement metal rainwater goods break through the walls below parapet level.

The external walling is painted render with a moulded plinth course, continuous moulded sill courses, and moulded cornices above the ground floor, with a further dentilated cornice running below parapet level. The ground floor has reticulated rusticated quoins, and the first floor has plain rusticated quoins. All window openings are square-headed with architrave surrounds, continuous moulded sill courses, and raised and fielded apron panels throughout. Plain entablatures are found above all ground floor window openings, and on the front elevation at ground floor level these are additionally flanked by foliate console brackets. All openings have been re-fenestrated with 6/6 timber sash windows to the first floor and 9/6 timber sash windows to the ground floor.

The principal front elevation faces east and is symmetrical, seven windows wide, with a two-storey central canted entrance bay and a balustrade Doric entrance portico. The portico comprises a sandstone-paved raised platform and sandstone steps flanked by a pair of Doric columns, with matching Doric piers to either end supporting an architrave, plain frieze, and overhanging cornice with mutules, and a low parapet wall with geometric balustrade above. Slender window openings are set to both cheeks of the portico, with a matching Doric pilaster abutting the bay. The tall square-headed door opening retains its original moulded architrave surround, flanked by a pair of original scrolled foliate console brackets supporting a cornice above, all set against exposed red brick walling.

The south side elevation is two-storey over an exposed basement, with a two-storey three-sided canted bay to the west end, abutted by a flat-roofed single-storey over basement wing. The south bay on the west elevation has a round-headed door opening that gives onto stone steps flanked by original wrought-iron railing. The rear west elevation is two-storey and five windows wide. The north side elevation is two-storey and features a two-storey three-sided canted bay to the west half.

INTERIOR

The most notable interior feature recorded before the fire was an elegantly designed curved stone staircase installed by Lanyon, which rose in two flights before meeting at an upper landing. The fire of 1990 caused the loss of most internal fabric, and the interior is currently being reconstructed.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Eglantine House first appears on a survey map of the Kilwarlin Estate in 1803, at which time the estate of around 70 acres and one rood in the townland of Carnbane is recorded as belonging to Hugh Moore Esquire. Large outbuildings are visible on this plan. By the time of the first Ordnance Survey maps of 1834 the house had been named, and three large office houses and up to six smaller out-offices are recorded on the grounds. The 1837 Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe Eglantine House as a gentleman's residence, noting that "Hugh Moore Esq. of Carnbane has an elegant seat, finely ornamented with plantations of young firs." In 1825 Hugh Moore was a Justice of the Peace for County Down and on one occasion received depositions alongside the Marquis of Downshire regarding a murder committed in Hillsborough on the night of 8 December 1825. He was also a subscriber to Blaris school and the local medical dispensary, and a member and financial contributor to the Hillsborough Charitable Society. In 1831 Moore published a book titled A Dictionary of Quotations from Various Authors in Ancient and Modern Languages, which was dedicated to the Marquis of Downshire.

In 1841 the house passed to St. Clair Kelburn Mulholland, whose family occupied it until 1917 when the last of his daughters died. St. Clair Mulholland was an established Belfast linen merchant, originally encouraged by the success of his brother Andrew Mulholland, who owned a spinning mill in York Street. St. Clair built his first mill in 1833 and later established the Durham Street Weaving Company in Belfast. He retired from the linen industry in 1850 and lived at Eglantine until his death in 1872. His family and friends erected the nearby All Saints Church in his memory and that of his late son; it was consecrated in 1875. Griffith's Valuation, recorded between 1856 and 1864, valued the buildings including the out-offices at £110, with the total estate valued at £242. By 1858 the second edition Ordnance Survey shows a considerable extension built to the house, consistent with the refurbishments attributed to Lanyon. In 1875 the building was increased in value to £114 but was reduced again to £104 in 1905 following the removal of a gardener's house from the grounds.

The 1901 Census records Mulholland's youngest daughter, Mary Filgate Mulholland, as the last surviving family member occupying the house, and records the extent of the estate at that time as including two stables, one coach house, one harness room, three cow houses, two calf houses, one dairy, two piggeries, two fowl houses, one boiling house, a barn, a turf house, a potato house, a workshop, and a shed. After Mary's death in 1917 the house was occupied by a Joseph Coulter, and the rateable value fell dramatically from £104 in 1906 to around £85 in the period circa 1915 to 1929. The cause of this reduction in value is not known. The next recorded occupant was E. T. Green, a manufacturer of animal foodstuffs, after whom the house passed to his son Professor E. R. R. Green, Director of the Institute of Irish Studies at Queen's University and a noted writer on the history of the linen industry in Ulster. Anthony Lyle Skyrme and his wife Caro purchased Eglantine in 1972 and it remained their family home until around 1979. In 1979 to 1980 the house was sold to J. K. Falloon and Co. of Lisburn, who used the premises as an auction venue during the early 1980s. The house was left vacant during the later 1980s and in September 1990 was damaged by fire and reduced to a roofless ruin.

SETTING

The house stands on an elevated site overlooking pastures to the west. To the south-west is an enclosed yard with a restored outbuilding converted into housing units, finished with a natural slate roof and roughcast render, and in separate ownership. Further to the south is a newer development of townhouses in the form of a complex of outbuildings. The principal former entrance gates and gate lodge on Hillsborough Road, also designed by Lanyon and separately listed, are no longer in regular use, with a bitmac avenue leading west to Harry's Road. Despite the development of the original outbuildings into private housing, the building retains some of its original mature landscape setting. The house's historical connections to the Hill family and to Hugh Moore, former Justice of the Peace for County Down, make it an important contribution to the heritage of Lisburn.