Brookhill Demesne Garden Features, 88 Ballinderry Road, Ballyellough, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 2QX

Brookhill Demesne Garden Features

A group of historic garden structures dating from 1800 to 1870, associated with Brookhill Demesne, whose main house has been demolished. The estate is located on the north side of Ballinderry Road, approximately 2.5 miles south-east of Upper Ballinderry in County Antrim.

The estate originally comprised a Jacobethan-style house with extensive agricultural outbuildings to the rear, a large lawn to the front, and an enclosed walled garden adjacent to the main road. A gate lodge marks the entrance to the east, accessed through a heavily wooded area.

Gates and Tower

Gate (07) was built around 1850 and abuts the northeast corner of an adjoining outbuilding. It is constructed of squared basalt with limestone dressing, featuring a moulded segmental arched opening with console brackets flanked by chamfered piers rising to dentiled cornice level. Above this sits a basalt and limestone frieze topped by a chinoiserie slate roof with lead dressing. The adjacent two-storey outbuilding is built in coursed basalt with red-brick window and door surrounds and red-brick quoins, topped with a natural slate roof. The north section has been modified with dash render and some 20th-century metal windows.

The tower, also built around 1850, abuts the left side of the outbuilding's southeast gable. It has a square plan in three stages. The lower stage is constructed of rendered brick with round-headed arched openings to the northeast and southeast faces. The second stage features squared basalt with limestone long-and-short quoins rising to cornice level with frieze. The third stage is octagonal and partially deteriorated at the upper level; what remains shows a sandstone base with chamfered round-headed arched niches to each facet over a plinth. The cupola has been removed.

Between Gate (07) and the tower, along the south-west wall of the outbuilding, sits an original raised paved area with a circular ornamental pond surrounded by dwarf rubble stone walling and masonry coping.

Gate (08) is located at the former east entrance and dates from around 1870. It was inserted into an earlier rubble stone wall dating from around 1850. The gate features a compound Tudor-arched opening with red-brick surrounds embraced by a plain crow-stepped gable surmounted by a small replacement apex finial. A modern timber sheeted door has been fitted.

Gate (03) provides gated access to the west of the former walled gardens, which lie south-west of the demesne parallel to the main road. This gate screen was built around 1870 and leads to a secondary avenue to the former mansion. It features a compound pointed-arched pedestrian entrance to the right-hand side, constructed in squared basalt with red-brick detailing and pitched slate coping. The gates themselves have been removed.

North-East Outbuilding

North of Gate (07) and the tower, aligned to the north-east, stands a two-storey outbuilding with hipped gables and a linear lean-to single-storey abutment to the south-east elevation. It is constructed of coursed basalt and random rubble with red-brick window and door surrounds. A large segmental-arched opening with red-brick surround marks the south-east elevation. The roof is corrugated metal, with timber roof trusses visible internally.

Small Walled Pleasure Garden

Directly south of the modern house, following the original circular contours of the site, is a small raised semi-circular pleasure garden that once served the Jacobethan-style mansion house. The walling comprises red-brick and yellow-brick piers with masonry pyramidal caps and ornamental geometric masonry infill panels with masonry copings, all set on a splayed base of basalt drystone walling.

Gardener's Cottage

South of the demesne, along the north-east wall of the former main pleasure gardens, stands a small 1½-storey lean-to gardeners cottage. This structure predates 1830 and is built of rubble masonry with brick surrounds. The north-east elevation features a central door flanked by window openings, while the side elevations are blank. The south-west elevation forms the internal face of the walled garden and is constructed with a brick facade over a rubble upper section, with a central door and two first-floor openings. The walled gardens, including this cottage, are now under separate ownership.

Historic Agricultural Buildings

The historic agricultural buildings to the rear of the demesne are primarily asymmetrical two-storey structures with pitched slate roofs, built in coursed basalt with red-brick surrounds to openings, dating from around 1830 to 1855. These buildings extend to the north and some have undergone 20th-century alterations. Beyond the agricultural structures lies open rural landscape.

Gate Lodge

The gate lodge, built around 1870, is located at the east entrance and replaced an earlier gate lodge. It now stands in a mature wooded setting that separates it from the demesne. The walled gardens to the south-east of the demesne, adjacent to the main road, now enclose two modern dwellings that have separate road access and are under separate ownership.