Belvedere House, 226 Ballylesson Road, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT27 5TS

Belvedere House is a two-storey, four-bay Georgian country house built around 1790, located off the Ballylesson Road north of Drumbo Village in County Antrim. The building has a rectangular plan form with extensive outbuildings attached.

The main structure features a hipped slate roof with clay ridge and hip tiles, and four chimney stacks positioned over the side elevations and above the hipped apex. The eaves are finished with a corbel course, semi-circular cast-iron gutters, and circular downpipes throughout. The walls are smooth rendered and painted, with a projected plinth and quoins painted white.

The principal east-facing elevation is symmetrically arranged with a centrally located Tuscan portico rising to an entablature and accessed by four stone steps. The ground floor has Georgian timber 6/6 sliding sash windows with no horns, while the first floor has diminished 6/3 sliding sash windows. All windows have plain reveals, stone cills, and are painted white. The main entrance comprises a timber door with six bolection moulded raised-and-fielded panels and stucco moulded architraves.

The left elevation is abutted by a two-storey gable-ended double-pile historic extension dating to around 1860, which projects northwards with matching eaves and ridge levels. A further modern single-storey pitched roof extension adjoins adjacent single-storey outbuildings. The west face has a modern single-storey addition. The rear elevation is symmetrically arranged with a centrally located two-storey canted bay with leaded hips, flanked by single ground and first floor window openings on either side. Four modern roof lights are uniformly arranged across the roof. The right elevation has three window openings at ground and first floor level with a large four-flue chimney stack that rises above ridge level.

The building sits at the crest of a hill at the end of a long sweeping driveway enriched by mature trees and vegetation. A large lawn extends to the rear and right, with a car parking area to the front. Adjoining outbuildings lie to the left, adjacent to further agricultural buildings with associated paddock.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 captions the building as 'Belvedere', though it appears significantly different to the present footprint, showing significant adjoining buildings to the north and south elevations. By 1858, the Ordnance Survey map shows the building in closer resemblance to its current form. A copy of a Belfast News Letter dated Tuesday 6th March 1792, discovered during recent restorative works as under-wall lining, suggests the building dates from around this time.

The first identified owner was James Watson Hull, who made his fortune with the East India Company in Bombay, returned to Ireland in 1786, and subsequently purchased Belvedere. In 1793, the house was sold to Andrew Durham, who was recorded in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as the occupant, with the note that "Belvedere House, a fine house around which there is a good deal of planting, is the residence of Andrew Durham J.P."

Robert Callwell purchased the house in 1844. Following his death, his widow Elizabeth remained there until around 1869, when Francis Dwyer purchased the property. Dwyer died in 1907, leaving Belvedere to his widow Bessie, who lived there until 1916. During the Second World War, the house is believed to have been used by the American Army, which allegedly used the basement under the outbuildings for storage of weapons, though this remains unsubstantiated.

In 1948, Belvedere was purchased by Johnny Morrison of the Ulster Spinning Company for his sister, wife of Brigadier Broadhurst, whose family remained until the house was sold in 1993 to Gordon Mackie, a director of James Mackie & Sons Ltd, the world-famous manufacturer of textile spinning and weaving machinery. Mackie undertook successful restoration after the house had fallen into decay and dereliction. By 2007 the house had again fallen into disrepair and underwent major internal restorative work by the present owner.

The building has undergone several restorations following periods of neglect and dereliction, including re-roofing and major internal work. The modern single-storey additions to the north and west do not detract from the interest of the building and display clarity between old and new. The house is enhanced by its mature setting and is of local architectural and historical interest.