Bellaghy Castle, Deerpark Road, Bellaghy, Magherafelt, Co.Londonderry

Bellaghy Castle (Bellaghy Bawn)

Bellaghy Bawn is a rare and largely intact fortified plantation complex in Northern Ireland, commenced around 1614 by the Vintners' Company on 32,000 acres granted to them as one of the London Companies participating in the Plantation of Londonderry. The intention was to establish the fortified bawn as the administrative and defensible core of a new settlement to be called Vintnerstown at Bellaghy. Construction began under the Vintners' agent Henry Jackson, though progress was slow. In 1616 the Company leased the Bellaghy holding, along with responsibility for completing the building work, to John Rowley, a former Lord Mayor of Derry. Rowley died the following year and his lands and obligations passed to his business partner, Baptist Jones, the Salters' Company agent. Jones made progress, and in 1618–19 Nicholas Pynnar was able to report that at Bellaghy there was a bawn of brick and lime, 100 feet square, with two round flankers and a good rampart, as well as two good houses within the bawn, one 70 feet long and 25 feet wide, the other not inferior to it. Three years later Thomas Phillips described a manor house of lime and brick, 60 feet long, 27 feet broad, two storeys high and tiled, with one round flanker 30 feet in diameter and two storeys high, battlemented with a parapet, foot-pace and lead roof, alongside another brick house opposite measuring 54 feet long, 26 feet broad and one storey high with a similar flanker. A brick wall 14 feet high, coped and crested, with an earth rampart 6 feet thick faced with stone, together with the houses and flankers formed a paved courtyard or bawn 100 feet square commanding the adjoining town. Thomas Raven's pictorial map accompanying Phillips' survey, captioned "The Vintners Buildings at Belleaghe", provides the first visual record of the site and shows a largely brick-built square enclosure with prominent ogee-domed flankers to the north-west and south-east. To the south was a house, with another to the west, said to have been occupied by Jones's daughter Charity and her husband, and between these — at the south-west corner — a small angled square tower with what appears to be something similar over or next to the centrally located gateway in the north wall. To the north lay the settlement itself, consisting of a newly built church, a good mill house with two mills, 15 cage-work houses, four small thatched houses, ten cabins, and in the middle of the main street a market cross next to a set of stocks.

The newly knighted Sir Baptist Jones died around 1623–24, owing over £300 to the Company, and the lease — along with his former debts — was assigned to Henry Conway, who also married Jones's widow. Conway's position was secured in the 1630s when the London Companies' Ulster estates were forfeited to the Crown and he obtained a new grant that included the bawn. During the 1641 Rising, the Bellaghy settlement was attacked by Sir Phelim O'Neill's forces and the townspeople took refuge within the bawn. Conway is said to have surreptitiously attempted to negotiate a surrender of the bawn to the insurgents in exchange for being permitted to carry off certain valuables; ultimately, however, the town and castle were fired to the utter ruin of the inhabitants, who were forced to find their own safety.

The sequence of events at Bellaghy in the two decades following the 1640s disturbances is uncertain. The bawn is said by several secondary sources to have been renewed or rebuilt around 1643–45, but it does not appear to be referred to in the 1654–56 Civil Survey, the 1659 Census, or the 1660s hearth money returns, which may indicate it remained abandoned during this period. If reconstruction was carried out, it was likely undertaken by Sir John Clothworthy (died 1665), Viscount Massereene from 1660, who assumed Henry Conway's interests in the area. The 2nd Viscount — Clothworthy's son-in-law John Skeffington (died 1695) — eventually secured a lease from the Vintners in the 1670s. Archaeological evidence suggests the smaller house to the west of the complex was not rebuilt after the 1640s and its site was levelled. The larger dwelling to the south was likely renewed in the mid to later 17th century, though the extent of subsequent late Georgian alterations means little evidence of this has been found through excavation. The north-western round flanker shown on Raven's map was not reconstructed — its remains appear to have been used as a rubbish dump in the early 1700s — whilst the angled square tower to the south-west, which may originally have been timber, appears to have been replaced with the current corner structure at some point before around 1770.

In 1714, William Conolly MP (1662–1729), subsequently Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, became the chief tenant, having previously acted as the Vintners' agent and taken possession of the estate after the 3rd Viscount Massereene fell into debt. By 1737, Conolly's nephew and heir William James Conolly (died 1754) had secured a lease in perpetuity of the Company's entire Irish holding, and his descendants maintained ownership of much of this into the early 20th century. For much of the later 18th century, the bawn appears to have served as the residence of the estate agent, a role filled by Abraham Hamilton from at least 1736 to around 1769. Around the latter year, a new agent's residence — a good two-storey brick house known as the Manor House — was constructed some distance to the north-west, and the bawn was subsequently sold off as a private dwelling.

In 1772, Thomas Connolly granted Richardson Williams, a Dublin attorney, a lease for lives renewable forever of the bawn along with just over 103 acres at a rent of £63 per annum. An undated map of the town tenements and fields of Bellaghy, appearing to date from around this time, shows the site with three round flankers but no other structures delineated. Williams used the property as an occasional or summer residence and retained it until spring 1791, when he sold the entire holding — described as including houses, a garden, orchard, demesne and woods — for £3,634-7-8 to Bishop Frederick Hervey, the Earl of Bristol, who was at that point in the midst of constructing his magnificent new palace at Ballyscullion, just east of Bellaghy. A Belfast News-Letter report of the previous December mentions the Bishop returning to the castle of Bellaghy, suggesting he may already have been renting the bawn as a temporary home whilst the mansion was being built. Hervey clearly invested in alterations to the site, as evidenced by bills from Dublin architect Francis Sandys during 1791 under the heading "Bellaghy Castle", and a newspaper sale and lease advertisement of August that year refers to the large sums being expended on the house, describing it as an object worthy of the attention of any gentleman of fortune for a country residence. It seems highly likely that much of this expenditure was directed at remodelling the present Big House on the southern side, renovating the neighbouring south-western circular flanker, clearing away the remains of the north-western flanker and north wall, and landscaping the area. This landscaping also resulted in a new gateway closer to the bend in the road to the north and the construction of a gate lodge beside it. The two structures on the eastern side — on lower ground outside the bawn proper but backing on to the wall — also appear to have been built around this time, though the southern of these, now known as the Wee House with the lowest level as Robinson's House, is awkwardly proportioned and has an odd self-contained ground-floor section with thick walls and a vaulted ceiling, possibly representing an adaptation of an older structure. The two lower sections of the present line of outbuildings to the south, beyond the original enclosure directly south of the flanker, may also date from the 1790s, though maps suggest the northernmost section is later, from the 1830s to 1840s.

By at least 1802 the property was in the hands of George Madden. By at least 1831, the Big House, Wee House and southern outbuildings had passed to John Hill, grandson of Charles Hill, whilst the larger building outside the walls had become the local police — that is, Irish Constabulary — barracks. The 1831 valuation provides the first accurate survey of the post-1791 site: the Big House measured 76 feet by 22 by 20; the attached flanker tower 26 feet in diameter by 25; a linking section 15 by 10 by 18; and the Wee House and Robinson's House 24½ by 21 by 25. The outbuildings comprised sections of 33 by 21½ by 12 and 44 by 21½ (both with shingled roofs) and a section of 10 by 9 by 16, along with a gatehouse of 19 by 13 by 7. The police barracks measured 26 by 49 by 23½, with a thatched outbuilding of 32 by 21 by 10. The near-contemporary first-edition Ordnance Survey map shows an arrangement similar to today, though the flanker is oddly omitted and the outbuildings are depicted as shorter than the current range. A garden and orchard are shown to the west and south, with what appears to be another orchard to the north-west near the churchyard. The 1836 Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe the entire castle as perfectly plain in every respect, with the dwelling house by no means spacious, its only pretension to the name being a circular tower of brick at one extremity. The revised Ordnance Survey map of 1850–54 shows the outbuilding range as it stands today, with the barracks specifically captioned as "Constabulary Bk." The 1856 valuation lists dimensions similar to those of 1831, but with the linking section — referred to here as a side wing — now 22 feet in breadth, and the outbuildings defined as stables (45 by 22 by 12 feet), byre (33 by 22 by 12), coach house (44 by 22 by 10) and harness house (17 by 18½ by 6½), with a garden house of 16 by 16 by 18 also mentioned; this last may have been the small building marked on the boundary of the southern yard and garden on both the 1830 and revised maps. The Wee House is noted as vacant at this time, and the barracks is noted as having a privy measuring 6 by 6 by 5½ feet. The Constabulary vacated the building in or just before 1874, after which it remained unused until 1889 when — following the death of John Hill the previous year — the whole castle site was sold to Dr George Matthew Thompson. He converted the former barracks to a dispensary and may also have made alterations to the Big House around the same time, possibly replacing the roof, whose overhang appears late Victorian in character. Additional outbuildings may have been added to the south and west of the original range at this time, as shown on the second-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906. In the 1901 Census, the 41-year-old Dr Thompson, a native of Coagh, County Tyrone, is recorded as living here with his County Wicklow-born wife Edith, their four young children, and two domestic servants, one of whom, Isabella Dawson, was only 11 years old. The house is noted as a first-class dwelling with 22 rooms in use by the family. By 1911, five of the Thompsons' by then nine children were occupying the house with their parents, along with a medical assistant, Dr Robert J. Spence, and two domestic servants.

In late 1944, a few months following Dr Thompson's death, the Castle — consisting of the main residence with its gate lodge and two other dwelling houses and 23 acres of land — was sold for £2,000 to Dr Thompson's daughter, Dr Frances Thomas, and her husband, Dr Edward Thomas, who had also taken over the practice. The Thomases retained the property until around 1976 when it was acquired by Dr Thomas's partner, Dr Charles Gibson Lowry, who lived in a house of around 1960s construction built just south-west of the rear yard. The old property was subsequently let to tenants until vacated in 1984. Already listed in April 1976, the property was acquired by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland from the Lowry family in 1988 and became a State Care Monument. A comprehensive conservation project, together with several archaeological excavations, was carried out from the late 1980s onwards and the site was opened to the public in 1996.

The site is sited — possibly unwittingly — on the location of an Early Christian ringfort, and excavations in 1995 by Declan Hurl within two rooms of the main house identified two phases of activity: the most recent from the 18th century, and below this a phase of early Christian activity associated with the rath.

THE BAWN COMPLEX

The bawn consists of eight buildings within a defined boundary wall. All buildings within the complex have traditionally been painted white, creating a striking collective presence in the landscape overlooking Bellaghy village. The sequence of structures across the entire site demonstrates varying levels of security, and the fortified houses are mostly original and unchanged. While the central Big House appears in style like a mid-Ulster country house, it has similarities to other properties in County Londonderry and is an unusual and rare example of a fortified bawn in Northern Ireland. There is also evidence of further 17th-century fortifications on the site. The character of each building is integral to the presentation of the whole.

THE BIG HOUSE

The Big House is a seven-bay, two-storey house of late 18th-century construction. It occupies a central and elevated position within the bawn, with a range of single-storey outbuildings to the south-east, the round tower flanker attached to the south-east corner, the Wee House and Robinson House to the north-east corner, and Craig's House beyond to the north-east. There is a courtyard to the north, a garden to the south-east, and the building is approached from the south via steps leading from a cobbled rear courtyard.

The roof is a natural slate pitched roof with black clay ridge tiles, cast-iron rainwater goods with gutter brackets on a raised eaves course, and a pair of rendered chimneystacks set back from either gable on the ridge. A hipped natural slate roof abuts the east gable and connects to the natural slate roof of the round tower flanker. The entrance porch has a modern flat roof concealed behind a masonry parapet. The walls are rubblestone with a harled and limewashed finish, stepped raised smooth rendered quoins to the principal building, and a painted plinth course.

The front elevation faces north. Openings are square-headed with painted stone cills, and windows are six-over-six pane timber sliding sash, some in pairings with a central mullion. Square-headed door openings have timber frames and four-panel timber doors. The off-centre single-storey entrance porch has an elongated demi-hexagon plan with two-over-two pane timber sliding sash windows, and houses the main entrance door to the east.

The west side elevation is otherwise blank save for two modern vents and an extract terminus. A rendered brick wall connects the south-west corner to a two-storey brick square tower embedded in the western boundary wall.

The rear elevation faces south and is asymmetric and five-bay, with square-headed window openings containing six-over-six pane and four-over-four pane timber sliding sash windows. There are also two arch-headed openings: one containing a twelve-over-twelve pane timber sliding sash window and one containing a fixed-light, single vertical mullion timber window. Square-headed doorways contain a timber multi-glazed-pane double door set and a modern timber two-panel glass door flanked by a semi-circular rubblestone buttress with stone coping. The rear elevation has an elevated stone-flagged patio bounded by rubblestone walls with a harled and limewashed finish and painted stone coping, accessed from the rear courtyard by a flight of cut stone steps flanked at top and bottom by square piers.

The east side elevation is blank save for a single square-headed opening with a one-over-one pane timber sliding sash window.

Despite some alterations to the interior, the Big House retains much of its historic character in the way it connects to the upper and lower courtyards, in the proportions of its external openings, and in its commanding position overlooking Bellaghy village below.

THE SOUTH-EAST FLANKER (ROUND TOWER)

The round tower flanker attached to the south-east corner of the Big House is three storeys in height and has a conical slate roof with lead ridges and half-round cast-iron rainwater goods. The raised eaves course comprises a painted two-course brick and sawtooth brick detail. The tower walls are harled and limewashed with a painted brick sawtooth course at first-floor cill level and at second-floor springer level. Openings are square-headed with stone cills and two-over-two sliding sash windows, along with square-headed door openings with timber frames and timber panel doors. The interior is unchanged and the historic roof trusses remain exposed. The flanker abuts both the Wee House and the Big House.

THE WEE HOUSE AND ROBINSON HOUSE

The Wee House occupies the upper levels and Robinson House the ground floor of a combined two-and-a-half-storey dwelling. The building has a dual frontage onto Deerpark Road and the entrance forecourt to the Big House and bawn, making it integral to the presentation of the bawn within its setting. It is set within an asphalt courtyard bounded by stone walls and accessed by concrete steps to the first floor. A rendered and painted wall adjoins the Wee House to Craig's House to the north, with a single original door opening that is now blocked up. To the south, the Wee House abuts the south-east round tower flanker.

The front elevation faces west and is asymmetrical, two-bay and one-and-a-half storeys. The pitched natural Welsh slate roof has diminishing courses and concrete ridge tiles. Cast-iron gutters with bracketry and downpipes are present. There is a rendered splayed chimney to the south with concrete capping. The walls are painted harled and roughcast rendered with a raised eaves course on a decorative painted toothed brick course, and a painted plinth course. A cross pattress wall tie is located at the centre. Square-headed openings contain a replacement timber sheeted half-glazed doorset and single-glazed two-over-two sliding sash windows with concrete sills. The elevated entrance is approached by parallel concrete steps with steel vertical upright balustrades and handrail.

The rear elevation faces east and is asymmetrical, three-bay and two-and-a-half storeys. Painted metal vents are present at first floor. At ground level, square-headed openings contain a pair of six-over-six single-glazed timber sliding sash windows — the left-hand one with a segment-headed upper sash — flanking a central doorway with a timber-sheeted ledged and braced door set within a segment-headed door frame, with a granite paver and step and granite haunches. This entrance leads to Robinson House.

The north side elevation is blank and is abutted by a single-storey rendered wall with a blank door opening. A single cast-iron downpipe is present. The south side elevation is rendered with similar wet dash and features two sliding sash windows; it abuts the round tower flanker and the Big House.

Boundary walls surrounding Wee House and Robinson House include rubblestone with cement caps to the eastern side, painted brickwork to the western side, and painted stonework with stone coping. Original wrought-iron pedestrian gates are present on the eastern side, and original wrought-iron gates to a gate screen are present on the south side.

THE OUTBUILDINGS

The outbuildings form a linear range of three multi-bay single and one-and-a-half-storey attached buildings of approximately early to mid-19th-century date, set perpendicular to and south of the round tower flanker, forming a rear courtyard with the Big House. The ridge line is stepped, the principal elevation faces west, and there is a boundary wall to the east. The spatial configuration of the outbuildings has been altered from the original agricultural use, though the first outbuilding retains its original cobbled stone floor and timber partitions for use as a stable.

Outbuilding 1 is a six-bay single-storey building with a single-storey catslide roof extension to the east. It has a pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles and cast-iron rainwater goods with gutter brackets. There is a rendered chimney to the east. The rubblestone walls have a raised eaves course with a harled and limewashed finish. Segment-headed door openings have painted brick headers and quoins, with timber sheeted doors and timber frames on integral stone stools. A segment-headed window opening has a painted brick header and quoins and a timber casement window. Square-headed window openings have timber lintels with supporting arches over them, and contain a timber casement window and a three-over-three timber sliding sash window. A square-headed opening to the east is set within a former semi-circular arched opening that is now enclosed. Segment-headed window openings to the north and south of the extension have painted red brick headers and quoins and timber casement windows. A square-headed vent opening is present at the apex of the south gable. The east elevation of the outbuildings also has ghosted impressions of arched openings that have been filled in with brick and rubblestone and limewashed over.

Outbuilding 2 is a four-bay one-and-a-half-storey mid-terrace block with square-headed openings having timber lintels, containing timber sheeted doors, an eight-over-twelve timber casement window and a timber louvre. The east elevation is three-bay with an arrow-slit opening and a pair of square-headed vent openings with timber louvres. The centre opening is set within a former door opening with painted brick quoins, now enclosed. A square-headed vent opening is present at the apex of the south gable.

Outbuilding 3 is a five-bay single-storey building with square-headed openings having timber lintels, containing timber sheeted single doors, a double timber sheeted door, and timber casement windows. The five-bay east elevation has arrow-slit openings and a pair of square-headed vent and service openings. A square-headed vent opening is present at the apex of the south gable.

The outbuildings' setting includes a cobbled courtyard with paving to the north adjacent to Outbuilding 1. Stone steps lead north to the rear of the Big House, with a rendered boundary wall. A rubblestone boundary wall with splayed stone coping forms an enclosure to the west, with a pair of red brick piers with stone pyramid coping and a wrought-iron gate leading to a formal garden enclosure. A rubblestone boundary wall bounds the site to the south. To the east, gardens are enclosed by a stepped rubblestone boundary wall to the road with splayed and curved copings, forming a pier to the south, with a wrought-iron double gate attached to a modern outbuilding to the south. A rubblestone boundary wall with pyramid stone coping is attached to the south corner of the east elevation, with a pair of square piers — one having a stone pyramid coping and one a slate and rendered pyramid coping — and a wrought-iron double gate forming an enclosure to the garden to the east.

BOUNDARY WALLS

The north boundary wall is rubblestone with a harled and limewashed finish and painted stone coping, with evidence of slate beneath the concrete coping. The south boundary wall is rubblestone and brick. The east boundary wall is rubblestone with a harled and limewashed finish and painted stone coping, with evidence of slate beneath the concrete coping; two sections of this wall have a curved form where defence was less of a priority in front of the agricultural buildings, and there are sections that have been poorly repaired or replaced with blocks and cement rendered over. The west boundary wall is rubblestone and brick, partially finished with a wet dash render in the sections closest to the road.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS

A series of excavations have been carried out at the site. In 1989, Nick Brannon undertook excavation to locate the lesser of the two houses within the bawn courtyard, the remains of the 17th-century round flanker tower, and the rampart and gun platform along the west side. This work was concluded in 1990 with further examination of the south-west corner of the early 17th-century bawn. In 1995, Declan Hurl investigated within two rooms of the main house, identifying two phases of activity: the most recent from the 18th century, and below this a phase of early Christian activity associated with the rath on which the site stands. In 2009, Brian Sloan directed a public outreach excavation following a geophysical survey of the fields west of the bawn. Two trenches were opened targeting geophysical anomalies: the first revealed remains of a garden pathway with 19th- and 20th-century ceramics, glass, brick, flint flakes and corroded iron objects; the second produced similar finds of limited archaeological significance. In 2012, Brian Sloan undertook monitoring excavation of two trenches for the installation of drainage pipes. The first trench, adjacent to the exterior of the east bawn wall, showed no archaeological significance. The second trench, running north–south near the remains of the west wall in the area of the 1989 excavation, contained small fragments of animal bone, shell and plastic. An east–west return of the service trench at the northern end revealed a brick-and-mortar wall following the line of the upstanding remains of the bawn wall, with the northern end appearing to bond into another brick wall. This is believed to represent the remains of the circular turret depicted on Raven's map of 1622. These walls were deemed of archaeological significance as construction elements of the bawn and were left in situ.