The walled garden, at Favor Royal House, Favour Royal Road, Augher, Dungannon, Co Tyrone, BT77 OEW

The Walled Garden at Favour Royal House

This walled garden at Favour Royal, near Augher in County Tyrone, dates to between 1720 and 1739 and is one of only a small number of walled gardens surviving in Northern Ireland from this early period. It forms part of the Favour Royal demesne and has group value with other listed structures within the estate, including the main house, lodges, gates, bridges, yard buildings, and a garden cottage.

The garden is constructed of red sandstone walls lined with red brick. It encloses a rectangular area that slopes to varying degrees from north-west to south-east, comprising an inner walled garden flanked on the west, south and east by three slip gardens. These slip gardens are bordered mainly by hedge plantings with trees outside; however, the southern boundary is formed by a ditch, and the northern wall extends along the edge of the western slip to include part of a pleasure garden walk.

Access to the garden is provided by a main gate in the north wall, set within a wide segmental headed archway, from which several traceable pathways lead into the garden. Three additional access points are located on the west, south and east sides. The western access forms part of the pleasure ground walk and consists of two doorways. The outer doorway features an architrave of finely dressed sandstone in Neo-Classical fashion with a moulded ashlar keystone inscribed with the date 1720. A path bordered by the remains of hedges leads from this doorway across the slip into the inner walled garden. A similar, though less ornate doorway with moulded and cut stone surround provides access through the east wall into the eastern slip, which served as the cold-frame or working area for the garden.

The traceable pathways within the garden show a grid pattern layout typical of 18th and 19th century walled gardens, with some paths still lined by the remains of box hedges. Although the planting has long been unmanaged, a mature L-shaped ornamental beech hedge survives in the western interior. Ornamental planted trees include two monkey puzzles, and unmanaged orchard trees, including apple and walnut, are found within the walled garden and associated slips. The remains of two glasshouses stand in the north-west corner, and a south there is an oval-shaped pond-like feature with steps leading into it, which once served as a focal point in the layout.

The former gardener's house is a single-storey vernacular dwelling with a pitched natural slate roof and rendered masonry walls. Its main access is on the east elevation, contained within a large porch. This building contributes significantly to the character and completeness of the walled garden. The gardener's house and garden are both depicted on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map, showing them much as they appear today.

The demesne at Favour Royal was established in 1670 when one of Sir James Erskine's granddaughters married John Moutray; together they built the first house and created the demesne. The original house was destroyed by accidental fire in 1823, and Captain John Corry Moutray subsequently employed architect John Hargrave to design a replacement, which was completed in 1825. This new house, a middle-sized Tudor Manorial Style building, remains the centrepiece of the demesne. The Moutrays were the largest landowners in the valley and held the rental of 36 townlands at one time.

As of January 2006, the dressed sandstone doorcase and dated keystone to the west access, and the cut stone surround to the door on the east wall, are no longer in place.