Walled Garden and Towers, Stuart Hall Demesne, Mountjoy Road, Stewartstown, Co Tyrone, BT71 5AE

Walled Garden and Towers at Stuart Hall Demesne

This walled garden and its associated romantic towers survive as an important group of estate structures, forming a notable part of the significant demesne that once surrounded Stuart Hall. The complex demonstrates good condition with well-executed detailing and remains imposing in scale. The walled garden, picturesque towers, and bartizanned walls together represent an interesting and eclectic collection of architectural features that are a noteworthy survival of the estate's former glory.

The walled garden itself lies to the northwest of the main courtyard, accessed by a winding grass path from the modern forecourt. It is bounded by a storey-height wall forming a parallelogram, built of rubble stonework with irregular capping in places, though some sections have been rebuilt in regular brickwork with cut-stone quoins. The most significant feature is an elliptical-headed archway in the east wall, constructed of ashlar stone with stone voussoirs and surmounted by a vermiculated keystone inscribed 'A.D. 1832.' The garden is set on a level grassed terrace to the west of the courtyards.

On the outside of the north wall stands a short range of lean-to buildings comprising potting sheds and stores, built of rubble stonework with timber doors and windows. To the east of the garden enclosure, on the edge of the terrace, is another related feature consisting of two brick and rubble-stone round towers in a picturesque style, linked by walling and connected to the corners of the outbuildings to form a small secondary walled garden.

The southern tower rises in three stages, with the top two stages rising above the garden walls. The ground floor is rubble stone, whilst the remainder is brick. The first floor features two tall gothic openings on opposite sides, whilst the shorter top floor has very small gothic openings also in the gothic style. All are surmounted by a castellated parapet finished in stone copings and edgings with hit-and-miss brick detailing below. The northern tower is squat and entirely of brick, comprising a ground floor with four gothic doorways (two now containing modern wrought-iron gates), above which rises a parapet with small gothic openings positioned over those below. This tower is also surmounted by a castellated parapet as described above. The linking walls are of rubble stone with roughly squared sandstone quoins, and bartizans of rubble and sandstone are positioned at the corners of the north section of walling.

Historical Context

Stewart Hall, the country house these structures once served, was built circa 1760 by Andrew Thomas Stewart, who became Viscount Castle Stewart in 1793 and Earl Castle Stewart after 1800. The property began as a typically uncomplicated rectangular Georgian block. In 1860, the 4th Earl of Castle Stewart undertook significant baronial additions and embellishments, including the addition of a somewhat ill-conceived Baronial tower to the southeast, with a castellated parapet applied to the original section in an effort to lend the whole unity. The main house was badly damaged by a bomb in 1974 and was demolished in the 1980s, replaced by a present bungalow.

The walled garden is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34 and includes a date stone of 1832. The decorative folly towers are shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1853 and are very much in keeping with the later baronial additions and embellishments made to the house. The outbuildings themselves appear to be largely contemporary with the house, their distinctive quarter-circle plan form shown on the map of 1833–34, and the first valuation of 1835 grades most of the complex as 'old' at that date. According to the valuation records of 1835, the outbuildings measured variously as follows: 87 feet by 17½ feet by 11 feet, 44 by 21 by 16, 80 by 17 by 11, 40½ by 23 by 17½, 61 by 18 by 10, 69 by 17½ by 10, 56½ by 21½ by 16 (with an archway deduction of 9 by 22½ by 10), 58 by 21½ by 16½, 54 by 11 by 6 (a 'newer' structure), 27 by 9½ by 8 (also of more recent date), 41 by 14½ by 7, 88 by 20 by 9, 56½ by 13 by 7, 31½ by 13½ by 7, 56 by 21 by 13, 35 by 20 by 9, 44 by 13½ by 7 (recorded as 'houses outside garden [?offices]'), 33 by 13½ by 10, and 44 by 13½ by 7, with the house itself measuring 90 by 55 by 30 feet with 8-foot high cellars.

Within the complex sits a highly unusual private Presbyterian meeting house or 'chapel', the date of which is uncertain. It does not appear on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1833–34 or 1853–57, but is noted for the first time on the 1906 Ordnance Survey map. The valuers first mentioned it only in 1923 as 'chapel and farm offices', though valuers were generally uninterested in recording religious buildings as these were exempt from rating. Based on this evidence, the chapel appears to have been brought into being at some point in the later 19th century, making it the work of either the 4th or 5th Earls of Castle Stewart.

Setting

The demesne is located to the southeast of Cookstown. Access to the walled garden is by a winding grass path from the modern forecourt to the north of the courtyard. The entrance to the demesne is off Mountjoy Road to the north via a long circular drive which slopes around the west of the walled garden and enters the courtyard at the south. A more grand entrance from the Castlefarm Road to the west, which must have originally been the main entrance, is now kept locked. The demesne is well-wooded and some of the original landscape features survive.