Royal County Down Golf Club, Golf Links Road, Newcastle, Co. Down, BT33 OAN

Royal County Down Golf Club Clubhouse

The Royal County Down Golf Club clubhouse stands one kilometre northeast of Newcastle in County Down. This Grade B2 listed building is a late Victorian Domestic Revival structure completed in 1896 to designs by the important Irish architect Vincent Craig. The clubhouse was established following the founding of the golf club in 1889 by Belfast businessmen, and the building opened in September 1897 at a cost of £2,200, partly funded by the Belfast & County Down Railway which operated a 'Golfer's Express' service from Belfast each Saturday. Royal patronage was granted to the club in April 1908.

The original two-storey building features a rosemary clay tile roof with dormers, gables and bays. The ground floor is finished with battered Scrabo stone rising to first floor cill level, while the upper storey and bays are rendered. The south elevation presents the principal facade, with an external timber stair rising to a gabled timber porch at right of centre. The porch has recessed central double doors with margins and a segmental fanlight, flanked by glazed sides each containing three large panes topped with small decorative fanlights. Balustrades flank the stair base, now appearing redundant, and pass doors open from either side of the stair base. A tie beam spans the gable with glazing infilled in the gaps. Ground floor windows flanking the stair are segmental tripartite lights. To the left are two small square high-level windows, one louvered. First floor windows on the east side have segmental heads with timber sliding sash and case frames, the upper sash containing twelve panes and the lower a single pane in typical Edwardian manner. To the left of the porch is a similar double window with a comparable single window at far right, and a small high-level square window with central transom further right. Two flat-roofed dormers to the roof each contain casement windows flanking a central pane with small top opener.

The east face of the original building features a segmental tripartite ground floor window matching those to the south, with a similar segmental window of sliding sash and case design at first floor. The north-west corner has two matching two-storey chamfered bays with hipped roofs, their ground floors having two-pane cill-less windows to each face of the chamfers. A lean-to pitched roof spans between the bays, creating a small porch sheltering central two-panelled glazed doors. First floor windows to the bays have segmental arch sash frames in nine-over-one design, tripartite to the front faces and single to the sides. The bays are completely rendered with projecting cill courses at first floor. The western bay was added circa 1992. To its right is a recessed bay at first floor containing two widely-spaced segmental arch windows, with a two-pane window to the left side at ground floor and a small flat-roofed dormer above. Further right is a symmetrical projecting bay with double hipped pitch roof. First floor windows have segmental arch tripartite design on either side, while ground floor windows are tripartite with transoms on either side. The bay roofs carry small pinnacles. The original building has at least three rendered chimney stacks and cast iron rainwater goods.

Extensions and alterations have been substantial. An unsympathetic 1965 extension added £60,000 of development, including additional changing room facilities at ground floor and extensive remodelling of first floor rooms. This addition to the south and east features a large two-storey flat-roofed volume to the south elevation's east side. Its first floor contains large windows with four small modern windows to the ground floor. The original return retains a segmental sliding sash and case window of one-over-one design at first floor and a small modern window at ground floor. The east face of the 1965 addition rises two storeys to the left and three storeys to the right. Ground floor has nine almost equally-spaced top-hung small modern windows. First floor contains two modern window groupings, the left with two large panes each topped by three small high-level windows, the right with three large panes in similar arrangement. The third storey has two modern windows each with one large pane and two small sidelights. First and second floors are rendered with a painted string course between them matching the timber facia board. Ground floor is faced in buff concrete brick. The east face of the 1965 addition is three storeys, with a large modern window to the right of the third floor and a small window at lower landing level to far right. A large clockface occupies the left side of this floor. First floor contains two large modern windows, each with a large lower pane and three small panes above, plus a small landing window to far right. Ground floor has a large central modern window, a steel roller shutter door with oversized fanlight to its right, and a similar but smaller window further right. The far right of this face carries rosemary clay tiling matching the main roof, with the chamfered end face of the visitors bar beyond.

The most recent extension, known as the Centenary Extension, was added in 1989 to designs by Hobart & Heron and was completed circa 1992. This sympathetically handled addition provided a visitors' bar at first floor and ladies' toilets at ground floor. The circa 1992 bay to the far left of the west facade is a two-storey canted bay with hipped roof, completely rendered with ground floor cill-less windows and first floor segmental arch sash windows matching the original design vocabulary.

The clubhouse enjoys a pleasant, well-kept garden setting to the front. The building retains most of its original exterior character and some original interior features, though the 1965 alterations are acknowledged as inappropriate. The railway and its successor the Ulster Transport Authority maintained formal links with the club until 1968.