Ballytrim House, 10 Ballytrim Road, Ballytrim, Killyleagh, Co Down, BT30 9TH

Ballytrim House is a large, two-storey Regency gentleman's residence of around 1815, built with a hipped roof and set within extensive grounds approximately 1.5 miles west of Killyleagh, south of Ballytrim Road. It was constructed by John Lowry, a Downpatrick notary, on land acquired from the How family, who had held much of Ballytrim since the early 17th century. The house was substantially renovated and refitted in the late 1920s in a sympathetic Neo-Georgian fashion, and an extensive complex of outbuildings is attached to the rear.

Exterior

The west-facing front façade is symmetrical and largely covered in ivy. At its centre on the ground floor is an impressive doorway featuring a broad panelled door flanked by Ionic columns, which support an Adam-style entablature with an oversailing cornice. Above the door is a large semicircular fanlight with elaborate fan tracery. This doorway originally belonged to a Georgian residence in Dublin and was installed at Ballytrim in the 1920s; its proportions are arguably slightly large in relation to the rest of the façade. Stone steps lead up to the door. To either side of the doorway at ground floor level is a single sash window with Georgian 6-over-6 panes, a pattern repeated across most of the house's windows. The first floor has three similar windows.

The north façade is considerably longer than the front and sits on a slight slope descending from east to west. It has five unevenly spaced sash windows at ground floor level, all similar to those on the front but of slightly varying size, with five further windows on the first floor. Between the second and third ground-floor windows is a side doorway with a modern glazed door. At the far left, a section of high walling connects to the east wing of the U-shaped outbuilding complex and contains a large elliptical-headed vehicle entrance leading into a courtyard.

The south elevation is more complex, comprising three sections. To the left the roof is hipped; the central section is flat-roofed; and to the right the roof is again hipped but set further back. On the far left at ground floor level is a recently constructed hipped-roof PVC conservatory, above which are two first-floor windows matching those on the front. The central flat-roofed section was raised in height during the 1920s and contains two windows on the ground floor and two on the first floor, all of varying size. The frames are generally of Georgian inspiration and in keeping with the rest of the house, though none appear to be sash windows. On its short east face, this flat-roofed section has a narrow six-pane window on both floors. The recessed section to the right has one sash window at ground floor level and two at first floor level, all as the front. This section abuts the long west wing of the U-shaped outbuilding complex to the east of the main house, which has been integrated with the house itself, possibly in the 1920s.

The west façade of this integrated wing reads as three levels in height, though it rises to the same overall height as the rest of the building. On the left at ground floor level is a partly glazed door, to the right of which is a squat double sash window with 6-over-3 panes on each side. Directly above is a similar window, and on the uppermost floor is a single 6-over-6 sash window. To the right the ground level rises and the wing reduces to two storeys, with three sash windows (6-over-6, 9-over-9, and 9-over-9) at upper floor level. The lower part of the façade at this end is covered in ivy, and a small timber garden house has been placed against it.

The façade of the house and much of the outbuildings is finished in roughcast render, with large sections smothered in ivy. Roofs, apart from the flat central section to the south, are covered in natural slate, and the front (west) portion of the roof has an overhang. There are six chimney stacks, mostly in sand-coloured brick, with tall octagonal clay pots; some of these stacks may have been rebuilt in the 1920s or 1930s. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

Outbuildings

The outbuilding complex is entered from the north through the large elliptical-headed archway described above, which leads into a small courtyard. The east face of the west wing has four doorways and a small six-pane window, with the far right door (partly glazed) giving access to the main house. On the first floor are three unevenly spaced sash windows with vertical astragals forming 2-over-2 panes. The north face of the south block (forming the base of the U-shape) has three stable doors at ground floor level, a small nine-pane window to the left on the first floor, and a timber-sheeted loft door to the right. The west face of the east wing has three large vehicle openings of varying size at ground floor level along with a pedestrian door; the first floor has four windows with modern frames that are not out of keeping with the rest of the building, together with a loft doorway. To the south of the outbuilding complex is a large walled garden. A long single-storey gabled greenhouse abuts the south face of the south wing of the outbuildings, and a further lean-to greenhouse extends from the same elevation and leans against the garden wall.

The Stump

A short distance to the north of the house, to the east of the main drive, is a collection of mid-19th-century farm buildings known as The Stump. On the north side of this grouping is a two-storey rubble-built block with a gabled roof, recently converted to a showroom for locally produced furniture and offices, and now largely fitted with modern window frames. To the south of this block is a three-storey battlemented clock tower with a doorway on its south face and various pointed-arch slit window openings, some of which appear to be modern insertions. A wall spans between the tower and the showroom and office block. Map evidence suggests the present buildings, including the clock tower, were constructed between around 1834 and around 1859, and the tower was possibly built for the benefit of estate workers.

The entrance to the main drive on the south side of Ballytrim Road has a curving gate screen with octagonal piers topped with decorative mushroom-like finials, and decorative late-19th-century-style railings and gates.

Interior and later alterations

The 1920s renovation by owner Thomas McClinton included the addition of the main bathroom, alterations to the internal layout, the construction of a new oak staircase in a different position, and the installation of Neo-Georgian detailing including cornices, ceiling mouldings, and Adam-style fireplaces. New mahogany internal doors were fitted and a new entrance door added. Much, if not all, of the fittings and detailing is believed to have been brought from Georgian residences in Dublin. Electricity was installed at the same time, supplied by a bank of large batteries housed in the outbuildings. McClinton died in 1960.

Historical background

The house is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and recorded in the contemporary valuation as a relatively recently built dwelling, together with its attached outbuildings, which then included stables, a barn, and a cow house. A description of Ballytrim written in 1835 refers to the improvements John Lowry had made there, the house he had built some years previously, and its surroundings of handsome planting, which Lowry had begun in mid-1833.

The Lowry family remained at Ballytrim until 1874, when, two years after the death of John's son Thomas Kennedy Lowry — the former Governor of Jamaica — the house and estate were sold at auction to William Pentland Ringland for £2,100. Sale documents from November 1874 described the dwelling house as containing two reception rooms and six bedrooms, plus three new bedrooms almost finished, a large and productive walled garden well stocked with fruit trees, extensive offices in good order, a long carriage drive, and a handsome clock tower.

The Ringlands sold Ballytrim in 1920 to Samuel King of Lassara House, near Crossgar, for £6,875. King does not appear to have lived at the house and, possibly due to mounting debts, sold it again in 1925 at the substantially reduced price of £2,500. The 1925 sale description recorded three reception rooms, eight bedrooms, a bathroom with hot and cold running water, a dressing room, a lavatory, servant's accommodation, a kitchen, pantries, a milk room, a coal cellar, and a large conservatory opening off the drawing room. The enclosed outside yard contained byres for twelve cows, two loose boxes, a three-stall stable, a harness room, a garage, a hen house, a workshop, a boiling house, a tool shed, an oil house, piggeries, and extensive slated lofts all in good repair. The estate also had a petrol-driven pump supplying water from a nearby lake, and at The Stump an ornamental clock tower and two cottier houses producing five shillings per week.

The present owner, who came into possession of the house in 1980, added the current conservatory and made some minor changes to the internal layout.