Drumsesk House, Warrenpoint Road, Rostrevor, Co.Down

Drumsesk House is a Picturesque-style villa on the Warrenpoint Road, Rostrevor, County Down, built between 1815 and 1819 and remaining in residential use to this day. It was constructed in three main phases, with the original dwelling forming the eastern portion of the building.

The house does not appear on Williamson's County Down map of 1810, and the Drumsesk Road itself is not shown on that map, suggesting the road had not yet been laid out at that date. Nor does the building feature in the 'Newry Magazine for 1815', which describes properties along the Warrenpoint to Rostrevor road in sequence. The first documentary reference is in Thomas Bradshaw's 'General Directory of Newry' of 1819–20, which lists 'Drumsesk Cottage' as the home of 'Captain Courtney'. This date range is consistent with the house's Picturesque styling and with the existing title deeds, which show it was already standing by 1818.

The deeds suggest the original eastern section was first occupied — and quite possibly built — by Robert Willis (c.1781–1837), who appears to have been a local builder and joiner. In 1818 the house was sold to Edward Rhames Courtenay (c.1773–1825), a Newry-born merchant and captain in the Armagh militia, who by 1816 appears to have acted as agent for the Ross estate at Rostrevor and that of the Halls at Narrowwater. Although 'A History of Nelson Masonic Lodge No XVII' states that Courtenay 'built Drumsesk Cottage, Rostrevor, in which he lived and died', it is more likely that he altered and extended the existing house by adding the L-shaped portion to the west and south. Courtenay is remembered locally for a notable incident in 1793, when he killed fellow Newry man John Thompson of Trevor Hill in a duel fought at Violet Hill in that town. The contest was meant to be fought with swords, but realising he was facing a more skilled opponent, Courtenay drew a pistol and shot Thompson in the head. He is said to have subsequently handed himself over to the authorities, but was never put on trial.

After Courtenay's death in 1825, ownership passed to his widow, Jane (d.1861), who over the next decade or so rented the property to a series of tenants. Among these were Henry Whaley and Christopher St. George Trench, both of whom tragically drowned in September 1828 while 'bathing incautiously' in the sea nearby. The next recorded occupant was Major Samuel Patrickson (d.1836).

By 1834 the house is shown on the Ordnance Survey map — labelled simply 'Drumsesk' — with a plan broadly similar to the present one, though with a different configuration at the northern end. The 1835 valuation records it as 'Drumsesk Cottage', graded 'A' (new), with its component parts measured at 35½ft × 20½ft × 15½ft, 20ft × 17½ft × 15ft (return), and 36ft × 13ft × 10ft (return), together with offices measuring 24½ft × 12ft × 6ft, 25ft × 13½ft × 10ft, 36ft × 17½ft × 13ft, and 13½ft × 14ft × 13ft. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of the following year describe it as a 'bathing lodge', a term that source also applies to several other contemporary villas in the area similarly close to Carlingford Lough, even where they may not have been built expressly for that purpose. The house can be glimpsed in a sketch of around 1835, looking eastwards from the grounds of nearby Rosetta House.

By at least 1846 the house had been leased to Hugh Carleton, a son of Francis Carleton (d.1829), formerly of Green Park, Rostrevor. On Carleton's death in late 1861, the property returned to the possession of Courtenay's daughter, Jane, and her husband Robert Bowen. The second valuation of that same year describes the house as a 'very neat cottage, close to road and sea, well enclosed', with some 'very good' attic rooms. The main section is recorded as measuring 6 yards 2ft × 12ft × 1 storey, with returns of 8 yards 2ft × 6 yards 2ft × 2 storeys, 8 yards 2ft × 5ft × 2 storeys, and 10ft × 4ft × 2 storeys, and offices of 5ft × 8ft × 1½ storeys, 7½ft × 6ft × 1½ storeys, and 11ft × 4ft × 1 storey. These dimensions show the building to have grown since 1835, though whatever alterations were made must have been carried out closer to that earlier date than to 1861, since the valuers classified the whole property as 'not new' (grade B+) in the latter year. The small scale of the surviving Ordnance Survey maps makes any changes to the plan difficult to identify, though it is possible that alterations were made to the northeastern return, which sits slightly awkwardly in terms of scale with the rest of the building.

Over the following fifteen years or so the property passed through a succession of short-stay tenants. The valuation books record William Mayne from around 1864, Robert Browne (possibly Bowen) from around 1867, Colonel (possibly) Benson-Maxwell from around 1871, and the Reverend Cecil Smylie from around 1874. Elizabeth Smylie is listed as occupant from 1875 until around 1882, after which the Benson-Maxwell family may have returned briefly, succeeded around 1884 by Robert Mathers, then in 1886 by Alice Hancock, and around 1891 by Ormsby Vandeleur. The 1901 census records Mr. Vandeleur — who described his occupation as 'gent' — sharing the house with his wife Lucretia, their daughter Georgina, an elderly aunt named Lucretia Tallan, and two domestic servants. The house itself was classified as a first-class dwelling with 13 rooms in use.

In 1906 the rateable value of the property, by this time known variously as 'Drumsesk', 'Drumsesk House', and 'Drumsesk Cottage', was reduced from £39 to £31, apparently owing to its condition. By 1908 the tenant was Marcella Von Stieglitz, recorded in the 1911 census as living there with her grown-up daughters Augusta Sophia and Adelaide Mary and two domestic servants. The Von Stieglitz family were originally from Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic) and had settled in Rostrevor in 1856. Ownership of the house had been acquired in 1895 by the McFarland family of nearby Seapoint Cottage.

In 1913 the property was put up for sale at £850. The sale advertisement described it as containing three reception rooms on the ground floor, five bedrooms, a bathroom, and servants' apartments, together with good stabling and motor accommodation and over half an acre of land. It was sold the following year to the Reverend John W.A. and Margaret Victoria MacWilliam, and the house remains with their descendants today.