Rostrevor House, Greenpark Road, Rostrevor, Co.Down

Rostrevor House is a substantial Elizabethan Revival villa, rebuilt in 1836 to designs by Dublin architect William Deane Butler, on the site of an earlier house of uncertain date. It stands within a conservation area on Greenpark Road, Rostrevor, County Down, and has a complex and well-documented history stretching back to at least the late 18th century.

The original house on this site was built by a William Maguire Esq. and was famously eccentric in its layout. The Newry Magazine of 1815 described it as 'having no uniformity…and the kitchen situated in the upper storey', and the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1836 record that its unusual construction and fitting-out earned it the local nickname 'topsy-turvy'. The property — known by at least the early 1830s as 'Carrickbawn' — was acquired sometime in the late 18th century by David Ross (1729–1809), father of the celebrated Major General Robert Ross-of-Bladensburg (1766–1814). After the Major General's death, the house passed to his widow, Elizabeth Catherine (d.1845), who is said to have enhanced the grounds with new planting around 1820.

The date of the earlier house is not precisely established. It does not appear on Taylors and Skinner's map of 1777, and while a building is shown in the general area on Williamson's County Down map of 1810, it is unnamed, suggesting it may have begun as a relatively modest structure. By the time of the Ordnance Survey map of 1834, however, the footprint was relatively large: a roughly rectangular plan with a shallow projection to the front (east) side, a corresponding recess to the west, and two returns to the north. The valuation book of October 1835 confirms the house at that point was a fairly substantial but relatively low two-storey building, with the main section measuring 99ft x 52ft x 17½ft, returns of 14 x 21 x 18ft and 25 x 16 x 13½ft, and a basement used as servants' rooms measuring 65 x 22 x 9ft. To the north stood scattered freestanding outbuildings measuring 30 x 17 x 10ft and 56 x 17½ x 13ft, together with a large boomerang-shaped productive garden. At the entrance far to the south was a single-storey gate lodge of irregular plan, made up of two offset portions measuring 13 x 10 x 6ft and 22 x 12½ x 6ft. The valuers concluded that the 'concern had been neglected' and that 'two-thirds of the house [is] intended to be rebuilt.'

Specifications for the rebuilt house were drawn up by architect William Deane Butler of Dublin for contractor Thomas Emerson in March 1836. By October of that year the Ordnance Survey Memoirs reported that the old house was 'now pulling down…and rebuilding in the old English style'; the dressings and mouldings were noted as being of granite from the Mullaglass and Killeavy quarries in County Armagh, and the building was expected to make 'a handsome residence' on completion.

The present house appears in its original form on the Ordnance Survey map of the 1860s. A near-contemporary second valuation book describes it as 'a very handsome Elizabethan villa, stone finished, but rather neglected', with the grounds in a similarly uncared-for condition. The measured components recorded at that time comprised: a main body of 15yds 1ft x 6yds x 2 storeys, with further sections of 10 x 5½ x 2 storeys, 3½ x 2½ x 2 storeys, and 20 x 10 x 2 storeys; a porch of 3½ x 3 x 1 storey; projections of 6yds 1ft x 2yds x 2 storeys and 9 x 7yds x 2 storeys; a tower of 3 x 3 x 3 storeys; further sections of 7 x 9yds 2ft x 2 storeys, 9yds 2ft x 10yds x 2 storeys, and 6yds 2ft x 11½yds x 2 storeys (these last three apparently with basements); and a single-storey section of 4 x 6yds. Outbuildings included a coach house of 5 x 10yds x 1 storey and a further outbuilding of 16 x 9yds x 2 storeys. The gate lodge comprised two portions of 3 x 4yds x 1 storey and 4 x 4yds x 1 storey. Elsewhere within the grounds, probably to the north of the main residence, was a 'very badly dilapidated…woodman's house' measuring 16 x 6yds 2ft x 1 storey, together with 'good strong offices' of 13yds 1ft x 6yds 2ft x 2 storeys and 15 x 6yds x 1 storey.

The rebuilt Carrickbawn passed from Mrs Ross to her son, David Ross-of-Bladensburg (1804–66), who does not appear to have lived there permanently — which explains the valuers' comments about neglect. His son, the Reverend Robert Skeffington Ross-of-Bladensburg (1847–92), became a Jesuit priest and bequeathed the property to his younger brother, Sir John Foster George Ross-of-Bladensburg (1848–1925), who created a noted garden here. The name of the house was changed to Rostrevor House at some point before 1901. Sir John left no male heirs, and the entire Ross estate passed to his niece, Mary Frances Harriett Angela Ross-of-Bladensburg. She does not appear to have lived there — she resided at Fairy Hill — and the house is believed to have stood vacant until her death in 1946.

In early 1950, Rostrevor House was purchased by the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, who used it as a non-denominational retreat. Around 1965 they added the large Modernist extension to the north side. An extant drawing shows that this extension was originally intended to be considerably larger, extending further to the north-east. The retreat centre was scaled back in 1998, but the Order remained in occupation until around 2003. The house was subsequently acquired by the late Lord Ballyedmond, whose family held it until approximately 2017, though it does not appear to have been occupied during this period. It was sold again around 2018.