Former steward's house, 4 Hilltown Road, Tollymore Park, Newcastle, Co Down, BT33 0PX

Former Steward's House, Tollymore Park

This is a large, irregular house of around 1855, believed to have been built as the residence of the head steward employed on the Earl of Roden's Tollymore Park estate. Its complex, somewhat rambling appearance is thought to be the result of a radical remodelling, possibly in the late 19th or early 20th century, when the single-storey section to the south may have been added. The building is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1859 and sits close to the Bryansford village entrance to the park. It is privately owned and remains in residential use.

The house is part two-storey, part single-storey, with an asymmetrical west-facing front elevation. To the left and centre of this front, the building is double-pile — that is, it has two gabled bays of two storeys. To the right (south) is a single-storey section. The main entrance is set into the right-hand gable and comprises a panelled timber door flanked by two-pane windows that resemble sash windows. Directly above the entrance is a relatively large window with a frame resembling a tripartite sash, but which appears to be a fixed light. The gable to the left is taller and has windows to both floors, matching those of the first floor of the right gable. The single-storey portion to the right of the right gable has a similar window.

The north elevation consists solely of the north face of the taller gabled section and appears to be blank. The south elevation is single-storey and double-pile, with both gables having an uneven roof pitch. The left gable has a tripartite-framed window matching those on the front elevation; the right gable has a large modern fixed-light window. To the right, the right gable merges into a lean-to section, which has a timber-sheeted doorway facing south.

The east elevation is made up of the east face of the lean-to section (to the left) and the east face of the main two-storey double-pile section (to the centre and right). The lean-to's east face is obscured by bushes but appears blank. Immediately to its right, the lower two-storey gable has two windows to the first floor, both with modern frames, and a four-pane window to the ground floor that resembles a sash window. The taller gable to the right of this has a single window to both floors, both with sash frames with vertical glazing bars in a two-panes-over-two arrangement. The entire façade is finished in lined render and painted.

The roof has an overhang, and the bargeboards on the north side of the lower two-storey gabled section cut across the façade of the taller two-storey section behind. The bargeboards at the east end of the lower two-storey section are pierced; all the others are plain. Both two-storey sections have tall rendered chimney stacks — that to the north rises from the eaves, and that to the south rises from the roof ridge. The right-hand portion of the double-pile section to the south has a small cast-iron skylight set into its roof. All roof sections are covered in natural slate, and cast-iron rainwater goods are used throughout.

Historical Context

The house sits within Tollymore Park, an estate with a long and well-documented history. In the late medieval period, the land was under the lordship of the Magennis family of Upper Iveagh. In 1611, Brian MacHugh Magennis received a royal grant of seven and a half townlands in this area from King James I. The estate remained in Magennis male ownership until around 1685, when Bernard Magennis died childless and the property passed to his sister Ellen, who had married William Hamilton. On Ellen's death it passed to their son James, and his son — also named James, who inherited in 1701 — was created Viscount Limerick in 1719 and Earl of Clanbrassil (of the second creation) in 1728.

This James Hamilton, popularly known by his earlier title of Lord Limerick, began the transformation of Tollymore into a naturalistic landscape demesne around 1720. He enclosed much of the land to form a deer park, undertook large-scale tree planting, and built a hunting lodge and the structure known as the Old Bridge. He also rebuilt the parish church at Bryansford, the small estate village to the north of the park, which takes its name from his ancestor Brian Magennis. Around 1750 he began building a larger house, probably drawing on advice from his friend the English architect Thomas Wright, who had visited Ireland in 1746–47 and stayed at Tollymore Park in September 1746. Dr Pococke, writing in his Tour of Ireland in 1752, noted that Lord Limerick had completed two rooms of his new 'pretty lodge' by that date, and had also built 'a thatch'd open place to dine in' on the south side of the Shimna River. The Clanbrassil Barn was added just to the north of the house in 1757, and the Horn Bridge was built to the south at around the same time. Lord Limerick died in 1758 and was succeeded by his son, also named James, who extended the house further and continued the planting programme. In the 1780s, the second James erected the Barbican Gate at the eastern entrance to the park, the gothick gate at the Bryansford entrance, a hermitage, gothick follies, a steward's lodge on the Hilltown Road, and several bridges within the park including Ivy Bridge, Parnell's Bridge, and Foley's Bridge — the last named after his wife, Grace Foley. These additions, like those of his father, appear to have been influenced by Thomas Wright's designs, and together with the extensive planting, made Tollymore one of the most admired estates in Ireland. Bernard Scalé's map of the park from 1777 gives a sense of its picturesque character at this period, showing a rolling landscape with planting, meadows, rivers, streams, and woodland walks. An advertisement in the Belfast News-Letter of 26 April 1785 offered lodgings in Bryansford village, making much of the 'most pleasing prospect of the Right Hon. Earl of Clanbrassil's much admired demesne, which is beautiful to the sight and extensive to the bounds', and praising the wholesome air and the herbage on which the goats fed as making the place 'much frequented by ladies and gentlemen for the recovery of lost health'.

James, 2nd Viscount Limerick and 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, died without issue in 1798, and the park passed to his sister Anne, wife of Robert Jocelyn, 1st Earl of Roden. Their son Robert, 2nd Earl of Roden, inherited the estate in 1802 and built the Bryansford and Barbican gate lodges (the latter now demolished). He also erected an obelisk monument to the east of the house in memory of his second son James, who died prematurely in 1812. The 2nd Earl and his successor, the 3rd Earl Robert, continued to develop Bryansford village, making it, in the words of one contemporary account, 'a pleasing place of residence for those persons that like a quiet retreat'. A Roman Catholic church was built at the eastern edge of the village in 1820, school houses in 1823 and 1826, and labourers' dwellings and the large dower house known as The Nest were built at around the same time. The 3rd Earl also constructed a water-powered sawmill within the demesne and in 1865 added a small lodge to the east. He enlarged Tollymore House itself by adding an extra storey to the wings and a tall French château-style roof — described as somewhat incongruous — to the original central block.

Tollymore Park remained solely in Roden family ownership until 1930, when the 8th Earl sold two thirds of the land to the Ministry of Agriculture for afforestation. The remaining third was purchased by the Ministry in 1940, and during the Second World War Tollymore House and part of the grounds were used by the Army. After the war the house fell into disrepair and was demolished by Lord Roden in 1952. In 1955 Tollymore became the first state forest in Ireland to be designated a Forest Park and was opened to the public. It has continued to be developed for timber production, recreation, conservation, and education purposes since then. Although the main house has gone, the majority of the park's 18th- and early 19th-century gates, bridges, and lodges have survived.