Slieve Donard Hotel, Downs Road, Newcastle, County Down, BT33 OAH

Slieve Donard Hotel, Newcastle, County Down

Designed by the architects Young and MacKenzie in association with James J. Farrell of Dublin for the Belfast and County Down Railway, and built between 1896 and 1897, the Slieve Donard Hotel is a large, severely angular, purpose-built hotel that dominates this stretch of the County Down coastline, situated approximately one kilometre north-east of Newcastle town centre. The building work was carried out by W. H. Stephens and Sons of Belfast, and the total building cost amounted to approximately £44,000, though some historical sources have quoted figures as high as £84,000 and £90,000. The hotel opened in June 1898.

The building is four storeys with attics, constructed in smooth red brick with Dumfriesshire sandstone dressings, and designed in an Edwardian free style with steeply pitched roofs. In plan, the building is arrow-shaped, with the shaft pointing north and containing ancillary rooms, while the arrowhead points southward, giving the main bedrooms and public rooms a southerly aspect overlooking Newcastle Bay and the Mourne Mountains. The main portion of the south façade is symmetrical, with east and west wings to either side of a central seven-storey tower.

The tower is surmounted by an octagonal slated spire-like roof, which was rebuilt in 1996 with the loss of the flanking chimney stacks. The spire rests on a slightly projecting eaves, below which is a projecting stone cornice. The fifth and sixth floors are contained within the upper portion of the tower, which is octagonal in plan at this level but square below. To the south face of the sixth floor is a small roundel with keystones set in a carved square decorative surround, itself set on a stone string course. The fifth floor has a paired window to the south face with sliding sash and case frames set within a plain stone surround. The junction between the fourth and fifth floors is articulated by a projecting stone balcony supported on paired carved stone console brackets, with a white-painted decorative cast iron balustrade. The fourth floor paired window on the south façade is framed by the projection of the balcony above, a stone string course below, and console brackets to either side. The third floor has a paired window to the south façade framed by low-relief brick pilasters rising to the underside of the console brackets. The second floor paired windows are surmounted by a semicircular pediment set on a projecting stone cornice, and framed by bas-relief stone pilasters rising to stone console brackets which support the pediment above; the window also has a small projecting stone balcony with a decorative stone balustrade. The first floor paired windows are framed by the projecting balcony above and long carved stone console brackets, with the lower portion of the window obscured by the solid stone parapet of the flat-roofed projecting porch below.

The entrance porch is constructed entirely of stone. To either side of the central doorway are bas-relief paired pilasters rising to support a stone cornice, which is shaped into a segmental arch above the door, enclosing a carved stone panel bearing a representation of the Belfast and County Down Railway coat of arms. The coat of arms rests on a carved banner with the name "Slieve Donard Hotel" inscribed upon it. The central doorway has a semicircular glazed canopy over it. The door screen is recessed within the porch and is a modern ensemble in bronze anodised aluminium, comprising a central glazed revolving door flanked by glazed side-hung single doors.

To either side of the central tower is a semicircular, two-storey, flat-roofed bay with a pierced stone parapet. Behind these semicircular bays, the main wings break northward to create the arrowhead effect in plan. Each wing has a central projecting full-height chamfered bay and is terminated by a similar full-height projecting bay. Each of these bays has a steeply hipped slated roof rising above the main roofline, with a dormer to the front and one to each side. The dormers are stone-faced and topped with triangular pediments with plain tympanums. The bays are three storeys in height and contain double-height ground-floor function rooms. On the ground floor between the bays are matching lean-to conservatories, each with a central projecting faceted bay with a hipped glazed roof; these were added recently, replacing original lean-to colonnaded bays.

Throughout the main façade, windows to the third floor are topped with stone pediments and have plain stone dressings. Second floor windows have stone dressings and plain blocking courses. First floor windows are similar to those on the second floor but are less tall, with the blocking course surmounted by a stone cornice. Ground floor windows are similar to the first floor but taller. Ground floor windows to the front of the bays are mullioned and transomed and are surmounted with semicircular pediments. The projecting bay sections of the roof are hipped, with the original roof portions steeply pitched. Natural slate covers most sections of the roof. All of the chimney stacks appear to have been removed. Metal rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

In recent times a single-storey brick-built extension has been added to the east wing, containing a function room, a swimming pool, and a fitness suite. A single-storey addition — original to the building — is attached to the west end of the west wing, and is finished with a recent semicircular conservatory. To the rear, the north wing has been substantially extended in recent times to create a very large four-storey bedroom wing with attics and dormers, along with a number of other smaller extensions. Single-storey function rooms were added to the west of the west wing, enclosing a small service yard. Despite the scale of these additions, the original design intention of the building has not been diluted.

The hotel is set within its own grounds, bounded to the north by the Royal County Down Golf Club and to the east by the shoreline. The grounds were originally designed by a Mr. Milner of London and included carefully laid-out terraces, tennis courts, and a fine rose garden. Historical sources record that some thirty thousand tons of soil were imported to complete the landscaping work. At the entrance to the long drive leading to the hotel, at the northern end of Downs Road, there are original outer gate screen piers in Dumfriesshire sandstone. These are square in plan with rustication and ball pinnacles. The gates, railings, and inner piers have been removed.

The Slieve Donard was the centrepiece of the Belfast and County Down Railway's ultimately successful effort to attract visitors to Newcastle, a seaside resort that had grown increasingly popular following the arrival of the Downpatrick, Dundrum and Newcastle railway line in 1869 — a line taken over by the Belfast and County Down Railway in 1881. When it opened, the hotel was state of the art, boasting its own electrical generators, telephone, therapeutic salt and fresh water baths, and an in-house laundry. Salt water was pumped directly from the sea to supply the baths. In 1948, the holdings of the Belfast and County Down Railway passed to the newly formed Ulster Transport Authority, who sold the Slieve Donard to the Grand Metropolitan Hotels group approximately two decades later. The present owners purchased the hotel in 1971. The building was severely damaged by a series of terrorist bomb attacks during the 1970s and 1980s, the most damaging occurring in 1973 when the entire entrance foyer was destroyed. Partly as a result of this damage, numerous renovation works, repairs, and extensions were carried out during this period. The most recent phase of remedial work commenced in 1995, and included the completion of a repointing exercise, the removal of the original 7,000-gallon cast iron water tanks from the tower, and the rebuilding of the tower roof. The conservatory-style bar and dining room extensions were also added at this time.