Arno'S Vale, 75 Warrenpoint Road, Rostrevor, Co.Down

Arno's Vale is a substantial country house on Warrenpoint Road, Rostrevor, County Down, with origins reaching back to the mid-18th century and a complex history of growth, alteration, and successive occupation by prominent local and regional figures.

Origins and Early History

According to the Newry Magazine of 1815, the original building on this site was a 'neat cottage' built by the Reverend McArthur, Curate of Rostrevor, whose daughter gave the property its name, Arno's Vale. The Reverend McArthur was most likely Denis McArthur, who served as Vicar of Kilbroney in 1736–37, suggesting the original cottage dated from around that time. The Magazine records that this early dwelling was subsequently replaced by a house built by John Darley, the Collector of Customs at Newry from 1762 to 1771, who acquired the property sometime before 1777. The fact that the house was considered notable enough to be included on Taylors and Skinner's road map of that year suggests the original cottage had already been superseded by then. Darley is mentioned again in connection with the house in the 1786 Post-chaise Companion, but by 1789 Thomas Mercer was living there. If the sequence of ownership and occupation described in the Newry Magazine is accurate, then James Moore must have acquired the property between Darley's tenure and Mercer's arrival, and then sub-let it to Mercer while Moore was in India.

Thomas Mercer was a widely-travelled, Dublin-born merchant-captain who amassed considerable wealth trading in India and became a prominent figure in the Newry area. He was also politically active: in July 1792 it was Mercer who delivered a supportive address from the people of Newry to the French National Assembly on the second anniversary of the Revolution, accompanied by a 'patriotic gift' of £173. Following Mercer's death around 1800, the property reverted to James Moore, another leading local merchant, who had married Elizabeth Hall (died 1831) of Narrowwater and assisted in her family's efforts to develop the town of Warrenpoint. Moore died in 1817, and by 1819 Bradshaw's Directory recorded that the Right Honourable James Hewitt (1750–1831), Viscount Lifford and then Dean of Down, was living at Arno's Vale — presumably renting it from Mrs Elizabeth Moore, as there is no indication of a sale. Mrs Moore is still listed as living in the Rostrevor area in Pigot's 1824 Directory, though her exact address is not specified. It is possible that a family named Hawkins occupied the house for a short period in the latter half of the 1820s, though this is not certain.

Sale and Development under Reverend Thomas Carter

The lands of Arno's Vale, described in a March 1829 sale advertisement as situated near the sea shore and comprising sixty Irish acres, together with the 'spacious' dwelling house and a 'large walled garden well stocked with fruit trees', were acquired shortly afterwards by the Reverend Thomas Carter (1765–1849), an English-born cleric who served as Rector of Ballymore from 1803, Dean of Tuam from 1813, and a Magistrate for County Down. The 1835 valuation suggests Carter paid £4,000 for the property.

The Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows the house in a broadly C-shaped plan that is largely similar to the present arrangement, though with a smaller northern wing. The valuation of the following year — grading the building as 'not new' at grade B+/− — records the dimensions of its various constituent parts as follows: 53½ ft x 20½ ft x 20 ft; 53½ ft x 20½ ft x 15 ft (described as 'wing'); 42½ ft x 20 ft x 15 ft; and 42½ ft x 7 ft x 11 ft. The offices immediately to the north were recorded at 52 ft x 19½ ft x 14½ ft, 78 ft x 19 ft x 14½ ft, 63 ft x 13 ft x 12 ft, 45 ft x 19 ft x 11 ft, and 34 ft x 19½ ft x 13 ft. A gate lodge at the main entrance on Warrenpoint Road measured 29 ft x 17 ft x 8 ft, and a steward's house — probably sited further north of the outbuildings, on or near the present site of No. 12 Drumsesk Road — measured 39½ ft x 17½ ft x 7 ft.

Mid-19th-Century Alterations and the 1861 Valuation

By the time of the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1860, the northern wing appears larger than it had been in 1834, indicating that alterations had been carried out after 1835. This is confirmed by the 1861 valuation, which records a greater overall volume. The main section, with its entrance set on the north-south axis to the west side, is noted as measuring 17 yards x 6 yards 2 ft x 2 storeys (18 ft). A glass conservatory measured 6 yards 2 ft x 4 ft x 1 storey. The 'returns' are recorded as: 19 ft x 8 ft x 2 storeys (described as 'very good part of house', probably the southern wing); 3 ft x 5 ft x 2 storeys; 25 ft x 4 ft x 2 storeys (described as 'part office'); 8 ft x 5 ft x 2 storeys (described as 'kitchen etc. — good roof on old walls'); 6 yards 2 ft x 4 ft x 1 storey; and 3 ft x 3 ft x 1 storey. The valuers remarked that the house consisted of 'extended buildings, rather straggling and part old', suggesting a building that had grown organically over time. The extensive offices to the north of the house, all covered in 'old roofing', measured 40 ft x 6 yards 2 ft x 2 storeys, 15 ft x 6 yards 2 ft x 2 storeys, 6 yards 2 ft x 11 ft x 1½ storeys, and 8 ft x 7 ft x 1 storey. The gate lodge and steward's house were recorded as before, but by this point they had been joined by a gardener's house measuring 13 ft x 6 ft x 1 storey. The 1860 map also shows changes to the grounds, including an additional drive to the south-east and another drive branching off the original south-western approach and running parallel with the western boundary of the property.

Later Ownership

By 1860 the property had been acquired by Edward Curteis of Glenburn, County Antrim, through his wife Catherine Elizabeth (née Tipping), the widow of William Frederick Carter (died 1848), a son of the Reverend Thomas Carter. Edward Curteis died in 1865 and Catherine in 1867, after which the property passed to Edward's sister, Mrs Patrickson. By 1868 the valuations record that the house had been acquired by or passed to William Calvert, who leased it to Robert McBlain. By around 1884 Mary Kilpatrick had become the tenant, with David Martin and David Sinton named as joint leaseholders from 1885 and George G. Tyrrell taking over the tenancy in the same year. Tyrrell was succeeded in 1894 by William F. Terry and then around 1898 by Edward Richards. In the 1901 census Richards is recorded as a 76-year-old Dublin-born retired civil engineer, occupying the house with his wife Frances Elizabeth Richards, their four grown-up children, a grandson, and three domestic servants; the house was classified as a first-class dwelling with 14 rooms in use. Richards died around 1903, and by the 1911 census the household had contracted to Mrs Richards, three of her children, and three servants. The property remained with the Richards family, passing first to Herbert Richards around 1912 and then to his sisters Lucy and Amy in 1923. By 1931 the house had been purchased by William Vint Hogg, a Newry-based auctioneer, and it subsequently passed to his son, who was still resident there in 1971.

Condition and Later Alterations

The valuations record no major changes to the house during the later 19th and early 20th centuries, and the footprint of the building appears to have remained largely unchanged from the 1860 Ordnance Survey map through to that of 1979. However, the appearance of the southern wing — with its regular stone-dressed fenestration and overhanging roof — suggests that this section was at least extensively refurbished in the late Victorian period or the early 1900s. In more recent years the house has undergone a more comprehensive refurbishment, with additional sections added to the north and east sides of the northern wing.

The property remains in private residential use.