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

Arno's Vale is a substantial house with a complex building history spanning nearly three centuries. According to the Newry Magazine of 1815, the original house on this site was a "neat cottage" built by Reverend Denis McArthur, who served as Vicar of Kilbroney in 1736–37, suggesting the original structure dates from that period. His daughter gave it the name Arno's Vale. The magazine indicates this cottage was later replaced by a house built by John Darley.

John Darley, Collector of Customs at Newry from 1762 to 1771, acquired the property sometime before 1777. The house was sufficiently notable to be included on Taylor and Skinner's road map of 1777, suggesting the original cottage had been superseded by a more substantial dwelling by that date. Darley is mentioned in connection with the house again in the 1786 Post-chaise Companion. By 1789, however, Thomas Mercer was living there, implying that James Moore acquired and then sub-let the property in the intervening period, if the sequence recounted by the Newry Magazine is accurate.

Thomas Mercer was a widely-travelled Dublin-born merchant-captain who amassed considerable wealth trading in India and became prominent in the Newry area. He was politically active; in July 1792 he supplied a supportive address, together with a patriotic gift of £173, from the people of Newry to the French National Assembly on the second anniversary of the Revolution. 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.

In 1819, Bradshaw's Directory noted that the Right Honourable James Hewitt (1750–1831), Viscount Lifford and Dean of Down, was living at Arno's Vale, presumably renting it from Mrs Elizabeth Moore, as there appears to be no indication of a sale. Mrs Moore is still listed as living in the Rostrevor area in Pigot's 1824 Directory, although her exact location is not stated. It is possible that in the latter half of the 1820s the house was occupied by a family named Hawkins for a short period, though this is uncertain.

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

The C-shaped plan of the house as shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map looks largely similar to the present configuration, but with a smaller northern wing. The valuation of the following year describes the building as "not new" (grade B+/-) and records the dimensions of its various constituent parts as 53½ feet by 20½ feet by 20 feet high, 53½ feet by 20½ feet by 15 feet high (wing), 42½ feet by 20 feet by 15 feet, and 42½ feet by 7 feet by 11 feet. Offices immediately to the north measured 52 feet by 19½ feet by 14½ feet, 78 feet by 19 feet by 14½ feet, 63 feet by 13 feet by 12 feet, 45 feet by 19 feet by 11 feet, and 34 feet by 19½ feet by 13 feet. A gate lodge at the main entrance along Warrenpoint Road measured 29 feet by 17 feet by 8 feet, and a steward's house, probably further north of the outbuildings on the site of the present number 12 Drumsesk Road, measured 39½ feet by 17½ feet by 7 feet.

On the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1860, the northern wing appears larger, indicating that some alterations had been carried out after 1835. The 1861 valuation confirms these changes, recording a greater volume overall. The main section with the entrance set on the north-south axis to the west side measured 17 yards by 6 yards 2 feet by 2 storeys (18 feet high). A glass conservatory measured 6 yards 2 feet by 4 yards by 1 storey. Returns measured 19 yards by 8 yards by 2 storeys (described as "very good part of house", probably the southern wing), 3 yards by 5 yards by 2 storeys, 25 yards by 4 yards by 2 storeys ("part office"), 8 yards by 5 yards by 2 storeys ("kitchen etc. - good roof on old walls"), 6 yards 2 feet by 4 yards by 1 storey, and 3 yards by 3 yards by 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 the years.

To the north of the house, the extensive offices, all covered in old roofing, measured 40 yards by 6 yards 2 feet by 2 storeys, 15 yards by 6 yards 2 feet by 2 storeys, 6 yards 2 feet by 11 yards by 1½ storeys, and 8 yards by 7 yards by 1 storey. The lodge and the steward's house are recorded as before, but by this point they had been joined by a gardener's house measuring 13 yards by 6 yards by 1 storey. Changes to the grounds had also been undertaken during this period, as the 1860 map shows an additional drive to the south-east and another branching off the original south-western drive and running parallel with the western boundary of the property.

By 1860, Arno's Vale had been acquired by Edward Curteis of Glenburn, County Antrim, via his wife Catherine Elizabeth (née Tipping), the widow of William Frederick Carter (died 1848), a son of Reverend Thomas Carter. Edward died in 1865 and Catherine in 1867, and the property passed to Edward's sister, Mrs Patrickson. By 1868, according to the valuations, the house had been acquired by or passed to William Calvert, who leased it to Robert McBlain. By around 1884, Mary Kilpatrick had become 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, the Dublin-born Richards is recorded as a 76-year-old 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 itself is noted as a first-class dwelling with 14 rooms in use. Mr Richards died around 1903, and in the 1911 census the household had shrunk to Mrs Richards, three of her children, and three servants.

The property remained with the Richards family, first passing to Herbert Richards around 1912, and then to his sisters Lucy and Amy in 1923. By 1931 it had been bought by William Vint Hogg, a Newry-based auctioneer, and later passed to his son, who was still living there in 1971.

The valuations do not record any major changes to the house in the course of the later 19th and early 20th centuries, and the footprint of the building appears largely unaltered from the 1860 Ordnance Survey map up until that of 1979. However, the appearance of the southern wing, with its regular stone-dressed fenestration and overhanging roof, suggests that this section at least was extensively refurbished in the late Victorian period or 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.