Walled garden at Finnebrogue estate, off Finnebrogue Road, Finnabrogue, Downpatrick, Co Down

Walled Garden at Finnebrogue Estate

A relatively large walled garden established in 1802 by John Waring Maxwell (then occupant of Finnebrogue House along with his wife Dorothea), situated roughly a third of a mile north-east of Finnebrogue House and two miles north of Downpatrick, County Down. The garden is no longer cultivated but retains considerable historical and architectural interest, with group value in relation to other listed structures on the estate.

The garden is roughly square in plan, though technically a distorted parallelogram, situated on a slight slope descending north-west to south-east with a long drainage ditch to the south-east. It is divided into two sections and largely surrounded by high rubble and brick walls. The larger portion lies to the north-west; the smaller to the south-east.

The perimeter walls are largely of fieldstone rubble, with brick to the inward side of the north-west wall. This north-west wall has curved ends and a full-height vehicle gateway close to its south-east end, fitted with post-1995 metal gates. The south-east wall features an elliptical-arched vehicle gateway with brick dressings and timber-sheeted double door; above this gateway is a stone panel inscribed "Built by John Waring Maxwell 20th February 1802". The north-east wall is similarly high rubble construction. The south-west wall is lower in parts.

At the intersection of the north-west and south-west walls stands a small lean-to single-storey bothy dating from approximately 1830-1840, with gothick windows and doors. To the left (south-west) of the bothy is a small brick-dressed pedestrian doorway with timber-sheeted door leading into what was the pleasure garden, now overgrown. Built on the outer side of the south-west wall is a small canted summer house, possibly as old as the garden itself but now ruinous.

Built against the inner side of the north-east wall is an overtly modern two-storey flat-roofed house with single-storey glasshouse-like wings, constructed post-1995 on the site of a row of late 19th- or early 20th-century glasshouses and possibly an orangery. The granite base of this house's front must have belonged to a previous building. Outside this wall stands a two-storey gabled gardener's house dating from circa 1840s with rubble façade and brick-dressed openings. This building was greatly extended to its rear (west) in the late 1990s, incorporating a row of single former donkey houses and sheds, largely rebuilt and extended in the process.

The larger portion of the garden is now much overgrown, with a small pond to the south-west of centre. The smaller south-eastern section is bordered to the north-west by the wall with the elliptical-arched gateway and to the north-east and south-west by similar high rubble walls; that to the north-west, which has an elliptical-arched vehicle gateway without a panel above, is much dilapidated to its south-east end. A lower rubble wall forms the south-west boundary, with a drainage ditch and drive to the opposite (south-east) side. To the south-west end of the ditch is a low, recent-looking section of rubble walling with a gateway featuring square brick and rubble gate pillars but no gates.

Within the garden itself, in the north corner, stands a large roughly H-shaped single-storey dwelling constructed post-1995 around mid- to late 19th-century potting sheds and glasshouses. This dwelling is largely of fieldstone rubble with a largely glazed transverse portion and slated gabled roof. The rest of the garden is now lawn.

Historical development shows the garden as originally laid out in 1802 with an orchard in the larger section, other fruits grown in glasshouses, and vegetable and flower beds in the smaller south-eastern garden, with a pleasure garden to the south-west. The garden was shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map without the later buildings except the summer house; by 1858 the bothy, gardener's house and potting sheds to the south-east were present; by 1901 the glasshouses were established. Former gardener Dick Kelly recalled that in 1936 the estate employed 15 gardeners and foresters at two shillings and sixpence per week. By the late 1900s the garden served as a commercial nursery. When the estate was sold in 1995, the garden buildings had largely been abandoned. Since then, most have been renovated: the former potting sheds to the south-east were converted to a dwelling; another dwelling was built around the glasshouses to the north end; the gardener's house was restored and extended; and the bothy was restored.