Fairy Hill, Church St., Rostrevor, Co.Down

Fairy Hill is a detached house on Church Street, Rostrevor, County Down, built around 1815. It stands within a conservation area and remains in private residential use.

The house was built for Anna Maria Dawson (née Balfour, 1770–1820), the widow of Thomas Vesey Dawson, Rector of Loughgilly, who settled in Rostrevor after her husband's death in 1811 and erected the house on land leased from the Ross-of-Bladensburg estate. The Newry Magazine of 1815 noted that "Mrs. Dawson, relict of the late Dean Dawson, has just finished a house on a very novel plan, which, from its situation, promises to be a charming residence." The house appears to have been originally named Riverside or Riverside Cottage.

Anna Maria was an amateur architect and accomplished draughtswoman of considerable ability. She had previously co-operated with architect Francis Johnston on the rebuilding of her family home, Townley Hall, County Louth, in 1794–96, and had worked with him on improvements to several clergy residences she and her husband occupied. It is considered likely, though not certain, that she had significant input into the design of Fairy Hill — possibly even designing it herself.

After Anna Maria's death in 1820, the lease passed to her family, the Balfours of Townley Hall. Her brother Blayney Townley Balfour (1768–1856), who had married Lady Florence Cole (c.1779–1862) in 1797, eventually held the property. One of their daughters may be the "Miss Balfour" who collaborated with Anna Maria in building "a very neat school house" at the "upper end of the village… for the education of female children," and is likely the "Miss Belfour" listed among the Rostrevor gentry in Pigot's Directory of 1824. By 1829 the Balfours had rented Riverside Cottage to a Mrs Fosbery, almost certainly the same "Mrs Fosbury" recorded in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as occupying the by-then renamed Fairy Hill in 1836.

By the time of the Ordnance Survey Memoirs the house was described as a "handsome ornamented house." The 1834 Ordnance Survey map suggests the building at that date consisted of a front-facing double gable-ended section, with the right (south-easterly) of these connecting to a rear section that appears to have been shorter than it is today, though the small scale of the map prevents definite conclusions. The 1835 valuation records the building's components as measuring 25ft × 32 × 20, with returns of 47½ × 20 × 20 and 22½ × 15 × 9, together with offices of 30½ × 19 × 11 and 17 × 12 × 6 (described as a shed), and a thatched steward's house — which may have stood to the north-east — measuring 28 × 17 × 7, with an accompanying thatched office of 14½ × 17 × 7.

Mrs Fosbery died in 1843, and in 1844 a Captain Smith Ramadge is mentioned in connection with Fairy Hill, though the property continued to be known as Riverside Cottage in some sources as late as 1846.

Upon Blayney Townley Balfour's death in 1856, the house appears to have served as a de facto dower house for the family, with his widow Lady Florence and her daughters taking up residence. Alterations were likely carried out at around this time. The 1860 Ordnance Survey map shows the house in a different, more square-like form, with projections to the front and rear and a large offset section to the northern corner. The 1861 valuation, however, suggests that the overall footprint in terms of square yardage was approximately the same as in 1835. At this date the property was described as an "Elizabethan villa… well finished," with dimensions recorded as 15 yards × 8½ × 2 storeys, 4 × 2 × 2, 6 yards 2ft × 16 × 2, 3 × 5 × 2, and two portions to the rear of 4½ × 8 × 2 and 3½ × 7 × 2. Outbuildings were noted measuring 4 × 3 × 1, 10 × 6 yards 2ft × 1½, and 7 × 6 × 1, together with another house — possibly a replacement for the former steward's dwelling — of 7 × 6 × 2 with a return of 3 × 5, and its own outbuilding of 4½ × 6 yards 2ft × 2.

Following Lady Florence Balfour's death in 1862, Fairy Hill passed to her unmarried daughter Anne Maria Townley Balfour, who remained there until her death in 1892. The property then reverted to the Ross-of-Bladensburg estate and was leased for several years to a J.C. Norton. The 1901 census records Anna Norton, an unmarried woman of 53, as householder, living there with two sisters, six nephews and nieces, and two domestic servants.

Around 1905, Colonel Edmund James Thomas Ross-of-Bladensburg — younger brother of Sir John Foster George Ross-of-Bladensburg of Rostrevor House — became resident and remained until his death in 1926. The house and the entire Ross estate then passed to his eldest daughter, Mary Frances Harriett Angela Ross-of-Bladensburg (died 1946). His sister Miss Kathleen Blanche Ross-of-Bladensburg was the last of the family to live at Fairy Hill; following her death in late 1972, the property appears to have passed to a niece, Mrs Campbell. The 1979 Ordnance Survey map shows the building divided into two dwellings, though it appears to have reverted to single occupancy since then.

Valuations indicate no major structural changes to the house during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, there are notable differences between the plans as shown on the 1860 and 1902 Ordnance Survey maps: the front and rear projections visible on the earlier map do not appear on the later one. Since then, several small additions have been made to the south-west and north-eastern sides of the building.

A significant portion of the grounds to the east and north-east of the house was sold off for housing in approximately the 1990s, with a number of relatively large detached dwellings now occupying that part of the original site. Some decades before that, land on the northern edge of the garden — part of which appears to have originally belonged to Fairy Hill — was given over for the construction of a primary school, whose premises have since greatly expanded. A large detached double garage has been built closer to the house, to the west, in more recent years.