Ballyward Lodge, 18 Ballyward Road, Ballyward, Co Down, BT31 9PP

Ballyward Lodge is an early 19th-century one-and-a-half storey, three-bay dormered former hunting lodge, now used as a house, set within an extensive parkland of approximately 53 hectares in Ballyward townland, about 5 miles west of Castlewellan. The building is L-shaped on plan, with a double-height projecting entrance porch and a long 19th-century extension. It is unusually proportioned and characterised by an eclectic mix of classical and Gothic styles, retaining a high proportion of original fabric.

The roof is hipped natural slate with angled clay ridge and hip tiles, leaded valleys, and painted rendered chimneystacks to the gables, central ridge, and returns. There is a timber casement dormer to the rear pitch. Cast iron rainwater goods are carried on a projecting rendered eaves course. The external walls are white-painted ruled and lined render with quoins to the main elevations, and painted roughcast to the remainder. Windows are a variety of timber sashes — 8/8 without horns to the principal elevation, 6/6 to secondary elevations, with some 2/2 sashes and 20th-century casements to the returns — all set within plain reveals with projecting cills. Cills are generally stone, white-painted to the principal elevations, with a small number of concrete sills.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged, with two windows to each floor on either side of a double-height projecting entrance porch with a hipped roof. The upper storey windows are set within gabled wall-head dormers. The porch is lit by a 6/6 window to either cheek. The entrance comprises a four-panelled timber door, with the top panels round-headed, a beaded muntin, and paired bronze knobs and knockers. The door is flanked by sidelights with ornate cast-iron geometric glazing, and the whole is spanned by a cornice surmounted by a large, highly ornate semi-circular cast-iron peacock-tail fanlight with a simple archivolt — a particularly striking and defining feature of the house.

The south elevation is abutted at its extreme left by a flat-roofed, full-height abutment with a castellated parapet. The remainder of this elevation is two windows wide; the upper storey windows are pointed-arch headed 9/6 sashes with interlocking glazing, set within shallow wall-head gablets and separated by a chimneystack, while the lower storey windows are 6/6 sashes. The abutment has an entrance door with four flat panels to the right cheek and a stringcourse over; the left cheek is blank. The south face of the abutment has a pointed-arch sash window to the upper storey and a six-light fixed window to the ground floor.

The rear elevation is abutted at the centre and left side by returns, the central one being longer and wider; both have hipped slate roofs. The exposed section to the right has a 2/2 window to the ground floor and a dormer to the upper storey with a 6/6 sash window. The exposed central section between the returns is lit by a six-light window to each floor, and vestiges of a dormer abut the left-hand return. The central return is accessed at the left end of the south courtyard elevation via a four-panelled timber door in a finely dressed granite surround. At the right end, abutting the main house, a Venetian window is set within a shallow dormer to the upper storey, with a tripartite window beneath; there is a modern insertion and an additional tripartite window to the ground floor, and two additional windows to the upper storey. The remainder of this return has unpainted scratch-coat cement render. The west end has a single 3/6 window. The inner cheek has 20th-century insertions to the ground floor and a contemporary glass brick insertion to the left end, with a 6/6 sash in a dormer to the right end. The left return is lit by three 2/2 sash windows, arranged across the inner cheek and end.

The north elevation — belonging to the north wing — is detailed similarly to the principal elevation, with quoins to the left side only. Fenestration is irregular, comprising two windows to each floor. There is a four-panelled timber door to the right end, with early 20th-century bronze door furniture, surmounted by an inserted sandstone plaque bearing the letter 'H'.

The house was built in 1811 by William Beers, as recorded in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1836, which described Ballyward Lodge as the only gentleman's seat in the parish of Drumgooland. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 confirms the house occupied its current layout at that date, though without the two-storey north return, which had been added by the time of the second edition map of 1859. A plaque on one of the outbuildings is inscribed with the date 1811, suggesting building activity on the site in the early 19th century. The current owners have suggested the site may have origins as far back as the mid-18th century, though the Ordnance Survey Memoirs attribute the current house to 1811. The First Survey Record describes the house as originally built as a hunting lodge for William Beers and subsequently extended on two occasions.

By the 1830s the property had passed to Charles Beers, William's son and a local magistrate. The estate — including the house, outbuildings, and gate lodge — was jointly valued at £31 3s. in the Townland Valuations, with the dwelling individually valued at £12 15s. By around 1862 the Griffith's Valuation recorded the estate in the possession of Francis C. Leslie, who leased it from John S. Crawford of Crawfordsburn, a landowner with 5,748 acres in the area; the total value had risen to £45. Francis Leslie resided at Ballyward Lodge until 1869, when he purchased it outright and leased it to Frederick George Patterson, who resided there briefly until 1884 when the Leslie family reoccupied the property. Between 1891 and 1896 the value of the estate was reduced to £42 15s., for reasons not recorded by the valuer. The 1901 Census building return described the house as a first-class dwelling with 12 rooms and a large number of outbuildings. By the 1911 Census, the house had been let to Dr. Charles R. M. Pattison and his wife Ethel. By 1916, Harriet Jane Barclay had come into possession of the Lodge, and in that year the gate lodge and steward's house received individual valuations, reducing the value of the house and its remaining outbuildings to £34 15s. In 1927 the value was further reduced to £30 when Dr. John H. McBurney took possession, remaining owner through to 1929. By 1969 the Leslie family had relinquished ownership, with a Mr J. Higginson recorded as owner. The house was listed in 1977.

The house is accessed from the east via a winding tree-lined drive leading to a gravel forecourt. In front of the house is an enclosed paddock, accessed from the lane through a pair of wrought-iron gates on roughly dressed stone piers with moulded granite caps. To the west is a lawned terrace and a large formal garden divided into quarters by concrete paths, enclosed on three sides by a high wall — brick to the south-west and north-west, rubble stone to the south-east — and accessed from the lawn through a small pedestrian iron gate. An additional walled enclosure is attached to the south, accessed via a square-headed opening with a wrought-iron gate set in a dressed granite surround. Between the two garden enclosures on the west side stands a one-and-a-half storey gardener's house. To the rear of the house is a courtyard enclosed by the return and farm ranges, screened from the lawn by a rendered wall with a round-headed opening. Although many of the parkland specimens are mature, new planting from the 1950s has reinforced the stock.

The formal ornamental garden to the south, formerly a traditional productive garden, was laid out from the 1950s. The outer walled garden, formerly an orchard, is now in grass. In the mid-19th century there was a summer house in the parkland on a prominent rath planted with beech. A pond with an island on the north side of the road was possibly formerly a decoy pond; it was cleared out in the 1970s, though it has receded in size since the first Ordnance Survey map. Numerous monuments and sculptures were added to the ornamental garden by Higginson in the late 20th century. The house commands views over Ballyward Lake, the high Mournes, and the surrounding countryside.

The house is listed together with a gate screen, and is considered as part of a group with its outbuildings and farm ranges and the gate lodge and gate piers, the setting being understood as originally intended. The site is also recorded as a monument.