Lurgana House, 4 Lurgana Road, Lurgan, Co.Armagh, BT60 2JW

Lurgana House

Lurgana House is a substantial multi-period country house situated in its own extensive, landscaped grounds at the northern end of Lurgana Road, near its junction with Ballymoyer Road, approximately one mile south-west of Whitecross, County Armagh, and roughly eight miles north-west of Newry. The house is surrounded by mature trees and garden, with a large enclosed farmyard to the south containing extensive rubblestone outbuildings, most of which predate the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834–5. The complex is listed to include the house, outbuildings, walls, and gate piers.

The building represents three distinct phases of construction layered onto one another. The earliest surviving element is a single-storey original house dating from the mid to late 18th century, part of which still stands. Onto the northern end of this was built a two-storey Georgian mill house. Then, around 1857, a substantial Italianate-style villa on an asymmetrical plan was added to the north side of the Georgian block, with the earlier wings retained as a return to the new house. The result is a palimpsest of agrarian and domestic development that is rare in the area and significant as an architectural record of its own evolution over time.

Architectural Description

The mid-19th century Italianate block is the dominant element of the house. It is two storeys, faced in stucco, and presents three formal facades, each with wide eaves carried on large block modillions. All three elevations are elaborately finished with channelled rustication and vermiculated quoins to the ground floor and plain quoins to the upper floor. The roof is natural slate, and there are several stuccoed chimney stacks.

North (entrance) elevation: Three bays. The advanced section on the right has a large tripartite window at ground floor level and paired sliding sash windows in elaborate lugged surrounds with segmental arched heads at first floor. A tall flat-roofed porch projects from the re-entrant angle, with a recessed doorcase with brackets beneath a squat segmental fanlight and a tall arched window opening in the east side of the porch. The left side of this elevation mirrors the arrangement with similar tripartite windows at ground floor and paired sliding sash windows in elaborate lugged surrounds at first floor level.

East (side) elevation: The main two-storey Italianate block occupies the right side with four window openings on each floor, all containing 4/4 timber sliding sash windows. Ground floor windows have moulded surrounds; first floor windows have elaborate lugged surrounds with segmental arched heads. There is a stuccoed chimney to the centre of the ridge. To the left, set back from the main block, is a two-storey hipped-roof block, rendered with ruled and lined finish and plain eaves. This contains a round-arched window opening with a multipane window at quarter-landing level, a smaller window opening to the right at first floor level with a 3/3 sliding sash window, and a window opening at half-landing level on the rear face. There is a tall stuccoed chimney at the valley junction. To the left of this sits the lower Georgian block, which has a single multipane window at ground floor level and no openings at first floor level. It has two ridge chimneys, one brick and one rendered. The single-storey section of the original house is visible to the far left with a pitched roof and no apparent openings. A two-storey range of rendered outbuildings abuts the south side of this original single-storey section.

South (rear) elevation: The rear of the main Italianate block is partially abutted to the left by the lower Georgian wing, and to the right by the stairwell return, which has one window opening at half-landing level on its south face. The Georgian block's rear facade is in turn abutted by the single-storey original block, which is itself abutted by a row of taller outbuildings.

West (side) elevation: Described using Brett's photograph in Buildings of County Armagh (p.196). On the left side there are two window openings with long 4/4 timber sliding sash windows with moulded surrounds, and two shorter windows aligned above with 4/4 timber sliding sash windows, segmental arched heads, and elaborate lugged surrounds. To the right is an advanced section with a single-storey flat-roofed bay window at ground floor level, containing a 6/6 timber sliding sash window to the centre and 2/2 timber sliding sash windows to the splays, with stepped cornicing to the bay. Above the bay are paired narrow 4/4 timber sliding sash windows with segmental arched heads and elaborate lugged surrounds. To the right of this is the lower two-storey Georgian section, with plain sliding sash windows at ground floor aligned with matching windows above, and two ridge chimneys, one brick and one rendered. At the far right, the single-storey original section has a single window opening with a tripartite multipane window with a segmental arched head.

Interior

The original windows survive throughout. The interior has very tall rooms with large windows making them, as Brett noted, light and airy.

Setting and Outbuildings

The entrance to the north-east side of the house from Lurgana Road is through a pair of modest square-plan stone gate piers with small pyramidal capping stones and wrought iron gates, with low stone walling along the boundary. A second entrance on the east side gives access to the house and the northern ranges of outbuildings from Lurgana Road to the south, through squared rubblestone piers. A further entrance, now disused, on Lurgana Road to the south formerly served the farmyard and southern ranges of outbuildings; its wrought iron gates are now broken.

The outbuildings are of various sizes and are mostly rubblestone, some with rendered facades and brick infill, under a mixture of natural slate and corrugated iron roofs. The majority of the larger outbuildings appear to be pre-1834–5 in origin and are generally in a relatively good state of preservation, though one outbuilding recorded as a later addition to the site (shown on the second edition OS map of 1860) is now a ruin.

Materials: The house has stucco walls, a natural slate roof, and timber sliding sash windows. The outbuildings have walls of rubblestone, render, and brick, with roofs of natural slate and corrugated iron.

Historical Context

The history of Lurgana House is closely bound up with the Synnot family, who were one of the most prominent landowning dynasties in the area. Their ancestor Colonel David Synnot, of Anglo-Norman Catholic descent, was Governor of Wexford when the town was captured by Cromwell in 1649. He was betrayed by a subordinate and is thought to have drowned while attempting to flee. His son Tobias or Timothy, rescued from the siege as an infant, was sent to the north of Ireland and raised as a Protestant. Timothy's grandson Richard Synnot (died 1727), Registrar of the Diocese of Armagh, secured a lease of the eight townlands of Ballymoyer parish, including Lurgana, from the Archbishop of Armagh in 1693. Richard's grandson Sir Walter Synnot (1742–1821), a magistrate, High Sheriff of County Armagh in 1783 (knighted the same year), and a prominent local figure, became resident in the parish in 1778 when he built Ballymoyer Lodge — later known as Ballymoyer House — a short distance to the west of Lurgana House.

The site of Lurgana House appears on Rocque's 1760 map of County Armagh, where two structures and a bounded garden are depicted in an area captioned 'Luriganought'. The building orientations and the garden enclosure correspond recognisably to the layout shown on the first edition OS map of 1834–5. The house is also shown, though not named, in Taylor and Skinner's maps of the roads of Ireland (surveyed 1777, corrected 1783, p.286), captioned 'Sinnot Esqr', alongside the nearby Ballymoyer House roughly three-quarters of a mile away on the route from Newtownhamilton to Newry. It is possible that Lurgana was first built as a house for the Synnots' land agent before Sir Walter took up residence in the parish in the mid-18th century.

The house was formerly known as 'Ballymoyer Cottage' or simply 'Ballymoyer', and is known to have been occupied by the Synnots' land agent from at least the late 18th century. The first recorded residents are the Reid family. John Reid was Sir Walter Synnot's land agent during the 1780s, and when Sir Walter became Lieutenant Colonel of the Southern Battalion of the Armagh Regiment of Volunteers, Reid took charge of the Ballymoyer Volunteers, being styled 'Captain Reid' by 1786. In 1797, during the United Irish rebellion, Captain John Reid of 'Ballymoyer' and Sir Walter Synnot wrote jointly to Dublin Castle expressing alarm at the disturbed state of the district; some of this correspondence survives. Synnot described walling up the lower windows of his own house because it was 'very difficult to defend as our windows to the floor are all level with the lawn, and a volley fired in must kill every person in the room'. It can be assumed that the occupant at Lurgana took similar precautions.

In William Shaw Mason's 1816 survey of Ireland, Lurgana (then called Ballymoyer Cottage) is described as a 'very neat lodge' leased by William Reid Esquire, a local magistrate noted as a 'most spirited improver [who] has of late planted a number of trees around his farm, which in a few years cannot fail of adding greatly to the general effect of the landscape'. William Reid was also a resident magistrate at the time of the murder of George McFarland near Newtownhamilton during a period of agrarian disturbances; some of his correspondence on this matter has survived and is discussed in McMahon and McKeown's 1979 paper on agrarian disturbances around Crossmaglen.

The first edition OS map of 1834–5 shows a range of buildings to the north of the site, subsequently demolished, but the majority of the remaining outbuildings have survived. The Townland Valuation of 1837 records Lurgana as a long single-storey house measuring 71 by 21 by 12 feet, with a two-storey addition measuring 35.6 by 20.6 by 16 feet. The two-storey dimensions correspond approximately to the surviving Georgian wing, which appears to have been a later addition to the original single-storey dwelling. Brett identified the remaining single bay as the sole survivor of the original house, with the rest of the single-storey dwelling apparently replaced by a two-storey outbuilding after 1834–5. The quality marks in the 1837 valuation indicate that the main house was slated, built of stone and/or brick, not new, slightly decayed but in good repair, while the two-storey block was noted as being of a later date. Two further single-storey additions are also recorded, most likely corresponding to the northern buildings subsequently lost in the Victorian rebuild. The outbuildings recorded at that date included a hen house, stables, barn, harness room, engine house, and a thatched turf house 84.6 feet in length. William Reid was also noted as proprietor of the nearby corn mill, kiln, and three associated thatched dwellings for the miller, kilnman, and ploughman. Lurgana House was slightly lower in valuation than the neighbouring Ballymoyer House, but the mill and outbuildings raised the overall value of Reid's holding higher.

Shortly after the death of Sir Walter Synnot's son and heir Marcus Synnot (1771–1855), both Ballymoyer House and Lurgana House were remodelled by the Synnot family. At Lurgana, the northern range of buildings was removed and the Italianate villa added, with the Georgian two-storey block and the single-storey original section retained as a return. Ballymoyer House was similarly extended with a Victorian villa added to its north-east facade, the original Georgian dwelling retained as a return. Both new houses first appear captioned on the second edition OS map of 1860, which also shows one additional outbuilding as a new addition to the Lurgana site. It has been suggested that the architect for both houses may have been William Joseph Barre, who designed the rebuild of the neighbouring parish church in 1863–65. However, there is no concrete evidence for this attribution, and Brett judged that the architecture of Lurgana is not representative of Barre's work.

The house and lands at Lurgana were leased by Marcus Synnot (1816–1874), heir and resident at Ballymoyer House, to his brother Parker George Synnot (1824–1901). Griffith's Valuation in the 1860s records Parker George Synnot as tenant of Lurgana House, valued at £55, and also as tenant of the nearby corn mill, kiln, and flax mill, valued at £50. Another brother, Mark Seton Synnot, occupied nearby Ballintate House, valued at £45, while the family seat at Ballymoyer House was valued at £100. A sister, Mary Marcia Synnot (1814–1869), also lived at Lurgana for at least part of her life until her death there in 1869; her will provides details of her possessions and hints at her relationships within the wider Synnot family.

Parker George Synnot was a magistrate, Deputy Lieutenant of County Armagh, and a prominent figure in the Orange Order, serving as first Grand Treasurer of the County Armagh Grand Orange Lodge from around 1850 to 1872, Deputy Grand Master from 1872 to 1886, and Grand Master of Armagh Lodge from 1886 until his death in 1901. Lurgana was on occasion the venue for a 'field' following Battle of the Boyne commemorations. His political prominence in opposition to Home Rule in the 1880s and 1890s may have contributed to an arson attack reported in the Belfast Newsletter in December 1887, when his corn mill and flax scutching mill were maliciously burned. He was awarded £950 in compensation; the corn mill was subsequently restored to working order, but the flax scutching mill disappears from valuation records at this point.

The 1901 census records Parker Synnot having died shortly before the census date. His English widow, Georgina Thorpe Synnot, was living in the house with two sons, a daughter, and four servants — a parlour maid, housemaid, cook, and kitchen maid. The house had ten rooms and was designated first class. The outbuilding return records 25 outbuildings.

Following Parker Synnot's death in 1901, Lurgana House was offered for sale at public auction, described as a 'first-class residence with all necessary out-offices, also corn and threshing mills (water power), good gardens, turf bog etc'. The house was purchased by John King, a substantial farmer within Lurgana townland and a former tenant and associate of Synnot's who had been executor of his will. In the 1911 census, John King was resident at Lurgana with eight of his nine surviving children, with one domestic servant; notably, one of his sons had been named George Synnot King, reflecting the close connection to the Synnot family. The 1906 large-scale map shows a much extended or rebuilt outbuilding and a new addition to the site, as well as a porch on the eastern elevation of the original single-storey house, presumably the original entrance to the dwelling.

A valuation office survey from 1933 records the accommodation as seven bedrooms and a WC upstairs, with four reception rooms, a kitchen, and a pantry on the ground floor, together with a cellar, wash house, and stores. The valuer described it as a 'very good house…in good position', though the accommodation was considered 'excessive'. The dwelling house was of rubble masonry faced in stucco, with roofing materials including slate, lead, and glass. Outbuildings were generally of rubble masonry and slated, with some brick, timber, felt, and corrugated iron also in use. The neighbouring Ballymoyer estate was presented to the National Trust in 1937, and Ballymoyer House was demolished by the remaining Synnot family around 1938. Lurgana House, by contrast, continued in the ownership of the King family. A large-scale map from 1979 shows that two outbuildings were demolished after 1955 and replaced with a large barn; otherwise, the majority of the larger outbuildings appear to be pre-1834–5 in origin and are generally well preserved, though one later outbuilding is now a ruin.

Lurgana House remains in the ownership of the King family as of 2023 and is one of the few surviving structures from the Synnots' once extensive estates. It has been recognised as architecturally important in two published surveys: the Pevsner guide to South Ulster, which describes it as an 'attractive Italianate house [of] two storeys with wide eaves on chunky modillions and three fronts, all elaborately stuccoed with channelling and vermiculated quoins on the ground floor'; and Charles Brett's Buildings of County Armagh, in which Brett notes the survival of the original windows, the very tall interior rooms, and the large windows that make them light and airy, concluding that Lurgana is 'a considerably more interesting and attractive house than appears from a glimpse of it through the trees from the road'.