Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB18/13/062

Address :
Burrenwood Cottage 32 Burrenwood Road Burrenreagh Castlewellan Co Down BT31 9DR

Townland:
Burrenreagh

---

Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
05/02/1998 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
Yes

Monument:
No

Derelict:
Yes

---

OS Map No:
255/1

IG Ref:
J3412 3496

---

Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

**Previously recorded in wrong ward under HB18/12/030** One and a half storey, rubble-built orné cottage of c.1820, with long rear wings, whose thatch has been removed and replaced with corrugated iron and asbestos. The property is set within its own extensively wooded grounds to the NE of the Burrenwood Road, roughly one mile S of Castlewellan. Basically the building is J shaped. To the N is the main front section, which with its oversailing hipped roof with tree-trunk supports, is distinctly cottage orné in style. To the E side of the rear of this extends a very long gabled return wing and to the W is a shorter gabled return wing, which merges with some outbuildings. The façade is in random rubble with brick dressings to most of the openings. The long E wing may (in part) have been built in c.1790, with the main front section and W wing added in 1820. The front (N) façade is roughly symmetrical and has a narrow, central one and a half storey projecting porch, with steep gable. To the ground floor of the porch is a panelled timber door with three pane fanlight. Above this (within the gable) is a small four pane window, now with panes boarded up. To either side of the porch is a large (square) window opening. That to the right is now blocked while that to the right has the remains of a segmental projecting timber bay frame set with in a similar opening. The bay windows are also blocked. Both window openings have smooth stone dressings. This main front section has a hipped roof has a large overhang to the N, E, and W facades which are supported on roughly hewn tree trunks, some of which are now missing. There are two symmetrically placed chimney stacks set at 450 at the centre of the ridge line. To the E and W hips are small gabled dormer windows all with sash windows with Georgian panes (9 over 3). The W façade of this main front section has one timber sheeted door (to right), with three pane fanlight over. A section of the roof extends southwards to give shelter to the door. The face is otherwise blank. Merging with the right side of the W façade of the main front section, and well set forward, is a one and a half storey gabled return wing. The (largely) exposed N gable of this has one sash window (with Georgian panes), to an intermediate level (lighting the stair). The main W façade of the wing has one large window opening to the right side (much as main front façade and now boarded over). A small section of roof over hangs the window opening. The roof to this section is also finished in corrugated iron. There is one chimney stack to the left of centre of the ridgeline A wall merges with the far right of this face. The E facade of the main front section is blank. This façade merges with the E facade of the very long E return wing. This has seven small sash windows with Georgian panes (window No.6 has 6 over 3 and all the remaining have 4 over 2). To the left side of the roof are four gabled dormers, as before. There are five quite tall chimney stacks. The first of these (from left) is traditionally shaped while the rest are as before set at 450. All the chimney stacks are in facing brick. To the S this return wing contains an outbuilding(s) The W side of the E return wing has three small sash windows to the left side and a sheeted door to the right. The exposed S face of the E return has one small four pane window. The right of this façade is set back and has which has one small four pane fixed window to the left of the first floor and one larger four pane window to the right. To the ground floor left of centre is a wide opening. (for a small carriage) To the right of this are two sheeted timber doors with three pane fanlights over. To the rear (S) of the front section (sandwiched between the return wings) is wholly single storey (the roof is longer to this side). Here there is a small four pane window to the right and a single storey lean-to bathroom extension to the left. The E face of the W return wing has a small lean-to to the far left. A tall brick chimney stack rises from this lean-to. To the first floor of the (S) gable of this wing is a sash window with Georgian panes (6 over 3). There is a small, lean-to extension to the ground floor of this section with the remains of a timber sheeted do to its E face. To the S of the W return wing are some small single storey outbuildings. To the Burrenwood Road to the W of the house there is a set of decorative cast iron entrance gates with simple octagonal granite gate posts and pass gate. The gates and side screen form a gentle curve. This property appears to have been vacant for some years and is now in poor repair.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Burrenwood Cottage stands on land, which, in the mid 1700s, belonged to Sir John Hawkins Magill of Gill Hall, near Dromore. When Sir John died all of his estate passed to his daughter, Theodosia. Theodosia, who married Sir John Meade (later Earl of Clanwilliam) in 1776, was a very able woman, who, unusually for the age, managed all of her estates personally. Local folk memory suggests that at some point in the latter decades of the 1700s (possibly c.1790), she was travelling from Dromore to Newry, where she was to wait for a ship for bound for England. During her journey (so the story goes), word reached her of an outbreak of small pox at Rathfriland, (where she usually stayed over), and not wishing to stay there, had a house hastily built at her lands at Burren Wood! This original house, which is believed to have been built in six weeks, may have been the east return wing of the present building. Theodosia, 1st Countess Clanwilliam, died in 1817 and left her personal estate to her second son, General Robert Meade. Robert is believed to have extended the original house in c.1820, adding the new orné cottage front section and the wing to the west, as well as increasing the planting around the house. The newly extended ‘Burrenwood Cottage’ is shown on the OS map of 1834 and recorded in the contemporary valuation records (with its rateable value given as £28-5-10). General Meade lived mainly in London, using Burrenwood as a summer residence. After his death in 1852 the Meade family largely abandoned Burrenwood, the property left to the care of trusted tenants. It was reoccupied by a Meade descendant in 1934 who during WWII removed the thatch for safety reason. The house appears to have remained occupied until c.1980s. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI OS/1/3/43 OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co Down sheet 43 2 PRONI VAL/1A/3/43 Valuation maps, Kilcoo (c.1836) 3 PRONI VAL/1B/362 First valuation records, Kilcoo (1836) 4 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), pp.429-31 5 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ]) Secondary sources 1 EHS ‘History of Burrenwood’ by Mrs Meade. [This document is a copy of a typescript of 1934- there is another copy at PRONI.] 2 P.J. Rankin, ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the Mourne area of South Down’, (Belfast UAHS 1975), pp.40-41

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest Z. Rarity

Evaluation

One and a half storey, rubble-built orné cottage of c.1820, with long rear wings, whose thatch has been replaced with corrugated iron and asbestos. The return wing to the east probably represents an earlier house of c.1790 which is reputed to have been built within six weeks. Between c.1850 and c.1934 the property was vacant and largely maintained by caretakers. For this reason it has remained relatively unaltered.

General Comments

Date of Survey

21 January 2000