Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB24/07/022

Address :
The Harbour Donaghadee Co Down

Townland:
Donaghadee

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
18/09/1995 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Harbour/ Pier

Former Use
Harbour/ Pier

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
116/16

IG Ref:
J5940 8010

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Owner Category

Local Govt

Exterior Description And Setting

Donaghadee Harbour is made up of two piers constructed between 1821 and c.1834, replacing an earlier harbour which had served the port since 1626. The south pier is connected to a ‘promontory’ and extends from the line of The Parade. It is roughly 277 metres in length and built up on its outer face from local stone (blasted out from the sea bed), with V-jointed Anglesea limestone to its ‘smoother’ inner face. It is sheltered by a (partly stepped) high rampart on the seaward side and has several sets of steps cut into the inner face, to allow access to boats. On the seaward side of the rampart, roughly half way along the pier, is a fairly recent looking look out post. The pier culminates at its end in a circular ‘bastion’ on which stands the light house. There are limestone capstans to tie the boats and a small crane roughly half way along the pier to the inner side. The north pier is readily accessed from the rocky shore line at low tide, but cut off from land at high tide. It is roughly 250m in length as the south pier and its mirror image in terms of plan, however, because of its position and current lack of use its limestone path is now largely covered in grass, moss and weeds. Like the south pier there are two pairs of stone steps cut into the inner face but there are no posts for tying boats nor any of the other add ons.

Architects

Rennie, John Logan, David

Historical Information

Donaghadee has been a haven for shipping for centuries and an important point for communications between Ireland and Scotland. The first of the modern harbours was constructed in 1626, by Hugh Montgomery, the lord of the Ards, expressly to fulfil a royal warrant of ten years previous which restricted travel between the Ards and Scotland to the ports of Donaghadee and Portpatrick, also owned by Montgomery. The original pier, described by Walter Harris in 1744 as ‘a curving quay about 400 feet long and 22 feet wide built of uncemented stone’, was sited at the end of the parade with its back to the open sea and curving towards the south end of the present north pier. This harbour improved by the local landlord, Daniel De la Cherois, between 1775-85 and remained in use until its dismantling in 1832, some time after the new piers were complete. With the advent of larger ships and HM steam packet service between Donaghadee and Portpatrick in the early nineteenth century a new harbour of greater depth was required, and work on the present harbour began in August 1821. The initial plans were drawn up by John Rennie a successful engineer whose previous works included Waterloo and Southwark Bridges over the Thames, but Rennie died in November that year and was succeeded by his son, later Sir John Rennie, who was assisted by fellow Scot David Logan a marine engineer of some repute. The south pier was completed by the end of 1825 followed by the north pier and the light house which was finished in 1834. Almost immediately after this, however, questions began to be raised about the efficiency of Portpatrick-Donaghadee as an official packet service, especially in regard to Portpatrick whose increasingly apparent natural deficiencies as a port had come to make it unreliable and unprofitable. As well as this, faster steamships and the advent of railways meant that other routes such as Belfast-Loch Ryan, Larne-Stranraer had become just as quick, more reliable and, financially, more attractive. Despite the continued promotion of Donaghadee-Portpatrick by the government and Treasury sanction for a rail link to both towns and further improvements to their harbours in 1856, it had increasingly become clear be the early 1860s that the route had been surpassed elsewhere and that further expenditure with regards to Donaghadee Harbour could not be justified. By 1867, official sanction for the route was abandoned and Donaghadee harbour was hence forth only used by fishing boats. References- Primary sources 1. PRONI [There are numerous documents concerning the history and development of Donaghadee Harbour held within PRONI, many dating back to the early 1700s; they are: D.562/375397, 397, 412-13, 415, 434, 475, D.607/589, 1296, D.671/C/12, 81, D.1618/18/1, T.448 (p.330), T.615, T.1073/19, T.1129/370, T.2490. The documents concerning the building of the new harbour and light house (including the ‘Proceedings of the Commissioners for the improvement of the Harbour of Donaghadee’ c.1820-37, are held by the National Archives in Dublin.] 2. Walter Harris The ancient and present state of the County of Down (Dublin 1744). 3. ‘A map of the town of Donaghadee...’, c.1771-90. [This map, in the possession of the owner of the Manor House, High Street, Donaghadee, and was prepared for Daniel De la Cherois, who inherited much of the town and its hinterland in 1771. As Daniel died in 1790, the map can thus be dated to some time between 1771-90. At some point someone has written on the map ‘about 1780’, a date which may be accurate. It shows the original harbour.] 4. Drawing of Donaghadee harbour by Samuel Delacherois 1817. 5. Water-colour of Donaghadee Harbour by D. Kennedy, 1834. [Sections of this painting are reproduced in Hugh Dixon et al Historic buildings, groups of buildings, buildings of architectural importance in Donaghadee and Portpatrick (UAHS 1977)]. 6. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p.46. Secondary sources 1. E.R.R. Green The Industrial Archaeology of Co. Down (HMSO 1963), pp.75-77, plate 33. [This book includes a copy of ‘plans, elevations, and sections of Donaghadee harbour from sir John Rennie’s “British and Foreign Harbours”’.] 2. Hugh Dixon et al Historic buildings, groups of buildings, buildings of architectural importance in Donaghadee and Portpatrick (UAHS 1977), p.21. 3. W.G. Pollock Six miles from Bangor: The story of Donaghadee (Belfast 1975). [This book contains many photographs dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some of which show the harbour.]

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form F. Structural System J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Z. Rarity Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Largely intact late Georgian harbour of national interest with two piers constructed in Anglesea limestone with bases and outer sea walls of local rock. The south pier has an equally largely intact light house of 1834 and an original pier crane.

General Comments

Date of Survey

06 May 1998