Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB11/16/013 B

Address :
Beltrim Castle 86 Killymore Road Gortin Co Tyrone BT79 8PL

Townland:
Gortin

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
08/07/1991 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
105-2

IG Ref:
H4885 8640

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached five-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1780-1820. L-shaped-on-plan, facing west, with a multi-bay two-storey rendered return (former seventeenth-century bawn). M-profile hipped natural slate roof, pitched to return terminating in a gable to the east end. Five redbrick chimneystacks to the main house, four rendered stacks to the return, all having replacement terracotta pots. Black clay ridge tiles and lead valleys with cast-iron guttering to iron drive-through brackets on rendered eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Walling is painted rough-cast render throughout. Section of crow-stepped wall to northwest of front elevation. Square-headed window openings throughout with stone sills and timber sliding sash windows. Mainly eight-over-eight with no horns to the main house and the return. Six-pane timber casement windows to the rear (E) elevation to the main house, with a variety of timber or steel casement windows to the north elevation of the return, including some horizontally-glazed two-over-two timber sliding sash windows. Symmetrical five-bay two-storey front elevation with a central elliptical-headed door opening having a double-leaf timber panelled door flanked by sidelights with iron glazing bars on timber panels. Lintel cornice with spoked fanlight having iron glazing bars. Door opens onto concrete step and platform with a further four concrete steps to the front gravel area. North side elevation to main is abutted by a short section of crow-stepped wall continuing from the front elevation. A window to the ground a first floor on the left with the rear pitch of the roof falling to encompass a lower rear section. Two-storey rear elevation is abutted by the earlier return with three small window openings to the right side of the return and a more formal arrangement of three bays with eight-over-eight timber sash windows and a pair of double-leaf timber glazed doors to the ground floor at either end. Six-bay two-storey south elevation to return having a single-bay two-storey entrance bay projection (left of centre). Roof, walling and windows as per main house with a lean-to section to the east of the entrance bay containing a square-headed door opening with a replacement timber panelled door. Rear north elevation to two-storey return with a lean-to five-bay single-storey extension to the left end (c.2000). Setting Located to the northwest of Gortin, built on the edge of a large escarpment to the Owenkillew River (North) and approached via a long gravel avenue to the south, within a large farm with much mature woodland. The rear return is abutted by a single-storey outbuilding, the south wall of which forms part of the ruined 17th century bawn. The rubble-stone wall forms a projecting turret with gothic stone window opening matched by a gothic stone door opening to the right, with modern timber door. A further pair of taller towers to the right, of seventeenth-century origin, remain the most conspicuous remnants of the early fabric of the site. Spanning the two towers is the rear south elevation to a two-storey outbuilding which in turn forms part of the south end of the main farmyard to the east. An extensive range of multi-bay two-storey rendered outbuildings arranged around a yard, the range to the south has been completely renovated to provide additional entertaining accommodation with an outdoor swimming pool to its south elevation. The range to the north is single storey to yard, two storey at rear with arcaded front (elliptical arches); two to left infilled with door and window; three to right open; interior of no interest. To northeast end of the yard is tall stone wall with elliptical-headed carriage arch having a pair of wrought-iron gates, stone coping and a carved stone bell-cote with gothic arch and ball finial. The principal entrance is at the top of Main Street, Gortin and comprises a pair of cast-iron gates on stone piers flanked by matching pedestrian gates, with a modern four-bay single-storey gate lodge. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Render Windows: Timber RWG: Cast-iron

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The building is shown on the first edition OS map, captioned ‘Beltrim Castle’. The second edition of 1854 shows an extra building which is not shown on the third edition of 1905-6. The gate lodge to the south of the complex is first shown on the second edition OS map of 1854, captioned ‘Gate Lodge’. The Townland Valuation from the 1830’s records the occupier as Cole Hamilton, the property is listed as a ‘dwelling house and offices’, the building valuation is revised from £67 10s to £50. Griffith’s Valuation of 1858, also records the occupier of Beltrim Castle as Major Cole Hamilton. The building valuation is £50, and a note is added which reads ‘house and demesne valued for sale at £250. Three gate lodges are entered on the property in total, the lodge in question is occupied Robert [N] and later by a John Donnelly, and this gate lodge is valued at £1. Valuation Revisions record the occupier as Arthur Hamilton. The house and the lodges are valued together at £65 10s in total. In 1892 Richard Hamilton is the occupier; and the house is listed as vacant in 1893. Alistair Rowan claims that Beltrim Castle was, ‘...granted in the early 17th century to William Hamilton who erected a house and bawn here on a steep bank… parts of the bawn remain in the garden wall east of the house: the shell of a flanker, and a round tower of rubble and lime. Beside these is a more picturesque C18 turret with gothic windows dated 1785; so the other bawn remains were possibly ‘improved’ as well. By 1815 the house had become L shaped, with a long thin wing running west from the ruins, probably along the line of the original bawn… [and] about 1820 the house was given its present appearance… the turrets and tower were removed to leave a pleasant Georgian five bay, two storey front…At the north a brief section of wall with crow-steps may remain from the C17’. (1979, pg 311). According to the Northern Ireland Sites and Monuments Database (NISMD), the bawn was described in the 1622 survey [Treadwell Survey] as follows; "…of lyme & stone, 42ft square 7ft high with noe flankers. There is within the Bawne the foundation of a castle 5ft high, but no gates to the Bawne nor any body dwelling there". The NISMD also notes that the ruins of the bawn are incorporated into the garden of Beltrim Castle, but the present remains are difficult to distinguish from C18th garden features. (NISMD). The Civil Survey of Ireland, carried out in 1654-56, notes ‘…the lands in this parish [Bodoney] weare possest in ye year 1641, by Sir William Hamilton knight & Sr Henry Titchburne knight, the only propitiers heare of temporall lands’. Sir William Hamilton is described as a ‘Knight; Scottish Protestant…’(1937, pg 374). Arthur Hamilton is listed as the owner of the lands of Gortin/Beltrim as follows; ‘…Arthur Hamilton claymeth a fee farme of therire two bollibose…Gortyn alias Belltrim…’. (1937, pg 374). (‘Bollibose’ refers to a certain unit of land). Although Sir William Hamilton (descried as a Scottish Protestant) is the main landowner in the area, it is Arthur who appears to own the lands at Beltrim. George Hill’s book ‘An Historical Account of the plantation in Ulster-1608-1620’, prints the Pynnar Survey of 1618, in which the ‘…precint of Strabane, [was] allocated to Scottish undertakers…the Earl of Abercorne, [as] chief undertaker…’.(pg 527). The footnotes record that [?] Hamilton was the First Earl of Abercorn, son of Lord Claude Hamilton, fourth son of the second Earl of Arran’. (pg 527). References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/6/18/1 First Edition OS Map (1833) 2. PRONI OS/6/6/18/2 Second Edition OS Map (1854) 3. PRONI OS/6/6/18/3 Third Edition OS Map (1905-6) 4. PRONI VAL/1/B/643 Townland Valuation 5. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/45A Griffith’s Valuation (1858) 6. PRONI VAL/12/B/39/6A-E Valuation Revisions (1860-1920approx) Secondary Sources 1. George Hill. An Historical Account of the plantation in Ulster-1608-1620. Belfast: M’Caw, Stevenson & Orr, 1877 2. Rowan, Alistair. The Buildings of Ireland-North West Ulster. Penguin: 1979. 3. Civil Survey 1654-1656 Vol III. Counties of Donegal, Londonederry and tyrone. Stationary office, Dublin: 1937.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Detached five-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1780-1820. L-shaped-on-plan, facing west, with a multi-bay two-storey return. The formal appearance of the west front to Beltrim Castle owes its existence to early nineteenth-century improvements which also saw the remains of the seventeenth-century bawn incorporated into a long rear return. The nineteenth-century house retains most of the original features recording its changing history and is a fine example of a modest country house developed on an ancient site. In continuous ownership by the same family, this house is not only of importance locally, but also of national significance. Its associated outbuildings, former bawn and gardens contribute significantly to the architectural and historic interest of the property.

General Comments

Renumbered from HB11/16/013 to HB11/16/013A

Date of Survey

12 February 2009