Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB24/05/001

Address :
Carrowdore Castle, Abbey Road Ballyrawer [ near Carrowdore] Millisle Newtownards Co Down BT22 2JH

Townland:
Ballyrawer

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
20/12/1976 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Country House

Former Use
Country House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
149/4

IG Ref:
J5888 7305

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Large, but relatively compact three storey country house of 1818 in a castellated rustic gothic style. The complex consists of outbuildings including a matching three storey tower, ruinous gazebo and stables and former servants’ dwellings. The house is situated on a slight rise within partly wooded grounds to the NE edge of the small village of Carrowdore. It is basically square in plan with a projecting tower to the NW. It is constructed in rubble with dressings, corner turrets and parapets in red brick and an open porch in sandstone. The roof is largely hipped with Bangor blue slates. The building has a deep set basement. At the corners of the front (NE) and SE facades are turrets which are square and constructed in rubble to the basement and ground floor level, but octagonal and constructed in brick to the first and second floors. There are two central additional turrets to the front elevation. At ground floor level on the turrets there are Cross of Lorraine recesses with brick dressings, (regular) cross recesses to the first floor and slit recesses to the second floor. The front entrance is in the centre of the NE facade and consists of a large,modern timber door with glazed panels of various shapes including quatrefoils, pointed arches etc. The door is set with a large pointed arch opening with intricately glazed large fanlight and sidelights. The doorway has a simple moulded surround. Over the doorway is an open sandstone porch with pointed arch openings, buttressed piers, castellated parapet and pyramidal pinnacles. The porch is approached via steps. To the right (W) on the NW facade is a large ‘round’ projecting tower, which itself has a shorter square two storey projection to the SW which has a rubble built castellated parapet. A high rubble wall extends from the shorter projection and joins with a three storey rubble built gatehouse tower to the S. The rear of the main house has been rendered at some stage. It has a central full height gabled bay, which contains the stairwell. To the ground floor of this bay and extending to cover most of the left hand side of the rear facade is a very large single storey flat roofed timber conservatory/sun room. This extension is largely semicircular in plan and completely glazed. To its right side is a smaller curved conservatory. These extensions are of recent origin, the larger section dating from the early to mid 1970s and the smaller probably from the 1980s. The windows throughout the main house are generally sash with ‘Georgian’ panes, with the window openings decreasing in size on the upper storeys. The front facade has four windows to the upper floors with one to each side of the porch. The SE facade has three to all floors, with that to the left on the ground floor now a door. The NW facade has two to each floor, with three to each floor of the large ‘round’ tower projection. The second floor windows on the tower are the largest and have pointed arch heads. One of the windows on this level is partly blocked. The shorter projection to the SW of the tower has a window to each floor. The window openings to the rear are less regular. To the first landing level on the rear gabled stairwell projection there is a tall pointed arch window with three lights and decorative tracery and stained glass. The basement level has a variety of openings, some of which have been blocked. There is a cill course to the second floor openings on the front, SE and NW facades. The chimneys are rendered. Cast iron rw goods. At the S end of the ‘yard’ to the rear of the main house is a three storey gabled gatehouse tower. It is rubble and brick built, square in plan and though of the same general rusticated style as the house also has a slightly ‘Jacobean’ feel. The ground floor gateway runs from W to E through a large pointed arch with brick dressings. Above this arch (on both E and W faces) is a small-ish pointed arch window, a roundel recess above this and a smaller pointed arch window to the uppermost floor. The W face has square narrow castellated turrets at each side and a bellcote to the gable apex. There is a small plaque on this face which says ‘Delacherois Crommelin 1690’, however, this does not appear to refer to the vintage of the tower. Attached to the S face of the tower is a long two storey rubble built gabled block of former [?servants’ rooms] and stores. These have now been modernised and appear to be holiday homes. Opposite this block (to the E) is a block of stables. The N face of the tower appears to have once had a building attached to it at one stage as there are traces of a fireplace and other openings still visible on it. The tower is was once finished in rough cast render, but much of this has now fallen away. A short distance to the E of the main house, at the end of a high rubble wall, is a now ruinous rubble built gazebo of roughly 3.5m square and three (short) storeys in height. It has the remains of a gabled roof set behind a castellated parapet and openings at all levels, now devoid of window frames or doors. There is an external stone stair (against the S side of the boundary wall) rising to a first floor doorway on the E face. There are remains of timber floors inside. This small building is now in very poor order and partly overgrown with greenery.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Carrowdore Castle was built in 1818-20 by Nicholas de La Cherois-Crommelin, a descendant of a Huguenot family, whose father had inherited land at Carrowdore upon the death of a cousin. Prior to 1818 there had been a farmhouse on the site which Nicholas’s father had used only occasionally, usually as a place to collect rents from his tenants and as a summer residence. After its completion in 1820, Carrowdore Castle served as Nicholas’s primary residence until 1847, when pressing financial concerns forced him to live at Cushendun and rent the house to his son Samuel. The de La Cherois-Crommelin male line came to an end with the death of Samuel’s son, Frederick, in 1902. The contents of the house were sold the same year and the building itself was leased to a number of tenants before being sold to a Mr. McNeill in 1931. The present owner acquired Carrowdore Castle in 1972 and renovated some of the rooms to the rear, as well as adding the large sun room extension. In c.1992, a new dwelling was constructed a short distance to the SW. Since that time Carrowdore Castle has remained largely vacant, save for two ground floor rooms to the SE which are currently leased to Strangford College, a recently founded integrated school. The outbuildings to the south have been renovated recently and now appear to be used as holiday homes. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI VAL 1B/32 Valuation records for the townland of Ballyrawer (Parish of Donaghadee) 1830s. 2 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps 1st Edition 1833/4, Down 7. 3 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps 1st Revision 1858-60, Down 7. 4 PRONI ‘Griffith’s’ valuation for the townland of Ballyrawer (Parish of Donaghadee) 1863. 5 'Belfast Telegraph' (supplement) 16 February 1998 [Article relating to Strangford College]. Secondary sources 1 'Archaeological Survey of Co. Down' (HMSO 1966), pp.355-6 (with plates). 2 Susan E. Pack-Beresford 'Christ Church Carrowdore' (Belfast 1994), pp.42-45 (with photographs). 3 Grace Seymour 'Echoes of Millisle and District' (Rathfriland ?c.1980), pp.139-140.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H-. Alterations detracting from building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Three storey rubble and brick country house of 1818, built in a rustic gothic style, with castellations, corner turrets and large projecting tower. The interior is still largely intact, some rooms to the rear of the house have been altered in recent times and a large modern glazed ‘sun room’ has also been added. The three storey tower to the south has a ‘Jacobean’/gothic feel and appears to be largely intact whilst the similar (but much smaller) three storey gazebo to the east of the house is now in a ruinous condition.

General Comments

Date of Survey

13 March 1998