Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB18/13/040

Address :
Tower in estate wall Hilltown Road Tollymore Park near Bryansford Newcastle Co Down

Townland:
Tollymore Park

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
11/07/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Folly

Former Use
Folly

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
255/5

IG Ref:
J3335 3252

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Owner Category

Central Govt

Exterior Description And Setting

Rubble-built gothick gateway tower set in the wall to the N side of Tollymore Park, one of a series of follies constructed by the 2nd Lord Limerick c.1780. The estate wall runs to the S side of the Hilltown Road, W of Bryansford village, with the gateway tower located just over half a mile W of the village. The tower is square in plan with a cornice, and is in fieldstone rubble. It is capped with a tall pyramidal spire with bap stones to each face and a granite cap with ball finial. To the N and S faces are pointed arch recesses with a springing course and bap stones either side of the arch itself. These recesses represent the original gateway, but this is now filled in (on the N side) with rubble. The E and W faces are abutted by the estate wall and both have stepped flying buttresses. The structure is roughly 2.5m square and 5.5m high. Grass is growing out of the base of the spire.

Architects

Wright, Thomas

Historical Information

This structure is one of the gothick follies constructed by the 2nd Lord Limerick c.1780, to adorn his Tollymore Park estate. Like the other follies, it was probably influenced by the designs of his friend, Thomas Wright of Durham, and originally acted as a small pedestrian gateway. The actual gate itself has been blocked. Locally this structure is known as ‘The Cut-throat Tower’- a man having apparently cut his own throat within the gateway. TOLLYMORE PARK In late Medieval times Tollymore and the townlands surrounding it were under the lordship of the Magennis family of Upper Iveagh. In 1611, Brian MacHugh Magennis received royal confirmation of his ownership of the area when he was given a grant of seven and a half townlands (including the land which now contains the park), from King James I. Tollymore remained in the Magennis male line until c.1685, when Bernard Magennis died childless and the estate passed to Bernard’s sister, Ellen. Ellen was married to William Hamilton and on her death her inheritance passed to their son James. His son, also called James (who inherited the estate in 1701), was created Viscount Limerick in 1719 and Earl of Clanbrassil (of the second creation) in 1728. James, who is popularly remembered under his initial title of Lord Limerick, initiated the development of Tollymore as a naturalistic landscape demesne in c.1720 by enclosing much of the land to form a deer park, commencing large scale tree planting and building a hunting lodge and the ‘Old Bridge’. He also rebuilt the parish church at Bryansford, the small estate village to the north of the park (named after his ancestor, Brian Magennis). In c.1750 he began the construction of a larger house, probably taking advice on its design from his friend, English architect Thomas Wright, who visited Ireland in 1746-47, staying at ‘Tullymoor Park’ in September of the former year. Dr. Pococke, in his ‘Tour of Ireland’ of 1752, comments that his lordship had completed two rooms of his new ‘pretty lodge’ by that date and had also built ‘a thatch’d open place to dine in’ on the south side of the Shimna River. Just to the north of the house the ‘Clanbrassil’ Barn was added in 1757, with the Horn Bridge built (to the south) around the same time. Lord Limerick died in 1758 and was succeeded by his son (also named James), who extended the new house and continued the tree planting begun by his father. In the 1780s he erected the Barbican gate at the eastern entrance of the park, the gothick gate at the Bryansford entrance, the hermitage, the gothick follies and steward’s lodge on the Hilltown Road, and a number of bridges within the park including Ivy Bridge, Parnell’s Bridge and Foley’s Bridge, the last named after his wife, Grace Foley. These additions (which also appear to have been Thomas Wright influenced), as well as the planting, made Tullymore one of the most attractive estates in Ireland. Bernard Scalé’s 1777 map of Tollymore gives some indication of the picturesque appearance of the park during this period with a rolling landscape, much planting, meadows, rivers, streams, and walks through the woods. An advertisement offering lodgings in Bryansford village from The Belfast News-Letter of 26 April 1785, made much of the lodgings ‘most pleasing prospect of the Right Hon. Earl of Clanbrassil’s much admired demesne, which is beautiful to the sight and extensive to the bounds’ and whose wholesome air and ‘herbage on which the goats feed makes it much frequented by ladies and gentlemen for the recovery of lost health’. James, 2nd Viscount Limerick and 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil died without issue in 1798 and the park passed to his sister Anne, the wife of Robert Jocelyn, 1st Earl of Roden. Their son, Robert 2nd Earl of Roden, who inherited the estate in 1802, built the Bryansford and Barbican gate lodges (the latter now demolished). He also erected the obelisk monument to the east of the house, in memory of his second son, James, who met an untimely death in 1812. The earl and his successor, Robert- the 3rd Earl, further developed Bryansford itself, making it ‘a pleasing place of residence for those persons that like a quiet retreat’. A Roman Catholic Church was built at the eastern edge of the village in 1820, school houses in 1823 and 1826, with some labourers’ dwellings and the large dower house (‘The Nest’) around the same time. The 3rd Earl also constructed a water powered saw mill within the demesne, and, in 1865, added another small lodge to the east. He enlarged Tollymore House itself, by adding an additional storey to the wings and a tall (and somewhat incongruous) French chateau style roof to the original central block. Tollymore Park remained solely in Roden hands until 1930 when the 8th Earl sold two thirds of the land to the Ministry of Agriculture for afforestation purposes. In 1940 the remaining third was bought by the Ministry and during World War II Tollymore House and part of the grounds were used by the Army. After the War the house fell into a state of disrepair and was demolished by Lord Roden in 1952. In 1955 Tollymore, the first state forest to be designated a Forest Park, was opened to the public. It has continued to be developed for timber production, recreation, conservation and education purposes since then, and though the ‘big house’ itself may have disappeared, most of the park’s 18th and early 19th century, gates, bridges and lodges have survived. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI MIC.147 Roden Papers 2 PRONI D.465 Roden Papers 3 PRONI D.2647 Roden Papers 4 PRONI T.2647 Roden Papers 5 PRONI T.3438 Roden Papers 6 Walter Harris, ‘The ancient and present state of the county of Down’ (Dublin 1744) 7 Dr. Pococke, ‘Tour in Ireland’ (Dublin 1752) 8 Map of Tollymore Park by Bernard Scalé (1777) [?Original in possession of Lord Roden] 9 ‘Taylor’s and Skinner’s Maps of the roads of Ireland’ (Dublin 1777), map 8 10 Thomas Milton, ‘Seats and demesnes of the nobility in Ireland’ (Dublin 1782-93) 11 Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast News-Letter’ 26th April 1785 12 R. Lewis, ‘The post chaise companion or traveller’s directory through Ireland’ (Dublin 1786) 13 Rev John Dubordieu, ‘Statistical survey of the county of Down’ (Dublin 1802) 14 A. Atkinson, ‘Ireland exhibited to England…’ (London 1823) 15 PRONI OS/1/3/43, 49 OS maps 1st ed. 1834, Co Down sheets 43 and 49 16 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland vol.3: Parishes of County Down I’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1990) 17 PRONI VAL/1A/3/43, 49 Valuation maps, Kilcoo (c.1836) 18 PRONI VAL/1B/362 First valuation records, Kilcoo (1836) 19 Samuel Lewis, ‘Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’ (Dublin 1837) 20 ‘Parliamentary gazetteer of Ireland’ (Dublin 1843-44) 21 ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ]) 22 Maps of Lord Roden’s Co. Down estate (c.1855) [Originals in possession of Lord Roden] 23 W McComb, ‘Guide to Belfast and adjoining districts…’ (Belfast 1861), pp.160-162. 24 PRONI OS/6/3/43/3, 49/3 OS maps 1st rev.1859, Co Down sheets 43 and 49 25 PRONI Second (Griffith’s) valuation records, Kilcoo (1863) [in print] 26 Alexander Knox, ‘History of Co. Down’ (Dublin 1875). 27 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.137-139. 28 UFTM W.A. Green collection WAG 1, 564, 565 Photographs of Tollymore Park etc. c.1900 29 Robert M. Young, ‘Belfast and the Province of Ulster in the 20th century’ (Brighton 1909), p.201 Secondary sources 1 ‘Archaeological survey of Co. Down’ (Belfast HMSO 1966), pp.86, 177-178. 2 EHS Records of the first survey of buildings of historical and architectural interest in Tollymore ward (1972-) 3 P.J. Rankin, 'Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the Mourne area of South Down', (Belfast UAHS 1975), pp.11-19. 4 ‘Tollymore Forest Park’ (HMSO c.1980) 5 Mark Bence-Jones, ‘A guide to Irish country houses’ (rev. ed. London 1988), p.274. 6 F. Hamond and T. Porter, ‘A tour of the Mournes’ (Belfast ?1991) 7 Mícheál B, Ó Mainnín, ‘Place-names of Northern Ireland vol.III- The Mournes’ (QUB 1993), pp.97-101, 114. 8 J.A.K. Dean, ‘The gate lodges of Ulster- a gazetteer’ (Belfast UAHS 1994), p.97-98

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation H-. Alterations detracting from building J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Rubble-built gothick gateway tower set in the wall to the N side of Tollymore Park, with tall spire and distinctive ‘bap’ stone decoration. This structure one of a series of follies constructed by the 2nd Lord Limerick c.1770s-80s, all which appear to have been influenced by the designs of Thomas Wright of Durham.

General Comments

Date of Survey

18 January 2000