Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB18/15/010

Address :
Royal County Down Golf Club, Golf Links Road, Newcastle, Co. Down BT33 OAN

Townland:
Murlough Upper

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Survey 2:
B2

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

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Recreational Club

Former Use
Recreational Club

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
255/11 NE

IG Ref:
J3812 3193

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Owner Category

Leisure

Exterior Description And Setting

Located one kilometre NE of the town of Newcastle the clubhouse of the Royal Co. Down Golf Club is a two storey Domestic Revival style building of 1896 by Vincent Craig. The building has a rosemary clay tile roof, dormers, gables and bays, with a battered Scrabo stone finish to the ground floor which rises to the first floor cill level. It was unsympathetically added to in 1965 and sympathetically extended in later in c.1992, the latter to designs by Hobart & Heron. To the right of centre on the south elevation an external timber stair rises to gabled timber porch with recessed central double doors with margins and segmental fanlight. The porch has glazed sides each with three large panes surmounted with a small decorative fanlight. The porch may have had its glazing added since there are balustrades to either side and which now appear to be redundant. The base of the stair has a pass door to either side. Tie beam to gable with glazing now in gaps. To ground floor either side of the stair are segmental tripartite windows. To the west of left hand side are two small square high level windows, one of which is louvered. The first floor has two windows to the east side. Each has a segmental head, timber sliding sash and case frames. The upper sash has twelve panes and the lower has a single pane in typical Edwardian manner. To the left of the porch is a similar double window with a similar single window the far right. To the right again is a small high level square window with a central transom. There are two flat roofed dormers to the roof each with a casement window flanking a central pane with a small top opener. The east face of the original building has a segmental tripartite window, as before, to ground floor with a tripartite segmental window with sliding sash and case windows, also as before,to the first floor. The south face of the original return has a very large two storey flat roofed addition to the east side. The addition has large windows to first floor with four small modern windows to the ground floor. The original return has a segmental sliding sash and case window, one over one design to first floor and a small modern window to ground floor. The east face of the addition is two storey to the left and three storey to the right. The ground floor has nine almost equally spaced top hung small modern windows. The first floor has two modern window groupings. That to the left has two large panes each with three small high level windows over. The arrangement is similar but has three large panes. The third storey has two modern windows each with one large pane and two small sidelights. The first and second floors are rendered. The second floor has a timber facia board. Between the first and second floors is a painted string course which matches the facia board. The ground floor of the addition has a buff concrete brick face. The east face of the addition is three storey. The third floor has a large modern window to the right hand side. To the far right is a small modern window set at a lower landing level. To the left is a large numberless clock face. The first floor has two large modern windows each with a large lower pane and three small panes over. Again to the far right is a small landing window as before. The ground has a large central modern window. To the right of this face is a steel roller shutter door and outsized fanlight over, with a similar but smaller window to the right. The right of this face has a rosemary clay tile roof which matches the main roof. To the far right of this face is the chamfered end face of the visitors bar To the left side of the west façade are two matching two storey chamfered bays each with hipped roofs. The ground floor has a two pane cill-less window to each face of the chamfers. A lean-to pitched roof spans between the bays to give a small porch as protection to the central two panelled glazed door. To the first floor are segmental arch sash windows to each face of the bay as before, with nine over one design. Those to the front face of the bay are tripartite and those to the sides are single. The bays are completely rendered and have a projecting cill course to the first floor windows. The bay to the far left was added c.1992. To the right is a recessed bay to the first floor of which are two widely spaced segmental arch windows as before. To the ground floor is one two pane window to the left side. Above the recessed bay is a small flat roofed dormer. To the right is a symmetrical projecting bay with double hipped pitch roof. The first floor has a segmental arch tripartite window as before either side. Ground floor has a tripartite transomed window as before to either side. The bay roofs have small pinnacles. At least three rendered chimney stacks. Cast iron rw goods.

Architects

Craig, Vincent Hobart & Heron

Historical Information

The Co. Down Golf Club was established in 1889 by a group of Belfast businessmen. The clubhouse was built in 1896, to designs by Vincent Craig, and opened in September of the following year. The building cost of £2,200 and was partly funded by the Belfast & Co. Down Railway, who ran a ‘Golfer’s Express’ from Belfast every Saturday. The railway and its successor the Ulster Transport Authority maintained formal links with the club until 1968. Royal patronage was conferred on the club in April 1908. In 1965 the clubhouse was extended at a cost of £60,000 with additional changing room facilities added to the ground floor and extensive remodelling of rooms to the first floor. The most recent extension, known as the Centenary Extension was added in 1989. This provided a visitors’ bar to the first floor and ladies toilets to the ground floor. References- Primary sources 1 UFTM W.A. Green Collection WAG 3115 Photograph of the Royal Co. Down Golf Club clubhouse c.1910-20. Secondary sources 1 P.J. Rankin, ‘Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in the Mourne Area of South Down’, (Belfast UAHS 1975), p.76. 2 Harry McCaw and Brum Henderson, ‘Royal County Down Golf Club, The First Century’ (Belfast 1988). 3 Fred Hammond and Tom Porter, ‘Tour of the Mournes’ (Belfast 1991). 4 Niki Hill, ‘Celebration of a Century Slieve Donard Hotel’ (Tudor Journals Ltd 1997). 5 Desmond Coakham, ‘Belfast & County Down Railway’ (Leicester 1998), p.41.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

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

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest V. Authorship

Evaluation

This is a late Victorian golf clubhouse in Old English style designed by an important Irish architect, Vincent Craig, which retains most of its original exterior and some of its original interior features, as well as enjoying a pleasant well-kept garden setting to the front. Later extensions vary from those with inappropriate flat roofs in the 1960s to more sympathetically handled red-tiled additions of the 1980s.

General Comments

Date of Survey

02 December 2003