Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB10/11/001 A

Address :
Holy Hill House, 78 Ballee Road, Artigarvan, Strabane, Co Tyrone BT82 0AA

Townland:
Hollyhill

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Survey 2:
A

Date of Listing:
03/06/1985 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:
60-14

IG Ref:
H3840 9985

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

A detached symmetrical five-bay, three-storey-over concealed basement double-pile house, built c. 1670. The house is square on plan, facing east with full-height canted bay on the north elevation. A number of extensions project from the rear elevation creating an irregular plan here. Hipped natural slate M-profile roof (slightly sprocketed) with angled clay ridge tiles; roughcast chimneystacks with polygonal terracotta pots. Painted roughcast walls; smooth rendered plinth visible at basement level on part of south elevation. Cast iron gutters; internal downpipes not visible on the front elevation. Windows generally timber sliding sash (except where otherwise stated), diminishing to upper floors at front elevation and of various configurations to remainder. Principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged about a central entrance door with lugged sandstone surround and threshold. Entrance comprises double-leaf timber glazed doors with Dutch style timber shutter behind, divided horizontally into three sections. 3/3 windows on second floor, 6/6 on first and 9/6 on the ground (lower windows all replacements). Lean-to additions to either side are screened by painted roughcast flanking wing walls, surmounted by a masonry cap with decorative scroll to angle with main block, terminating with a ball finial to outer edge. South wing features a timber and stud double door with concrete threshold and reveal. North wing has no door (currently boarded up). South elevation is asymmetrical. Painted weather slating to first and second floor right; 8/8 window to left; two 6/6 windows on the ground floor. A modern metal bridge with concrete steps projects from the second window (formerly a door) and over the coal cellar. Single-storey lean-to extension to right with natural slate roof (replacing an earlier glazed roof). Dipartite side-hung 12 light window to left and 3/3 sash to right. North elevation has full height canted bay to right; 3/3 windows on 2nd floor, 6/3 on the first floor and 9/6 on the ground floor, either side of a 9/9 window, extending to ground level with stone slab threshold. Remainder has 6/3 window on 2nd floor, single-storey lean-to extension to left (as before but with UPVC gutters). Rear elevation is abutted by several extensions: at left is a double height gabled extension (c.1850); to centre is a one-and-a-half storey gabled extension linking to the attached outbuilding (HB10/11/001B) at rear, and accessed from the main block by a short skewed link from which rises a twentieth-century lean-to sanitary extension (supported at right by a straight pier rising from the scullery). Exposed section has a single window at first and second floor to left of sanitary extension. Double-height extension has double-glazed French doors with large toplight, all accessed by four stone steps bridging a ditch; three 1/1 windows with horns. Central extension has original four-pane window to attic storey and replacement 3/6, accessed by a timber-sheeted door with brass furniture at south; further gabled addition to south. The skewed link has a single 3/6 window. Sanitary extension has 3/6 windows. Scullery has a timber sheeted door at right cheek and two six-light windows. Setting Holy Hill House occupies an extensive demesne consisting of lawns, mature parkland and pasture, sited on undulating land to the north-east of Strabane town. There is an extensive farm complex to rear with rubble walling (HB10/11/001B-L). It is accessed from the road by wrought and cast iron gates with square stone rubble gate piers to the west of the house which would have formerly been the back avenue. Roof: Pitched natural slate Walling: Whitewashed rubble Windows: Timber sash Rainwater goods: Cast-iron U-profile

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Holy Hill House demesne is located in the townland of Hollyhill and the parish of Leckpatrick. Since the seventeenth century, the house name has variously been recorded as Holyhill, Holihill, Holly Hill and Holy Hill; likewise, the townland name has changed from Balliborne (as recorded on the 1609 Bodley Map), Balliburny (as recorded on the 1655-1667 Civil Survey of Ireland), Ballyburny, Holihill (survey book, c.1680) and Hollyhill. The Townland Valuation Records (1820s) record the “Ho. and offices” of “James Sinclair Esq.” valued at £25.3s.0d. Griffith’s Valuation shows that Captain James Sinclair holds the house in fee. The following buildings are listed all with measurements: porch, main building, basement, addition, rear addition, basement, addition, addition kitchen, dairy, dairy, granary house, coach ho. &c., fowl house, boiler shed, stable, shed, cow house, stable, office, office. A marginal note states “Sawing mill 35x21x13 used only for farming purposes of Captain Sinclair. Wheel 18x2.6x0.10. Fall of water 10 or 20 ft. overshot. Power applied at top.” “Saw Mill” is captioned on the second and third OS Map editions (1855 and 1906). The Valuation Revisions record that the house continues to be owned by the Sinclair family with few changes until around 1926. In 1875, there is a change in value from £40 to £43 and a marginal note: “Laundry built 3 years.” William Sinclair (d.1899), son of James, had served as High Sheriff in Co. Donegal in 1854 and became Deputy Lieutenant of Tyrone in 1876. His grandson, William Hugh Montgomery, served from 1900 in the consular service in Manilla, Boston and Buenos Aires and during that time his mother sold off most of the estate to its tenants between 1904-1905 under the terms of the Land Act of 1903. William married the American heiress Elizabeth Elliott Hayes. Upon her death in 1957, the estate was left to a distant Sinclair relation, General Sir Alan Adair, who sold many of the heirlooms, burned many of the estate records, and sold the property in 1983 to Hamilton Thompson, a chemist of Strabane. (“The Sinclairs of Holyhill”) As part of the Ulster Plantation, the lands were held by the first Earl of Abercorn (died 1618), who granted them sometime before 1611 to his younger brother, Sir George Hamilton of Greenlaw, who built a timber house that year. The Hamiltons resided in Scotland and left the estate in the care of others. A book of Survey and Distribution from c.1680 states that “Ballyburny alias Holihill” belonged to “James Hamilton Esq. a Minor Sonne to Sir George Hamilton ye Elder” before 1641 and was distributed to Sir George Hamilton afterwards. This first house was burned in 1641; and sometime thereafter the property was granted to the family’s agent in the Strabane barony, David Maghee, whose son, Captain George Magee, sold the house to “the Rev. John Sinclair, who came to Ireland from Caithness and was instituted in the parish of Leckpatrick (in which Holy Hill is situated), in 1665-66 and to Camus in 1668” (Young, p.241). The residence purchased was rebuilt after 1641, either by James Hamilton, his son, George, David Magee or his son, George. Young writes that the house received a narrow reprieve from being burned by Jacobite troops upon their retreat from the Siege of Derry (Young, p.241). Sinclair purchased the substantial house with incomes from two parishes; his 1703 memorial re-erected in Leckpatrick Parish Church of St. Patrick (HB10/11/005) praises his staunch defense of the established church and persecution of dissenters. The Abercorn papers contain many letters about and between Abercorn and Sinclair going back as early as 1749. On 14 January 1756, the Earl of Abercorn wrote to his agent Mr. Nathaniel Nisbitt “When you chance to see Mr. Sinclair of Hollyhill, tell him I have not the counterpart of his deed of Holyhill; and that I therefore desire he will give me a copy of it. If he seems to think his title called in question, you may say you know of no such thing, but that you believe I am desirous of having my privileges ascertained.” Upon his retirement in 1757, Nisbitt recommended to Abercorn that Sinclair take his place as he was “a rough honest man.” With income as an Abercorn agent, John expanded his demesne in the late 1760s; he was succeeded at Holy Hill by son George, who had been apprenticed to a linen merchant (“Sinclair of Holy Hill”). George died in Limerick between 1803 and 1804, with his body being buried in the old parish graveyard in 1804. George was succeeded by his nephew, James, who later served as J.P. in both Donegal and Tyrone, and took part in parliamentary inquiries in the 1830s and 1840s, including the Devon Commission and the inquiry into the Orange Order, which he held in very low regard, and spoke in favour of Catholic Emancipation at a public meeting of “the nobility, gentry, clergy and freeholders of the County of Tyrone”. In 1810, James planted “1,412 spruce firs, 62 Scotch firs, 78 ‘silver and balm of Gilead’ firs, 1,520 larches, 1,230 ashes, 171 horn beams, 273 birches, 870 alders, 1,041 beeches and 509 oaks;” he died in 1865 and was succeeded by barrister son William. (Bradley, p.154; “The Sinclairs of Holy Hill”) OS Memoirs are lavish in their praise of “Mr. Sinclair,…the only resident proprietor [in the parish of Leckpatrick] (p.117). “…the prosperity of this new colony is chiefly imputable to the watchful care of the proprietor, whose skill in every department of agriculture enabled him to suggest the most effectual means of improvement, whilst his liberality induced him to supply in a great measure the means. It would afford a good practical lesson to many of our proprietors to visit these newly formed farms. It would suggest, since so much has been done where climate and soil were to be contended with, what might not be done under more favourable circumstances” (p.119). The survey identified a thick wall between the front and back rooms within the main square plan of the house (shown on plan). Along this wall were framed openings, with shelving or sinks inset. These were found to resemble window architraves and corresponded to two at each side on the first floor and one on each side on the second floor. It is likely that this is the previous front to the house. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI T.1652 – Sir Josias Bodley’s plantation maps of all baronies in Co Tyrone 2. PRONI T/371/H – Civil Survey Barony of Strabane (1655-67) 3. PRONI D597/4/1 Petty’s Down Survey maps (c1655-75) 4. PRONI D1854/1/23 – Book of Survey and Distribution (c.1680) 5. PRONI D623/D/1/6 – Abercorn papers – map of Gortcrone c1720-1750 6. PRONI D623/A/15/441 – Abercorn Papers – Letter from Abercorn to Nisbitt (13 Jan 1756) 7. PRONI T2541/1A/1/4/89 – Letter from Sinclair to Abercorn (1757) 8. PRONI D623/A/43/147 – Abercorn papers – letter from Mrs Elizabeth Sinclair to Abercorn (1779) 9. PRONI D623/D/1/22 – Abercorn papers – map of manor of Cloghogle (Jan 1804) 10. PRONI OS/6/6/5/1-3 – Ordnance Survey Maps (1833, 1854, 1905) 12. PRONI VAL/1/A/6/5 – Townland Valuation Map(1828-40) 13. PRONI VAL/1/B/640 – Townland Valuation Records (1828-40) 14. PRONI VAL/2/A/6/5 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64) 15. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/43B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 16. PRONI VAL/12/B/42/22A-F – Annual Revision Records (1860-1925) Secondary Sources 1. Bence-Jones, Mark. “A Guide to Irish Country Houses.” Second Revised Edition. London: Constable and Robinson, 1990. 2. Bradley, J, etc. “The Fair River Valley – Strabane Through the Ages.” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2000 3. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Tyrone I, 1821, 1823, 1833-36, Vol . 5.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1990. 4. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Tyrone II, 1825, 1833-5, 1840, Vol. 20.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1990. 5. Diocesan Histories 6. Dooher, J. “Commit They Work to God: The History and Times of the Sinclairs of Hollyhill.” In Concordia (1995). Cited in “The Sinclairs of Holy Hill.” Chap. In “Bready Ancestry: Bready and District Ulster-Scots Development Association. Http://www/breadyancestry.com/index.ph?id=35. Accessed 17 March 2009. 7. Hutchinson, W. R. “Tyrone Precinct: A History of the Plantation Settlement of Dungannon and Mountjoy to Modern Times. Belfast: W. Erskine Mayne, Ltd., 1951.” 8. Lewis, Samuel. “A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, Comprising the Several Counties, Cities, Boroughs, Corporate, Market, and Post Towns, Parishes, and Villages, With Historical and Statistical Descriptions; Embellished with Engravings of the Arms of the Cities, Bishopricks, Corporate Towns, and Boroughs; Of the Seals of the Several Municipal Corporations.” London: S. Lewis & Co., 1837 9. Reid, Thomas. Travels in Ireland in the Year 1822, Exhibiting Brief Sketches of Moral, Physical, and Political State of the Country: With Reflections of the Best Means of Improving Its Condition. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1823. 10. Roulston, William J. “The Parishes of Leckpatrick and Dunnalong: Their Place in History.” Strabane, Co. Tyrone: Self-published, 2000. 11. Rowan, Alistair. “North West Ulster: Londonderry, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.” Buildings of Ireland Series. Dublin: Penguin Books, 1979. 12. Sinclair Monument, photo in Dillon, Charles and Henry A. Jefferies, ed. “Tyrone: History and Society.” Templeogue, Dublin: Geography Publications, 2000. 13. “The Sinclairs of Holy Hill.” Chap. In “Bready Ancestry: Bready and District Ulster-Scots Development Association. Http://www/breadyancestry.com/index.ph?id=35. Accessed 17 March 2009. 14. “Our Love Families.” Http://www.love-genealogy.com/love-genealogy-generation-07.htm. Accessed 2 March 2009. 15. Young, Robert Magill. “Belfast and the Province of Ulster in the Twentieth Century.” Pike's New Century Series, ed. W. T. Pike. Brighton: W. T. Pike, 1909. 16. “The Parish of Leckpatrick: A Brief History.” Undated packet. 17. “The Church,” “Monuments,” “The Parish,” In “The Area.” “Church of Ireland Church of St. Patrick, Parish of Leckpatrick.”

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

V. Authorship W. Northern Ireland/International Interest Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Holy Hill is a substantial three-storey five-bay country house with seventeenth century origins, located in an extensive demesne north-east of Strabane; sources dating the house back to the Plantation era are associated with the Sinclair and Hamilton families. The house retains its early style and proportions, successive alterations having been built up around the original house, the shell of which is still evident within the interior. Several early features remain intact both internally and externally, and later additions enhance the intrinsic interest of the house, including modifications to allow the insertion of windows from Ballymena Castle. The house occupies an extensive demesne with an exceptionally well preserved farmyard complex to rear (HB10/11/001B-L). The setting is well-preserved and along with the other listed structures on the demesne they represents a rare and important seventeenth group of national importance.

General Comments

Renumbered previously HB10/11/001.

Date of Survey

18 March 2009