Moore Fort, Ballymoney, County Antrim 

Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London. 

p. 211. (Moore/LGI1912) A gable-ended house of two storeys with an attic lit by windows in the gable ends, and with a five bay front; built 1833, but from its appearance could be C18. Porch in the form of a pilastered single-storey three sided bow, with fanlighted doorway in the angle wall. Inner door with Gothic astragals.” 

www.nihgt.org/resources/pdf/Register_of_Parks_Gardens_Demesnes-NOV20.pdf 

MOORE FORT, County Antrim (AP CAUSEWAY COAST AND GLENS 05AP) An-054 
REGISTERED GRADE B 
Early Victorian parkland (65 acres/26.6ha) located on an elevated site over the River Bann, 2.5 
miles (4.1km) west of Ballymoney in the townland of Drumaheglis. The focal point is a typical late 
Georgian gable-ended two-storey five–bay stuccoed house (Listed HB 04/01/009), built in 1833, 
together with associated yards for James Moore, a distiller with premises on the north-west of 
the demesne. It replaced an earlier residence of the Moore family who were first recorded living 
here in 1729. However, the present landscape dates to the 1830s and its mature trees still frame 
fine parkland views across lawns, notably to the south. There are two flower gardens to the west 
of the house, one of which is centred on an ice house; to the north are two ranges of early 
Victorian outbuildings either side of the large rectangular yard with an early 20th century barn on 
the south-west. The productive garden, partly walled, lies to the east of the house and is 
mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837; this was originally of long rectangular form 
(1.03 acres/0.4ha), later it was subdivided with the walled inner section (0.4 acres/0.16ha) being 
used as a garden; a slip garden on one side contained the glasshouse. The avenue is planted up as 

Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020 
mixed woodlands, some of which are contemporary with the house. An inner shelter belt to the 
south west of the house was replanted in the early 1950s, largely with larch and firs. The property 
formerly had two gate lodges of c.1850; one stood on the opposite side of the road from the front 
drive and the other at the head of the back entrance. After the death of William Moore c.1895 the 
house remained largely unoccupied for three decades until it was sold c.1927 to Thomas Henry, 
whose family remained here until 1995. The house has been subsequently renovated and 
extended. SMR: ANT 16:4 rath, in a wooded area near the house. Private.