Moore Lodge, 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, Bt, of Moore Lodge/PB) A two storey house probably built 1759 by Samson Moore. Three bay, shallow bows with tripartite windows; gables wing at side.” 

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

MOORE LODGE, County Antrim (AP CAUSEWAY COAST AND GLENS 05) An-055 
REGISTERED GRADE B 
This small 18th century demesne (70 acres/27.9ha) encloses a beautifully positioned house, set 
high above the River Bann, lying 2m (3.2km) north-east-north of Kilrea in the townlands of Moore 
Lodge and Carney Hill; a narrow 10 acre (4ha) strip on the opposite west bank of the Bann also 
forms part of the designed landscape of this property. This well preserved good quality parkland, 
surrounded by mature, mostly deciduous trees, has long been admired; it was described in 1814 
as ‘certainly one of the prettiest and most retired spots in this county’. The original 17th century 
house (the ‘Vow’), sold to by the Galland family to William Moore in 1717 for £500, was burnt in 
1729 and replaced post 1759 by the present east-facing two-storey Georgian building, which was 
improved in the 1840s and had an extension added in 1901 (Listed HB 04/11/003a); it is noted for 
its frontage dominated by a large symmetrical pair of full-height bowed bays. There was a notable 
garden here in the early part of the 20th century, which is now only remembered by an 
unpublished account written in 1951, The Gardens of Moore Lodge 1902-1939. South-east of the 
house in the wooded bank of the river lies an octagonal pigeon house or dovecote with pyramidal 
slated roof (Listed HB 04/11/004) dating sometime pre-1832, probably c.1800, while north of the 
house lie substantial ranges of outbuildings (Listed HB 04/11/003b). Behind the yards and lying 
north-west of the house lay the productive, partly walled, garden; formerly 1.6 acres (0.65), this 
was slightly altered in size in the early 20th century to its present rectangular form (1.4 
acres/0.55ha); it contained a large glass-house when described in the 1951 account of the 
gardens. The designed landscapes survives intact, save only for a modern house and outbuilding 
that has been built at the extreme south end of the park. The property, which remained almost 
continuously in the hands of the Moore family since the early 18th century, was sold in 1982 but 
then bought back by another member of the family four years later. SMR: ANT 22:29 souterrain. 
Private. Site upgraded to the Register on March 14th 2005.