Ampertain House, Upperlands, County Derry 

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. 4. “(Clark/IFR) The most important of several country houses in the neighbourhood built by members of the Clark family, whose linen mills, which gave rise to the nearby “linen village” of Upperlands, are still basically situated in the yard of one of these country houses, driven by water power. A plain late-Georgian type house built post 1821 by Alexander Clark. Two storeys over high basement, five bay front; shallow projecting porch, with fanlighted doorway set in arched recess. Eaved roof on bracket cornice. The front prolonged by a two storey three bay wing of similar style, set back; added 1915. At the other end, a Victorian conservatory on a high plinth.” 

https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/09/ampertain-house.html

This family, said to be scions of the Clarkes of Salford Hall, Salford Priors, Warwickshire,  settled in County Londonderry, 1690. 
 
JOHN CLARK (1665-1707), of Maghera, County Londonderry, married, about 1695, Jane White, of Belfast, and had issue, 

JACKSON, of whom presently; 
John (1697-1721). 

Mr Clark was succeeded by his elder son, 
 
JACKSON CLARK (1695-1754), of Maghera, who wedded, in 1720, and had issue, 

John, adopted by his uncle John; 
ALEXANDER, of whom presently; 
Arthur, settled in America; 
William, also in America; 
Sarah, m Dr J Ferguson, of Belfast; 
a daughter; Jane; Margaret. 

The eldest surviving son, 
 
ALEXANDER CLARK (1733-1806), espoused, in 1757, Elizabeth, daughter of William Stevenson, of Knockan, and had issue, 

Alexander, his heir; 
JACKSON, of whom presently; 
William; 
Margaret. 

The second son, 
 
JACKSON CLARK (1760-88), married, in 1785, Jane, daughter of General Patterson, of Maghera, County Londonderry, and was father of 
 
ALEXANDER CLARK (1785-1871), of Ampertaine House, Upperlands, County Londonderry, who wedded, in 1814, Sarah, third daughter of Sir Simon Newport, of Waterford, and had issue, 

Jackson (Dr), died unmarried; 
WILLIAM, of whom hereafter; 
Simon; 
John Alexander; 
Henry Bolton; 
Charles Francis; 
Jane. 

Mr Clark was succeeded by his eldest son, 
 
WILLIAM CLARK (1816-1904), of Ampertaine House, who married, in 1853, Marianne Elizabeth Paul, daughter of Captain Simon Newport JP DL, and had issue, 

William Newport (1854-1915), emigrated to New Zealand; 
ALEXANDER WALLIS, of whom we treat; 
George Wallis Newport (Rev); 
John Henry; 
Simon Newport; 
Henry Jackson; 
Annie Penelope; Sarah Louise Jane; Jane Frances. 

Mr Clark was succeeded by his second son, 
 
ALEXANDER WALLIS CLARK JP DL (1857-1937), of Ampertaine House, High Sheriff of County Londonderry, 1922, Chairman, William Clark & Sons, 1913-37, who wedded, in 1893, Frances Lucinda Caroline, eldest daughter of William Maxwell Carpendale, of Falkland, Dungannon, County Tyrone, and had issue, 

ALEXANDER WILLIAM MAXWELL, his heir; 
George Wallis Newport; 
Ivan Henry; 
Perceval Maxwell Carpendale; 
Katherine Marianne Violet. 

Mr Clark was succeeded by his eldest son, 
 
ALEXANDER WILLIAM MAXWELL CLARK JP (1898-1973), of Ampertaine House; High Sheriff of County Londonderry, 1936, Director, William Clark & Sons, who married, in 1924, Dorothy Noelle, younger daughter of J R Lopdell JP, and had issue, 

AUBREY ALEXANDER MAXWELL, his heir; 
Robert Gordon, b 1927; 
Denis Knox, b 1932. 

Mr Clark was succeeded by his eldest son, 
 
AUBREY ALEXANDER MAXWELL CLARK (1925-2002), of Ampertaine House and Bayhead, Portballintrae, who wedded, in 1948, Jillian Eleanor Mary, daughter of Colonel William Anderson Swales, and had issue, 

ALEXANDER WILLIAM JOHN, b 1954; 
Jane Dorothy Elizabeth; April Jillian; Sarah Primrose. 

 
AMPERTAINE HOUSE, Upperlands, County Londonderry, is the most notable of a number of country houses in the vicinity built by various members of the Clark family. 
 
The townland of Upperlands comprised 568 acres. 
 
This family’s linen mills gave rise to the nearby “linen village” of Upperlands, based in the courtyard of one of these houses. 
 
Ampertaine, a plain, late-Georgian house, was built some time after 1821 by Alexander clark. 

 
It comprises two storeys over a high basement; a five-bay front; shallow projecting porch, with a fanlighted doorway set in an arched recess. 
 
The roof is eaved, on a a bracket cornice. 
 
The front was prolonged by a two storey, three-bay wing, set back, added in 1915. 
 
At the other end there was a Victorian conservatory on a high plinth. 
 
Ampertaine has a modest parkland with mature shelter belts enclosing the house. 
 
A “small thatched cottage” known as Upperlands formerly occupied the site of the present house, known variously as Ampertaine, Amptertain or Amportaine. 
 
The house lawns merge into gardens, which had become neglected and overgrown until the 1990s, when clearance began to expose a late Victorian ornamental garden with ponds, rockeries and iron bowers to the east and south-east of the house. 

 
The walled kitchen garden, east of the house, can be viewed through decorative iron railings on top of the west wall. 

It is laid out in conventional manner with cross and perimeter paths and contains a summer house, sunken garden, rose garden, the site of a lean-to glasshouse range with stove and old apple trees. 

On the north-east front of the house lie the foundations of a high plinth that once supported a circular Victorian conservatory. 
 
The park has a gate lodge of ca 1870, which replaced two earlier lodges; it lies across the road from the main entrance.  
 
First published in September, 2013. 

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

AMPERTAINE HOUSE (UPPERLANDS) County Londonderry (AP MID ULSTER 10) L/036 
REGISTERED GRADE A 
Mid-Victorian parkland (14.6 acres/5.9ha registered area) with house of 1854, sometimes spelt 
Amportane or Ampertain (Listed HB 08/02/002), backed by the Upperlands mill complex, and 
located 2.8 miles (4.54km) north-east of Maghera an 59 miles (9.5km) south-west of Kilrea. This is 
a modest parkland with mature shelter belts enclosing the former mill-owner’s residence that had 
been built for William Clark, the founder of William Clark & Sons, linen manufacturers. It replaced 
small thatched cottage, built about the year 1813 and ‘surrounded with a plantation of fir’, lying 
to the north-east close to the mill buildings. The family milling business had been started in the 
1730s by William’s great grandfather and further developed by his son Alexander (1723-1806) and 
again by his son and William’s father, Alexander Clark (1785-1871). William (1816-1904) bought 
out his younger brother and established the firm of William Clarke & Sons in 1862 and added 
greatly to the mills in the 1880s and 1890s, belatedly introducing steam power in 1891. Earlier, in 
1853 he had married Marianne Newport of Suirville, Waterford, and it is said that he commenced 
building Ampertaine House for her that same year in what was then a field just south of his 
father’s house and mill. It was probably finished in 1854 and was a substantial symmetrical 
seven-bay two-storey over high basement Georgian style building with rendered walls, bracketed 
eaves course and square plan. On its north-east side there was a conservatory, added around 
1910 by Alexander Wallace Clark (1857-1937), it was demolished post 1986 after being seriously 
damaged in a storm. It’s high octagonal plinth base survives as a feature adjacent to the house. A 
square three-bay two-storey extension was also added at this time to the north-west corner of 
the house. Round the house are lawns and large shrubs, with mature trees beyond. The 
rectangular walled garden (0.55 acres/0.22ha) is now under grass, but still had box-edged beds, 
vegetables and fruit trees in the 1990s; its south-west wall is low and topped by handsome, 
decorative wrought iron railings, a feature also seen at a number of other mid-Victorian gardens, 
notably Larchfield and Gilford. The ruin of a long rectangular glasshouse (66ft/20m) lies close to 
the outside of the north-west corner of the walled garden; the entrance to the glass house was 
from the walled garden and there is a lean-to stove house for it in the walled garden. The 
ornamental gardens which had become neglected and overgrown until the 1990s when clearance 
began to expose a late Victorian ornamental garden with ponds, rockeries and iron bowers to the 
east and south east of the house and north of the walled garden. This includes a well- 
proportioned, stone-edged, circular pond with a central stone fountain. A gravel path surrounds 
it and there are apple trees. Other features are herbaceous borders, roses, and rockery. In 1991, 
south-west of the house, was a tennis court. South of the walled garden part of the parkland has 
unfortunately been lost and the park seriously diminished by a housing estate of five detached 
houses, known as Gortrade Wood around 2000. The small park is enclosed by good mature 
perimeter tree belts with further trees screen the walled garden, house and flanking the avenue 
which accesses from the south-west corner where there is a gate lodge of c.1870 (Listed HB 
08/02/003); this is situated on the south side of Kilrea Road, directly opposite the main entrance. 
Now derelict, it is a small single-storey dwelling and replaced an earlier lodge. The gate screen 
opposite has square rendered outer piers with oversailing caps (one now missing), and low 
curving rendered walls, decorative wrought-iron railings and matching carriage and pedestrian 
gates. The last of the Clark family to live at Ampertaine was Aubrey Alexander Maxwell Clark 
(b.1925), a Director of William Clark & Sons, who appears to have vacated the property in the 
mid-1980s, after which it was sold to the present owners. The Upperlands mill itself, which in the 

Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020 
latter half of the 20th century diversified into the production of ‘bonded’ textiles ‘laminated, 
needled and non-woven fabrics’ was bought by the firm of Ulster Weavers in 2004. House and 
grounds on the market again and sold 2017. Private.