Bellarena, Magilligan, County Derry
Bence-Jones, Mark. 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. 37. “(Gage/IFR and LG1972; Heygate, Bt/PB) A predominantly late-Georgian house which evolved in several different phases around what is probably a late C17 core. Marcus McCausland, son of the heiress of Bellarena, who assumed the name of Gage, added to the house 1797; his son, Conolly Gage, made the present library and contrived to fit in a third storey at the back of the house 1822.
In the 1830s, Sir Charles Lanyon was employed to redecorate Bellarena, remodel the hall and add the present porch; it seems that Conolly Gage’s wife, Henrietta, did not wish to be outdone by her sister, Marianne, who was the wife of her husband’s cousin, Marcus McCausland, owner of the nearby Dernagh which was rebuilt in grand style to the design of Lanyon at this time.
A final addition seems to have been made by Conolly and Henrietta Gage’s daughter, Marianne, who married Sir Frederick Heygate, 2ndBaronet, in 1851.
For all its complicated evolution, the house has an air of compactness.
Two-storey, five-bay entrance front faced, like the other elevations, in dark-coloured basalt;
Unusually wide Venetian window in the centre of the upper storey, which rises into a baseless, floating pediment.
Below this window is Lanyon’s semi-circular porch, fronted by a pair of engaged Ionic columns either side of the doorway.
On one side of the entrance front there is a wing, set back.
The rear of the main block consists of four bays, all having Wyatt windows in both storeys. This is prolonged by the rear face of the wing, of the same height as the main block but with ordinary rectangular sashes. Along the top of the rear elevation is a row of squat Wyatt windows lighting Conolly Gage’s third storey; they are, in fact, half-dormers, breaking upwards through the cornice and into the roof.
The hall, as remodelled by Lanyon, who obtained the space necessary for the desired grant effect by adding the porch, contains a double staircase with cast-iron balusters, which rise between two Corinthian columns, painted to resemble marble.
The drawing-room ceiling has elaborate plasterwork, remarkably similar to that of Drenagh House.
The most noteworthy room in the house is probably the library of 1822, a tall, spacious room with a coved ceiling, surrounded on three sides by a gallery with a balustrade of exquisite ironwork.
This balustrading might possibly have originated from Ballyscullion, along with the library chimney-piece and that in the smoking-room.
To the rear of the house there is a commodious, cobbled office courtyard, with a central pond and fountain; while the impressive stable block boasts a spire and pediment.
Beyond the courtyard is a complete range of early 19thcentury farm buildings.
Bellarena was the home of Sir John Heygate, 4th Bt, novelist and journalist, who married, as his first wife, Hon. Evelyn, daughter of 1st and last Lord Burghclere, who was also 1st wife of Evelyn Waugh.”
http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2010/02/bellarena-estate.html
http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2020/05/bellarena-album.html
Bellarena Album
Aaran Callan has kindly sent me some images of BELLARENA, the ancestral home of the GAGES and the HEYGATE BARONETS, and now the home of the Desmond family.
The type-written page recounts a brief history of the house, the hall, and the drawing-room.
The image is of Sir Frederick William Heygate, 2nd Baronet (1822-94).
Irish Historic Houses 
