Ballywalter Park, Newtownards, Co Down
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. 28. “(Mulholland, Dunleath, B/PB) Ireland’s finest C19 Italian palazzo; in the words of Dr Rowan, “a building with a metropolitan air and all the architectural trappings of a London club.” Built ca 1846 for Andrew Mulholland, Mayor of Belfast 1845 and chief owner of the great York Street Flax Spinning Mills, to the design of Charles Lanyon; incorporating an earlier house of ca 1810, formerly belonging to the Matthews family and known as Springvale; though the existence of this earlier structure is not now apparent, except in the basement. Main block of three storeys over basement, with single-storey overlapping wings; entrance front of five bays in main block plus one additional bay in each wing; the end bays of the main block in the two lower storeys and also the wings having tripartite windows; those in the wings being framed by pedimented Corinthian aedicules. Large single-storey port-cochere with coupled Doric columns and end piers, surmounted by latticed balustrade; also latticed balustrade round area. Eaved roof on bracket cornice on main block; balustraded roof parapets on wings. On the garden front, the main block is of six bays and the wings end in shallow curved bows. Spacious and sumptuous interior. Entrance hall, panelled in mahogany. Vast and magnificent two storeyed central hall, 60 feet in length, with Doric columns below, supporting the gallery, and Corinthian columns and pilasters marbled porphyry balustrade; surrounded, in the upper storey, by arcades lighting the bedroom corridors, and niches with sculptures. Theother end, separated from the staircase by a screen of columns, is treated below as a saloon – its walls hung with scarlet brocade – and as a picture gallery above. Drawing room with screen of Corinthian columns at one end and elaborate coved and coffered ceiling. In 1863 Andrew Mulholland added a single storey billiard room wing, prolonging the garden front; with, at right angles to it, a large and splendid conservatory, also designed by Lanyon, with Corinthian columns along its front and a glass dome. Andrew Mulholland’s son, 1st Lord Dunleath, installed the ornate pedimented bookcases in the library, which, like the drawing room, has a coved ceiling. 2nd Lord Dunleath added a service wing ca. 1902, to the design of W.J. Fennell, of Belfast; he later enlarged this wing, in order, as is said, to put up the visiting XI during his cricket week. After World War II, this wing was curtailed. The garden front of the house overlooks wide-spreading lawns with paths and statues, beyond which is a noteable collection of ornamental trees and shrubs.”
Ballywalter Park is the home of Lord & Lady Dunleath and it has been in their family for 170 years.
The Mansion House was built in the Italianate Palazzo style by the eminent architect Sir Charles Lanyon and has been afforded Grade A* listing as being of exceptional architectural importance. The house is surrounded by 30 acres of pleasure grounds and is situated within the walled demesne of some 270 acres. The total Estate runs to over 1200 acres and is home to one of Northern Ireland’s largest dairy herds and it also includes significant acreages of arable crops and mixed woodland.
In 1846 Andrew Mulholland, great, great, great grandfather of the present owner, bought an 18th century two-storey over basement house, then called Springvale along with 270 acres of land of land for £23,500.
Ballywalter Park can be found some 20 miles from Belfast on the County Down coast, looking out over the Irish Sea to the coast of Scotland to the east and the Isle of Man to the south. In 1846 Andrew Mulholland, great, great, great grandfather of the present owner, bought an 18th century two-storey over basement house, then called Springvale along with 270 acres of land of land for £23,500. The Mulhollands, an Irish family, had made their fortune by owning cotton and then linen mills in Belfast. Andrew had also served as Lord Mayor of Belfast and felt that the existing house was not grand enough to reflect his perceived status. He brought in the well-known Irish architect Charles, later Sir Charles, Lanyon to come up with something rather grander.
Rather than demolish the existing house, Lanyon built around it, adding a single-storey south bow wing, housing the Library and the Drawing Room and a two-storey north bow wing to accommodate the Garden Room and the Round Bedroom above. He also added a new second floor, which provided accommodation for the children and a School Room. Lanyon then returned to add the magnificent domed Conservatory which Andrew’s son, John Mulholland, later the 1st Baron Dunleath, linked to the house with the Billiard Room. The house continued to be used to the full until the start of the Second World War, after which, like so many houses in the British Isles, it fell into a managed decline, with a lack of money to maintain it and ever fewer staff to serve it. The house was undoubtedly saved when Sir John Betjeman visited in 1961, when he extolled the quality of this Victorian Italian-style Palazzo improbably located in the Irish countryside.
This encouraged the current owner, Henry, the 4th Baron Dunleath, to embark on the long process of restoration. In this, they were hampered by an almost disastrous fire in 1973 and seemingly endless outbreaks of dry rot. By the early 1990s, almost all the major reception rooms had been restored and the kitchens had been moved up from the basement to the ground floor. Henry, however, died tragically young in 1993, bringing that phase of the restoration works to an end. Brian, the 6th Baron Dunleath, moved into the house in 1997 and he and his wife, Vibse, embarked on the next phase of restoration in 2000. At the time, there were only four bedrooms that were habitable and a distinct lack of bathrooms. The derelict top nursery floor was restored, new kitchens were installed, and the exterior of the house completely re-rendered and painted. Subsequent restoration works have included the Billiard & Smoking Rooms in 2004/5 and the Conservatory – a massive undertaking – in 2008/9. As a result of these major projects and others carried out when time and funds allowed, the house is now fully equipped for the 21st century.
The four bedrooms have now become twelve, two twins and eight doubles en-suite and the other two doubles each with their own private bathroom. Since 2021, the house has become carbon-neutral with electricity, heat and hot water all coming from the anaerobic digester over at the farm. In 2002, Brian and Vibse decided that Ballywalter Park should start to earn its keep and they began by getting approval from Tourism Northern Ireland and from the Food Standards Agency to provide both accommodation and lunches and dinners. To preserve the exclusive and special nature of the house and demesne, they restrict it to corporate use, such as residential conferences, product launches and photo shoots, top end groups staying whilst on visits to the Historic Houses of Ireland and as a film location. They do not provide facilities for private parties or for weddings. Over the years, they have welcomed British and Foreign Royalty, film and television stars and visitors from all corners of the globe.
Why Not Come And Join Them?
Ballywalter Park is a Grade A listed Italianate Palazzo that has been in the ownership of the Mulholland Family and Lord & Lady Dunleath since 1846.
Andrew Mulholland and his successors have added considerably to the original two storey over basement Georgian Springvale House.
Over the past 40 years it has undergone major restoration and is now a very comfortable Home, without losing any of its original historical grandeur. Tours of the house and of the gardens are available for interested groups on a by appointment basis only and are normally led by Lord or Lady Dunleath. The property is not open on a casual basis, and we cannot accommodate evening tours or tours on Saturdays or Sundays.
The tours of the main reception rooms in the house take some 60 to 90 minutes, depending on the interests of the Group and end in the magnificent Conservatory, designed by Sir Charles Lanyon and Thomas Turner. By prior arrangement, refreshments can be provided in the Conservatory at the end of the tour. The gardens and pleasure grounds comprise some 30 acres, including the Walled Garden of 2.8 acres, which includes the original ranges of seven glasshouses and the potting sheds. The grounds are the home to an outstanding collection of specimen trees and a notable collection of rhododendrons, including Rh Lady Dunleath, which was propagated by the 3rd Lord Dunleath.
Paradise Garden Club
The gardens were always known as the Pleasure Grounds. Hardly surprising as they have given so much pleasure to members of the family and in the years we have been here to many visitors.
My gardening career at Ballywalter Park started when I saw a tree, precisely framed by the kitchen table; where I stand to knead my bread dough. It looked like a blob. It is a Quercus ilex which has an untidy habit; it puts its branches down to the ground where they root and start a new tree which eventually splits the original trunk. I gathered what equipment I needed and started the job by giving the tree a fringe cut from inside the canopy. This revealed a beautiful trunk, many branches that had rooted as explained and a 50 old oak. The trunk was incredibly beautiful, a proper tree. It is a tree I look at daily and it gives me immense pleasure.
For many years my husband and I worked on the very overgrown parkland. Every year for about 6-8 weeks from the 1st of February till the end of March, we would cut and pull away branches recreating the vistas planned by our forebears. This is the policy we still follow. We are lucky to have the garden diaries of the 3rd Lord Dunleath who was an exceptional dendrologist. His plans and methods are used to inform the choices we now make in the Pleasure Grounds. These have all the features you would expect of an 18th and 19th century garden. There are many walks created to show off the most beautiful rhododendrons, shrubs and trees. During lockdown we recreated two walks that had become overgrown over the decades since 3rd Lord Dunleath’s death in 1956. One walk has the very uninviting name of Swamp Ride. It is quite swampy during the winter but in May – June it has a spectacular wetland with wild irises that flower all at once.
We also recreated a walk in what used to be known as Rose Hill. This area was so overgrown by invasive species it could not be cleared as a one off project. Instead the garden team created a romantic walk through what used to be the west side of the Rose Hill and now ensure it is maintained, whilst still cutting back and expanding the work started in 2020. It is now a charming walk with areas opened up giving view points where you glimpse a rare or overgrown specimens that has not been seen for years or further views of the Pleasure Grounds. The reflection pools and streams have in the last few years been weeded in the autumn with the aim of allowing the stream to look beautifully overgrown in the summer. This creates a habitat that benefits biodiversity both in the water and on land. In winter it does what it was designed for, reflect the trees and shrubs planted along the edges. We have a very diverse wildlife here. Ottars swim up the culvert from the Irish Sea and feed on the eels that swim through in the winter months. In the spring they galumph around the rockery looking for ground nesting ducks which offers a delicious morsel of duck egg. The Rose Hill is home to our hedgehogs and migrating and native birds sing their hearts out all year round but mostly in spring.
The Walled Garden is a particularly special sanctuary. In my research as a food historian I discovered that the word paradise is Pashto for walled garden. This is a paradise for humans as well as insects and birds. Not only do we grow all the fruit and vegetables that we need in the house we also sow and plant in such a way that we support a number of beehives. We have created pollinator bed with flowers that keep our biodiversity healthy. We use no spray, artificial fertiliser or fungicides to improve the environment and we have not for 6 years. From time to time we supply some of the restaurants in Belfast, mostly when we have a glut of produce. Like any garden it is in constant development which is one of the special joys of gardening… it is never ending.
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Irish Historic Houses 