Corick, Clogher, County Tyrone 

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. 92. “(Story/IFR) A house originally built at the end of C17, as a double gable-ended block of two storeys over a basement and five bays; extended in early C19 by the addition of a two storey two bay wing; and largely rebuilt “with comfortable mid-Victorian informality” 1863, to the design of Charles (afterwards Sir Charles) Lanyon and William Henry Lynn.” 

see https://lvbmag.wpcomstaging.com/2025/11/09/corick-house-hotel-clogher-tyrone-lanyon-lynn-lanyon/

and https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2015/04/corick-house.html

THE STORYS OWNED 2,065 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY TYRONE  

 
JOHN STORY (1648-1725), of Bingfield Hall, Hexham, Northumberland, settled in Ulster about 1697. 
 

Mr Story was established on church land at Corick, County Tyrone, by the Rt Rev St George Ashe (1658-1718), Lord Bishop of Clogher.  He was the elder brother of the Rt Rev Joseph Story, Lord Bishop of Kilmore, sold his estate at Bingfield Hall and removed to Ulster  underthe auspices of Bishop Ashe. 

Mr Story and his son, Thomas, acquired an estate within the See of Clogher, where they built their first residence. 
 
He died at Corick in 1725, leaving issue, 
 

THOMAS, of whom presently; 
Joseph, ancestor of STORY of Bingfield; 
John, b 1681; 
Samuel, b 1683. 

The eldest son, 
 
THOMAS STORY (1678-1768), of Corick, wedded, in 1707, Rebecca ______, and had five sons and two daughters, of whom, 
 

JOHN, of whom presently; 
Joseph (Rev), rector of Monaghan (1711-84); 
Thomas, 1715-44; 
Benjamin, father of JOHN BENJAMIN, s his uncle. 

The eldest son, 
 
JOHN STORY (1708-80), died unmarried, and was succeeded by his nephew, 
 
THE REV JOHN BENJAMIN STORY (1764-1844), of Corick, Canon Chancellor of Clogher, who married, in 1790, Jane, daughter of Alexander Young, of Coolkeeragh, County Londonderry, by Catherine his wife, daughter of Richard Hassard, of Gardenhill, County Fermanagh, and had issue, 
 

JOHN BENJAMIN, his heir; 
Alexander, died unmarried; 
Anne; Kate; Elizabeth; Jane; Letitia; Frances Thomasina; Maria. 

The eldest son, 
 
JOHN BENJAMIN STORY, of Corick, wedded, in 1840, Catherine, daughter of Captain Valentine Munbee, of Horringer, Suffolk; though dsp in 1862, and was succeeded by his only surviving brother, 
 
THE REV WILLIAM STORY, of Corick, Rector of Aghabog, who espoused Sarah, daughter of John Black, and had issue, 
 

JOHN BENJAMIN, his heir; 
William George Theaker, b 1863; 
Marion Letitia; Alice Gertrude; Emma Mary Geraldine. 

He died in 1888, and was succeeded by his eldest son, 
 
JOHN BENJAMIN STORY, MB, M.Ch, FRCSI, (1850-1926), of Corick and 6 Merrion Square North, Dublin, High Sheriff of County Tyrone, 1911, who married, in 1892, Blanche Christabel, daughter of the Rev J W Hallowell, and had issue, 
 

Eleanor Constance, OBE; 
Joan Blanche. 

Dr Story was educated at Winchester; and Trinity College Dublin; Surgeon Oculist to GEORGE V in Ireland; President of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland; and of the Ophthalmological Society of the United Kingdom, 1918-19:- 

“The King has appointed Mr John Benjamin Story, MB, FRCSI, to be Honorary Surgeon Oculist to His Majesty in Ireland, in room of Mr Charles Edward Fitzgerald, MD, deceased.” 

CORICK HOUSE, near Clogher, County Tyrone, was originally built at the end of the 17th century, as a double gable-ended block of two storeys over a basement, with five bays. 
 
In 1863, on the instructions of William Story, the house was enlarged and altered to the design of the Belfast firm of Sir Charles Lanyon. 
 
A new garden front with a large canted bay in its centre and a three-storey tower with Italianate hipped slate roof were added. The original dining room remained unaltered. 
 The house sits on an elevated site above the River Blackwater, and is approached from the north by a straight avenue, laid down in the 1690s, lined with mature beech trees. 
 
The enclosing parkland, some of whose trees were considered very fine as early as 1835, was developed in the later 18th century. 
 
It is bordered to the south by the river Blackwater, and contains mature trees in set, undulating ground, including a planted rath. 
 
The area around the house is enhanced by a maintained, ornamental garden. 
 
The walled garden is partly cultivated, with a glasshouse. 
 
There are three gate lodges, all of which pre-date the 1850s. 
 
 The last member of the Story family, a granddaughter of Dr John Benjamin Story, sold Corick to Mrs Jean Beacom; and the surrounding farmland to local farmers. 

 
Corick House is now a country house hotel. 
 
First published in January, 2013. 

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

CORRICK, County Tyrone (AP MID ULSTER 10) T/049 
REGISTERED GRADE B 
Later 18th-century parkland (172 acres/69.8ha) associated with an 1860s Italianate house (Listed 
HB 13/02/003) incorporating earlier elements. The park, is bounded by the River Blackwater on 
east and south, and lies 1 mile (1.7km) north-east of Clogher and 1.3 miles (2,1km) south-west of 
Augher. The townland of Corrick became part of the holdings of the Diocese of Clogher in the 
Plantation era, and towards the end of the 17th century the land was leased by Bishop St. George 
Ashe to his agent, John Story I (1648-1735) of Bingfield Hall, Hexham, Northumberland. Story sold 
his property in England to facilitate settling in Ireland, and so he had money to invest in building a 
house c.1700 and a fashionable formal demesne, which maps indicate comprised a straight tree- 
lined approach avenue with north-west axis, 276m long, presently lined with mature beech trees, 
and with what appears to have been a tree-lined vista at right-angles extending from the new 
house to the south-west for c.270m and another corresponding vista to the north-east, neither of 
which survives. In 1735 John Story was succeeded by his son, Thomas (1678-1768), then his son 
John II (1708-80), from whom it passed to a nephew, Rev. John Benjamin Story I (1764-1844), 
Chancellor of Clogher. There is no positive evidence yet available to indicate when the demesne 
was deformalised or transformed into a ‘natural’ landscape park, but this probably happened in 
the last two decades of the 18th-century, when two new informal approach avenues were put 
down, one from the north-west of the house (presently in use) and another from the east of the 
park, 130m north-west of Corick Bridge (now no longer in use). The latter had a second route 
through a small woodland block. Perimeter planting was put down on the east of the property, 
but strangely not on the north aside from a single line of trees alongside the road. The parkland 
areas on the north of the demesne, where visible from the approach avenues, were decorated 
with isolated trees, and while other features of the demesne, like the yard and walled garden 
were screened by trees, Corick never had large block plantations. A notable small plantation or 
clump is the planting of a rath in the south of the park (Scheduled TYR 059:044) with beech trees. 
There is a smaller circular tree clump, c. 19.5m in diameter, south-west of the house on the 
summit of a steep hill (TYR059:042); it has a domed interior and there are good views all round 
from it. East of this and south of the house is the roughly square walled garden (0.97 
acres/0.39ha) which is probably contemporary with the rest of the park. In 1990 there was a glass 
house against the north wall and a sun dial; besides apple and plum trees, there were a few 
potatoes and a few flowers. In 1844 ownership of the property passed to John Benjamin II 
(c.1795-1862), whose brother, Rev. William Storey (c.1800-88), the next owner, rebuilt much of 
the house in 1863 to designs, it is said, by Lanyon, Lynn & Lanyon. It is an asymmetrical two-storey 
building in an unadorned Italianate Style, which has been considerably extended in recent years; 
the original section can still be discerned from the front (eastern) side. The walls are rendered and 
the overhanging gable-ended slated roof has a shallow pitch, with a shallow pyramidal roof to the 
tower. To the south and west are large Modern Style extensions, which in terms of area are at 
least 4-5 times the size of the original building. Corick was inherited by the Rev. William Storey’s 
son, John Benjamin III (1850-1926), a noted eye surgeon, who left it to his daughter, Eleanor 
Constance and her husband, John Brooksbank Garnett (1875-1946). In 1994 the Garnett’s 
daughter sold Corick to Mrs Jean Beacom (d.2011). By this point the house was derelict, but Mrs 
Beacom restored the building, which then opened as a hotel in 1996. There are three gate lodges, 
all of which pre-date the 1850s; the first two of these have been demolished along with their gate 
screens. SMR: TYR 59:42 enclosures and 59:44 rath and tree ring. Private. 

Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020