Castlewellan, County 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.79. “(Annesley, E/PB; Annesley, sub Sowerby/LG1972) Although the Annesley family bought the Castlewellan estate 1741, they did not build themselves a mansion here until more than a century later; living either in the Grange, a pleasant group of C18 farm and stable buildings around three courtyards; or at Castlewellan Cottage, a single-storey Georgian house with projecting wings and a Venetian doorway. In 1856 the young 4^th Earl Annesley began building a castle, to the design of William Burn, which was completed in 1858. It is a large and somewhat austere granite pile; of three storeys plus an attic of dormer-gables, and with a massive four storey tower at one side; at the opposite side there is a rather slender round tower and turret. Plain rectangular windows. The demesne is of great beauty, and contains a famous arboretum. Inherited by Mr Gerald Sowerby (nephew of 6^th Earl), who assumed the name of Annesley; sold by him to the Northern Ireland Government ca. 1965. The demesne is now a forest park.” 

http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2014/02/1st-earl-annesley.html

https://theirishaesthete.com/2025/07/07/castlewellan-2/

A Somewhat Institutional Air

Jul7by theirishaesthete

By the late mediaeval period, the lands now occupied by the Castlewellan estate in County Down had come into the possession of the Magennis family. In 1542 Donal Óg Magennis travelled to London where he received a knighthood from Henry VIII at Greenwich Palace. At the time he was living in the area of Castlewellan, and although the precise location of his residence is unknown, it may have been on one of the islands of the lake lying directly below the present castle. In his account of a journey through this part of Ulster in 1602-3, Captain Josias Bodley wrote ‘We now came to the island of Magennis [Castlewellan] where, alighting from our horses, we met Master Morrison, with many others. They had tarried there, at least three hours, expecting our arrival, and in the meantime drank ale and usquebaugh with the Lady Sara, the daughter of Tyrone, and wife of the aforesaid Magennis, a truly beautiful woman. We also drank twice or thrice, and after we had duly kissed her, we each prepared for our journey.’ The beautiful Lady Sara mentioned here was a daughter of Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tyrone and wife of Sir Arthur Magennis, later created first Viscount Iveagh. During the course of the 17th century and its many upheavals, somehow the Magennises managed to retain their lands at Castlewellan and indeed, descendants of the family remained there until 1741 when penury required that it be offered at public auction, where the freehold was bought by one William Annesley, a Dublin-based barrister and Member of Parliament whose family had already been leasing the property. 

Created first Baron Annesley and later Viscount Glerawly, William Annesley was the great-grandson of Francis Annesley, first Viscount Valentia, who had moved to Ireland in the first decade of the 17th century and was involved in the Ulster Plantations. Three years before buying the Castlewellan estate, William had married Lady Anne Beresford, a daughter of the Earl of Tyrone. Mrs Delany, who knew the couple well (her husband, Dr Patrick Delany, being Dean of Down), wrote ‘’they are very rich and know it, and spend their lives in increasing not enjoying their fortune; but he is a very honest man in all his dealings, still would be more agreeable as well as more useful if he thought less of his possessions. His lady suits him exactly; she does not want sense, and is comical enough in a satirical way.’ The couple made Castlewellan their principal country residence, building a house south-west of the present building, as well as the Grange, an extensive series of outbuildings, most of which still survive: while walking around the estate in 1758, Mrs Delany declared them ‘indeed very fine. Three large courts: round the first, which is arched round a kind of’ piazza, are houses for all his carriages and over them his granaries; the next court are stables and cow houses, and over them haylofts; the third court two such barns as I ncver saw, floored with oak and finished in the most convenient manner for all the purposes of winnowing etc and in that court are the stands for hay and corn.’ What form the main house took is unknown, since it was replaced by Annesley’s heir Francis (created first Earl Annesley in 1789), the new residence being called Castlewellan Cottage, a long single-storey (or single-storey over basement) building with shallow end bows. This remained the family’s home until 1851 when the estate was inherited by William Richard Annesley, the fourth earl, who commissioned a new mansion from the Scottish architect William Burn. The latter’s patron did not have long to enjoy his new residence, however, since he died in 1874 at the age of 44 still unmarried and so both the title and Castlewellan estate accordingly passed to his younger brother, Lt-Col Hugh Annesley, who had hitherto had a career in the army but now settled to live in County Down where he was a pioneering photographer and, like his sibling before him, an ardent gardener (see In Circles « The Irish Aesthete). It was during the second half of the 19th century that Castlewellan’s exceptional arboretum became established, its collection  of some  3,000 species of rare trees, plants and shrubs being among the finest in Ireland. Unfortunately the sixth earl died in 1914 at the age of 30 and responsibility for Castlewellan passed to his eldest sister Lady Mabel Annesley, who in 1927 transferred it to her son Gerald Francis Sowerby (who took the Annesley surname) at the time of his first marriage. He retained the property until 1967 when it was acquired by the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. Two years later the grounds were opened as a forest park, but the house itself remained empty and suffered from a terrorist attack in 1973. It was subsequently leased to a Christian organisation which since then has used the building as a retreat and conference centre

By the time he was commissioned to design Castlewellan, William Burn had already worked for a number of Irish clients, being responsible for the likes of Muckross House, County Kerry (see Institutionalised « The Irish Aesthete) and Bangor Castle, County Down (see Uncertain Future II « The Irish Aesthete). Built at a cost of just over £18,000 and standing on a terrace above the lake with dense woodland to the rear, granite-faced Castlewellan has, as noted by Philip Smith, a somewhat institutional air. The potentially monotonous south-facing five-bay garden front, of three storeys with dormer attic windows, is relieved at either end by a four-stage square tower to the east and a five-stage circular tower to the west, both these carrying bartizans. The west front side shows more variety, with a four-storey gabled bay at the northern end and, attached to this, a slender round turret with pitched roof. There was formerly a conservatory on this side, which may explain the rather odd first-floor bow window found here. The main entrance is on the east side, another stocky square tower with bartizans and battlements. Directly above the doorcase of dressed stone is a tablet carrying the Annesley armorials. Immediately inside the door is a steep flight of stairs, not unlike that found in the Brownslow House, Lurgan (see This Beautiful Mansion « The Irish Aesthete). Unlike the latter property, however, in this instance and stairs lead to a galleried central hall, this space lit by a series of windows on the north side. Off the hall and facing south are the principal reception rooms – drawing room, library and dining room – all with the same Jacobethan ceilings. The library still has its elaborately carved bookcases but otherwise almost all the original decoration, and furnishings, are no longer in the building. The main staircase, located off the west end of the hall, was badly damaged when Castlewellan was bombed in 1973 with the loss of its window’s armorial glass. Upstairs, most of the bedrooms are now used as dormitories for the religious organisation’s retreats. While the present decor may not be to everyone’s taste, it is important to appreciate that the building is being well maintained and kept in good repair, ensuring, unlike so many other such properties in Ireland, that Castlewellan survives into the future.