Caledon, 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. 54. “(Boyle, Cork and Orrery, E/PB; Alexander, Caledon, E/PB) A seat of the 5th Earl of Orrery (a friend of Dean Swift), who described the house here (1738) as “old, low, and though full of rooms, not very large.” Sold by 7th Earl to James Alexander, a wealthy East Indian “Nabob” who subsequently became 1st Earl of Caledon; and who replaced Lord Orrery’s house with a house built on a different site, to the design of Thomas Cooley, 1779. Two storey; seven bay entrance front with pedimented breakfront centre; garden front with one bay on either side of a broad central curved bow, the downstairs window in each of these bays being of the so-called Wyatt type, set under a relieving arch; five bay side. the plan has a strong resemblance to that of Mount Kennedy; a large hall with a screen of yellow scagliola Doric columns at its inner end, a Doric frieze and plasterwork in the Wyatt manner on the walls and ceiling, opens to an oval drawing room extending into the garden front bow. On one side of the drawing room is the dining room; on the other, a boudoir with a slightly vaulted ceiling of delicate plasterwork in “Harlequin” style, coloured in chocolate, scarlet, apple green and tortoiseshell, incorporating a circular painted medallion; the walls of the room being hung with an apple-green Chinese or “India” paper which was probably brought back from the East by “Nabob” Alexander himself. In 1812, the 2nd Earl enlarged and embellished the house to the design of John Nash. Two single-storey domed wings or pavilions were added, flanking the entrance front and projecting forwards from it; joined by a colonnade of coupled Ionic columns, to form a long veranda or “stoep” such as Lord Caledon had probably grown used to sitting under when he was Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. One of the two wings contains a large and splendid library, with a coffered dome and Corinthian columns of porphyry scagliola. Nash also re-decorated the oval drawing room, making it one of the most perfect Regency interiors in Ireland; with friezes of gilt Classical figures and mouldings in cut paper work; elaborately shaped drapery pelmets and mirrors supported by swan-necked consoles. In 1835, towards the end of his life. 2nd Earl carried out further additions to the house, when his architect may have been Joseph Pennethorne, who continued Nash’s practice after his death 1834. A 3rd storey was added to the central block, the pediment being replaced at the higher level; and the entrance was moved round to one end of the house, where a single-storey extension containing a domed octagonal hall, fronted by a hexastyle Ionic porte-cochere, was built; the original hall becoming the saloon. In the park is a C18 Bone House, its pillars and arches faced with ox bones; the only surviving relic of 5th Earl of Ossory’s rococo garden. Towards the end of C19, the park was inhabited by wapiti and black bears, brought back by the 4th Earl of Caledon who had hunted and ranched in the Wild West. His 3rd son was Field Marshal Earl Alexander of Tunis, whose boyhood was spent here.”
The Saloon was designed in the neoclassical style by Thomas Cooley with columns of yellow scagliola and Regency period gilt furniture, Caledon, County Tyrone, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI7_09
View through the centre of the house from the Inner Hall, Caledon, Copyright Christopher Simon Sykes/The Interior Archive Ltd, CS_GI7_02
https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2014/08/1st-earl-of-caledon.html
THE EARLS OF CALEDON WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY TYRONE, WITH 29,236 ACRES
CALEDON HOUSE, County Tyrone, otherwise known as Caledon Castle, is a Classical mansion of 1779 built for James Alexander, 1ST EARL OF CALEDON.
The designer was Thomas Cooley.
The house was originally of two storeys, with a seven-bay entrance front and pedimented breakfront centre.
The garden front has one bay on either side of a broad, central, curved bow.
The side elevations comprise five bays.
In 1812, the 2nd Earl extended and enhanced the mansion to the designs of John Nash.
Two single-storey domed wings (otherwise pavilions) were added to each side of the entrance front, projecting forwards.
These wings contain a colonnade of coupled Ionic columns and formed a veranda.
One wing, with its coffered dome and smaller columns, contains the library.
The oval drawing-room is said to be one of the finest of its kind, with its sumptuous Regency interior; gilded friezes of Classical figures; and mouldings in cut paper work.
The drapery pelmets are intricately shaped.
The 2nd Earl undertook further additions to the house in 1835. A third storey was built on to the main block and the pediment, resplendent with the Caledon arms, was also raised. The entrance was relocated to one side of the house, with a single-storey extension with another domed octagonal hall.
A noble porte-cochère stands over the porch, with smaller Ionic columns with a splendid stone and metal cast of the Caledon crest (a raised arm in armour holding a sword).
The original hall of the mansion house became the saloon.
THE walled demesne at Caledon is one of Northern Ireland’s finest landscape parks.
During the Victorian era, the Earls of Caledon were the third largest landowners in County Tyrone, after the Dukes of Abercorn and the Earls Castle Stewart.
The estate’s significance and condition has been enhanced throughout successive generations of the same family to the present day.
Caledon Estate is largely contained by the river Blackwater within its eastern and southern boundaries; and the village of Caledon to the north-east.
Most of the estate lies in County Tyrone, though it straddles counties Armagh and Monaghan.
The original Caledon Castle was the seat of the 5th Earl of Cork and Orrery, a friend of Dean Swift.
It was said, in 1738, to be “old, low, and, though full of rooms, not very large.”
Lord Orrery was the biographer of Jonathan Swift and friend of Dr Johnson, as well as an improving landlord who did much to beautify the gardens around his newly-acquired residence, through planting and the addition of ornamental buildings and statues.
In 1747, he constructed a folly-like bone house in the garden (faced with ox bones), which he intended should “strike the Caledonians with wonder and amazement“.
It is the only element of his garden ornamentation to survive to the present day.
On the death of his kinsman, Richard, 4th Earl of Cork, in 1753, Lord Orrery became Earl of Cork and Orrery.
His wife Margaret died in 1758 and, with the death of Lord Cork himself in 1762, the Caledon estate passed to their son, Edmund, 7th Earl (1742-98).
It is during the period of the 7th Earl of Cork and Orrery’s tenure that the earliest documentation concerning the modern village of Caledon dates.
Lord Cork sold his estate to James Alexander in 1776 for £96,400 (about £14 million in 2014).
This new landlord was the second son of Alderman Nathaniel Alexander of Derry.
He made his fortune in the service of the East India Company during the 1750s and 60s, returning to Ulster in 1772 worth probably over £250,000 (£34 million in 2014).
With this money, he proceeded to accumulate estates in Counties Donegal, Londonderry, and Antrim, as well as Caledon, to which he added neighbouring townlands (some bought outright, some leased) in both Tyrone and Armagh.
In 1779, he built a new classical mansion, to designs by Thomas Cooley, either on the site of, or a short distance from, the old Hamilton residence.
The 1st Earl died in 1802 and was succeeded by his son, Du Pré, 2nd Earl, who served as the first governor of the Cape of Good Hope between 1806 and 1811, where the river Caledon and the District of Caledon are named after him.
The celebrated landscape designer, John Sutherland, re-designed Caledon estate in 1807.
In 1827, further improvements were made by the landscape designer W S Gilpin.
There are splendid parkland and woodland trees (some renowned for their monetary value), and the estate has a benign climate for tree growth.
The estate boasts a 19th century pinetum, fastigiate yew avenues, a lake, deer park (red deer) with a lake.
The disused Union Canal and river Blackwater enhance the water features.
In the late 19th century the park was inhabited by black bears, caught by the 4th Earl (1846-98), who had ranched in the American west (father of Field Marshal the 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis).
The walled gardens are in sections, the one closest to the offices with glasshouses, fruit and vegetables.
The estate contains a large number of buildings, including gardeners’ cottages, lodges, stables, and offices.
A number of the former estate workers’ cottages have been modernized and are available for rental
The Doric Lodge, dating from about 1780, is possibly by Thomas Cooley.
The grand and elaborate Twin Lodges of 1812 at the main entrance, by John Nash, are guarded by Coade stone sphinxes, Caledon arms and gilded earls’ coronets.
The Glaslough gate lodge, the School gate lodge, and the Tynan gate lodge (all ca 1833) are likely the work of Thomas J Duff.
Other buildings include the head gardener’s cottage, a sunken tunnel to the offices, the keeper’s house, the dower house and several bridges.
There is an old cross and well along the main drive to the House.
First published in June, 2015. Caledon arms courtesy of European Heraldry.
Georgian Mansions in Ireland by Thomas U. Sadleir and Page L. Dickinson, 1915. Printed for the authors at the Dublin University Press.
p. 29. The situation of Caledon is singularly pretty, for it stands high in an extensive demesne of nearly 800 acres; on the one hand the river Blackwater, a broad and winding stream, with birch trees overhanging, on the other a well-stocked deer-park, some ornamental water, and beyond, plantations of well-grown trees, with vistas of the distant hills. A belt of shrubs, of great variety, and interspersed wiht huge beech trees, surrounds the mansion, concealing the extensive range of stables and offices, placed opposite, but on a lower level than, and at some distance from, the original front. A tunnel, somewhat similar to that at Bellamont Forest, but otherwise a peculiar feature, runs from the house to the stables.
Judged by the exterior, the house, with its dead-white colouring, originally square, and more than once enlarged, is neither an architectural success nor a beautiful object. Internally however, for richness of ornament, even the most fastidious could hardly be disappointed.
As at Carton a desire for increased accommodation led to the main entrance being altered from the front to teh side, so that the spacious hall has become the saloon, an addition being built at the side to provide the present entrance hall. Bu tneither this extension, nor the corresponding pavilion at the opposite end, which accommodates the library, are within the Georgian period; and we therefore prceed to the description of the main building.
Our illustration shows the original front, with pediment and entablature; the arms in the tympanum, surrounded by the insignia of the order of St Patrick, are those of Dupre, second Earl of Caledon, KP, by whom the top storey was added in 1835. The colonnade dates from the same period as the wings, which were built from designs by Nash about 1812.
The centre apartment on this side, now the saloon, has an entablature with Doric frieze, which is carried round the walls, and supported by two plaster columns. The scheme of decoration is in plaster panels, with extended fans and [p. 30] niches in the Adam fashion, much of the ornament being concealed by pictures.
p. 30. Save for an oval of classic emblems in the centre, the ceiling is without plaster ornament; the boldly modelled Adam mantel of Roman cement, painted to resemble stone, is original, though the grate is modern. There is an excellent full length, by Thomas Phillips, of Lord Alexander (afterwards the third Earl) when a boy, in the pale-blue costume of a page at the installation of George IV as a Knight of St Patrick in Dublin in 1821. [there is a similar picture of Lord Gosford by the same artist in Gosford Castle County Armagh] …
p. 30. The furniture is of massive gilt, upholstered in scarlet, and there is an elaborate cut-glass chandelier. …The large oval drawing room, facing south and overlooking the Italian garden, is also decorated in classic style with niches in the wall and friezes in gold shaded to represent relief. As at Knapton, Queen’s County, even the doors and mantel are curved to preserve the contour of the room.
This apartment is probably exactly as it was when first decorated, for, as may be seen in the plate, the design of the overdoors is similar to that in the mantel, which it should be noted is of the best statuary marble, of dazzling whiteness, the delicacy of the caving being a triumph of execution. The grate is of steel wiht brass mounts.
The nature of the mural decoration prohibits the hanging of pictures; bu ta small miniature of Philip Sidney, on the centre table, deserves to be noted; this room also contains two handsome Buhl cabinets, filled with old Chelsea, Sevres and Dresden china collected by Catherine, Countess Caledon, and a quantity of Empire furniture. There is a pretty cut-glass chandelier somehwat smaller than in the saloon. A passage bisecting the house gives access on the right to the dining-room, and on the left to the staircase hall, from which a corridor leads to the present entrance hall, an octagon room, within which are ranged a number of cutlasses and muskets; here also [p. 31] are some old colours, one inscribed “Aughnacloy Volunteers,” which the first Earl commanded, as well as a standard of the 1st Life Guards; the portico outside the present entrance is of sandstone; and of a Roman order; it was a nineteenth century addition, and somewhat later in date than the colonnade, which is in the Greek manner. Coming then to the grand staircase, we notice a resemlance to that of Abbeyleix, which is also of stone, with light bent-iron balusters, and mahogany handrail, though here the general effect is prettier. The decoration of the walls is in the usual mid-Georgian manner; but the plaster festoons are poor in design, and somewhat small for the size of the panels. The grand staircase ends on the first floor, which is traversed by a wide corridor, ornamented with pilasters and a deep Adam frieze and cornice. At the opposite end is situated the back staircase, which is of stone, and carried to the roof in short circular flights. The bedrooms on this floor are large, and contain oval brass-mounted grates of early pattern. Tht at the end of the corridor is known as the Earl’s room, from having been frequently occupied by Lord Clarendon (brother-in-law of th third Earl of Caledon) when Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
…[lists and describes the portraits]
p. 32. A door on the left, in th passage leading from the present hall to the saloon, and almost at the foot of the grand stairs, admits to the boudoir, a small but lofty apartment with coved ceiling in the best Adam manner, with inset painted panels, after Angelica Kauffman, and resemblign that in the drawing room at Curraghmore, though this is more brightly coloured. There is an Adam mantel in white marble, with original steel grate. An interesting feature is the hand-painted Chinese wallpaper, in green and white, no two panels beign alike, of which we also found specimens at Headfort, County Meath, and Newbridge, County Dublin. The marble bust is that of the third Earl when a boy, by Bartolini.
Passing through the saloon we reach the large, well-proportioned dinign room; the doors are mahogany, with tooled panels, the over-doors being in white and gold. The mantel-piece, in white marble, and of Italian workmanship, is carved in high relief with figures representing Liberty and Empire, and there is a seel grate. Here are two very handsome Coromandel chests, in coloured laquer, with silver mounts. The pictures include…
p. 33. To the right of the saloon is a passage with shelves sunk in the wall, this excellent plan, which effects economy of space, beign carried out in the library, wiht which it terminates… Here are two full-length portraits of George III and Queen Charlotte, painted, by order of the Treasury, by Sir Thomas Lawrence, as a royal gift to the second Earl of Caledon.
From its commanding position on teh confines of Tyrone and Armagh, Caledon, or Kinard, as it was anciently called, has always been a place of strategic importance. In the seventeenth century it was the headquarters of Sir Phelim O’Neill, who for several years held the county of Tyrone against the English. After the confiscatins it was granted to William Hamilton, one of the 1649 officers, who died 21st January 1672. His eldest son, John Hamilton, of Caledon, married in 1708 Lucy, second daughter of Anthony Dopping. Bishop of Meath, by whom he had an only daughter and heiress, Margaret, who married, as second wife, John, fifth Earl of Orrery. Thus it became teh property and occasional residence of that wise and witty nobleman, distinguished for his episolatory correspondence, son of the better known by less able Lord Orrery, whose patronage of George Graham, a London watchmaker, induced the latter to givehis name to an instrument for showing the motion of teh celestial bodies.
In his time the house stood nearer the town of Caledon, the site of the present residence being then occupied by an old cstle; writing in 1738, the year of his marriage, Lord Orrery calls it “old, low, and, though full of rooms, not very large.” It is evident from the correspondence published in “the Orrery Papers,” that his lordship took more pleasure in the demesne, which he extended and planted. But after his death the Boyle family ceased to reside, and the estate was neglected, being eventually sold by Edmund, seventh Earl of Orrery, to James Alexande,r who erected the present commodious mansion in 1779 from a design by Thomas Cooley.
In the eighteenth century no career was more full of promise to intelligent and venturesome Irishmen than the service of the East India Company. [p. 34].. The greatest “Nabob” in Ireland was James Alexander. His rise was remarkable. Born 1730, the third son of Nathaniel Alexander, an alderman of Derry, he went as a youth to India, where he occupied responsible positions in the Company’s civil service…Such was his success that in 1772, when little more than forty, he was able to return to Ireland with an immense fortune. At first he intended to reside in his native city of Londonderry, for which, in 1775, on the death of the Provost [Francis Andrews, Provost of Trinity College], he was returned to Parliament; he had actually built a large house known as “Boom Hall,” [so called from its proximity to the spot where the boom was placed across the Foyle, at the time of the memorable siege], to enable him to attend to his duties in Parliament.
Possessed of estates to the value of some £600,000, Mr Alexander now became one of the great Ulster landowners; he supported the Volunteer movement, rainsing a local corps, the Aughnacloy volunteers, of which he was colonel, and attending teh famous Dungannon Convention in 1783 as a delegate for County Tyrone. He was high sheriff of that county in 1780, and for Armagh in the following year. He was also a trustee of the linen manufacture for the Pronvince of Munster, and patron of the Borough of Augher.
He married in 1774 Anne, second daughter of James Crawford of Crawfordsburn, Co Down. In 1777 he and his wife visited Rome, where her portrait was painted by Battoni, but in December of that year, soon after their return to Ireland, she died in his house in St Stephen’s gGreen, Dublin, shortly after the birth of her only son. From henceforth the bereaved husband seems to hve devoted his life to attendence in Parliament (where, though undistinguished as a speaker, he consistently sppoorted the measures of government), and to improvements on his estate at Caledon, where he planted judiciously in the ornamental style.
p. 35. He was twice re-elected for Derry, which he represented til June 1790, when, in consideration of his political service, he was raised to teh peerage as Baron Caledon, and on July following he took his seat in the House of Lords. Further honours followed: a viscounty in 1797, and an earldom three years later, the latter title probably bestowed in return for his purchase of the borough of Newtown Ards, for which his son sat in the last Irish Parliament; the powerful influence of Marquess Cornwallis, Lord Lieutenant, who stayed at Caledon in 1799, also conducing his advancement. He supported the Union, and as owner of a disfranchised borough was awarded the usual £15,000 compensation. His active career was terminated at his house in Dublin, 1 Rutland Square, on 23 March 1802; he left one son, Dupre, second Earl of Caledon, and two daughters, of whom Mabella married Andrew, 11th Lord Blayney.
As we have seen, the mansion house at Caledon was much enlarged by teh second Earl, a man of considerable ability adn artistic taste. It is not our intention to deal fully wiht his career, but as he became entitled to a large inheritance at a comparatively young age, he deserves our respect for devoting himself to an active life in the service of his country. He was a Knight of St Patrick, and also first Governor of the Cape of Good Hope.Most of the Oriental china in the house was bought by him in Holland shortly after the Peace following Waterloo. He and his father-in-law, Lord Hardwicke, brought over a whole shipload to stock their respective mansions, both now the property of this family… His relations with his tenants was the happiest, he built excellent cottages, laid out the present town of Caledon, in which he expended £3000 on a Court House, and spared no expense in his efforts to improve the neighbourhood. .. At his death the handsome column in the demesne at Caledon, surmounted by his statue, the work of the sculptor Kirk, was erected in his memory by public subscription. His great-grandon Erik James, fifth Earl of Caledon, an officer in the 1st Life Guards, is the present proprietor of the estate.
see https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2015/06/caledon-estate_21.html
www.nihgt.org/resources/pdf/Register_of_Parks_Gardens_Demesnes-NOV20.pdf
CALEDON, County Tyrone (AP MID ULSTER 10) – T/008
REGISTERED GRADE A*
The walled demesne at Caledon is one of Ireland’s finest landscape parks and the setting for an
elegant and well documented house. The park’s quality and importance had been rendered all the
greater for having been continuously well managed and maintained to the present day.
Occupying 1004 acres (406ha), it is edged by the River Blackwater and Ulster Canal on the eastern
and southern boundaries and is hard by the village of Caledon to the north east. Mostly in Co
Tyrone, the south side of the river is in Co Armagh and the demesne borders onto Co Monaghan.
There are many physical attributes both natural and created and fine buildings both ornamental
and practical. The house is a replacement, though the former was on a different site. Originally
known as Kinard, the property had been home to Sir Phelim Roe O’Neill, a major Gaelic
landowner who led the 1641 Rebellion in Ulster and was executed in 1653; his castle lay outside
the demesne, just west of the village and was reportedly demolished by the Earl of Cork and
Orrey. Two years later the estate was granted by Charles II to William Hamilton who built himself
a house on the property, stated in the 1740s to have been then ‘old, low and though full of rooms,
not very large’, adjoining the road ‘in the suburbs of Caledon, evidently just south of the village.
The estate, whose name had been changed to Caledon, passed into the hands of John Boyle, the
5th Earl of Cork and Orrey (1707-1762), following his marriage to Margaret, grand daughter and
heir of William Hamilton in 1738. Boyle, whose principal English seat was Marston in Somerset
(still extant), was a noted scholar and friend of Swift. He was reportedly captivated by the infinite
beauties of Caledon’, the demesne then being ‘fifty acres diversified by wood and water; three
parts bounded by a large and broad river and a fourth walled in’. He abandoned the magnificence
of Marston in 1739 to ‘fix at Caledon where I hope to find that repose which my soul so much
longs after’. He embellished Caledon during two periods, 1738-40 and 1746-50, after which he
grew bored and returned to England. During this time he created an important rococo garden,
about which much is known of its hey-day, but very little survives. His first major act in 1739 was
to close the old road to Glaslough which passed through the demesne ‘for the sake of living cheap
and private’ and in 1740 wrote ‘my trees flourish, my lawn looks green and my walks nice…my
gardens are encompassed by a river, whose borders are covered with goodly trees, the boast and
glory of the county Tyrone’. He placed seats, inscriptions and statues within his gardens, and was
reportedly very fond of elms, which he ‘put in all our plantations’; one planted in the village
survived until 1923. In 1746 he was making ‘daily additions to its beautys, gardens, groves and
above all a hermitage’. This hermitage lay in the bend of the river on the south-west side of the
present demesne (‘Hermitage Wood’) and here Orrey would entertain friends. It was described by
Mrs Delany in 1748 as being a ‘hermit’s cell made of the roots of trees, the floor paved with
Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020
pebbles’ with ‘a couch made of matting, little wooden stools, a table with a manuscript on it’,
surrounded by an acre of ground ‘planted with all varieties of trees, shrubs and flowers’ with ‘an
abundance of little winding walks’ and flanked by ‘an orchard, a flower garden, a physic garden
and a kitchen garden’; the Hermitage Wood today contains vestiges of old yew and lime walks
which may belong to this period (survey needed), while an inscribed stone in the woods here may
also belong to this period. Around the same time (June 1747) Orrey also built his unique ‘Ivory
Palace’ – an ornamental Bone House whose ruin still survives beside the Blackwater River (Listed
13/10/082). This remarkable and unique building, based on one that once existed at Kedleston,
was originally backed by woodland; it is oblong with a rere apse (probably for a statue) and with
open front facing south, its roof (now gone but probably bone) being supported on four columns
(originally arched) and two responds all lined with knuckle-bones of what appear to be sheep,
supplied by, so we are told by Orrey, ‘the butchers and tanners of Tyrone’. Instead of building a
grand new residence, Orrey opted to live in the old Hamilton house, while spending the summers
in a lodge he built in the demesne; its former location ‘Orrey Hill’, is not identified, but may have
been the farm yard of Annaghroe, the Agent’s House for the estate until 1904. In 1755 John Orrey
and his wife returned to live at Marston and in 1777, their profligate son, Edmund, 7th Earl of
Cork and Orrey, sold the estate (17,038 acres, IPM) in 1777, then in a poor condition, to James
Alexander MP, later 1st Earl of Caledon (1730-1802). Alexander was the youngest son of an
alderman of Londonderry, who during his service with the East India Company in Bengal (1752-
77) amassed a fortune reputedly around £150,00 and returned to Ireland a wealthy ‘nabob’ aged
only forty-two in 1772. Following his purchase of the Caledon estate, he engaged in 1779 the
Dublin based English architect Thomas Cooley (1740-84) to design a relatively unostentatious two-
storey seven-bay Classical house with pedimented breakfront centre and central curved bow on
garden front (Listed HB 13/10/004); his signed designs which are in the house may have been
based on a James Wyatt original. Following Cooley’s death in 1784 work continued on the house
under architect Davis Whitmore. It is probable that Cooley also designed the coachyard
quadrangle (Listed HB 13/10/023), known in the 19th century as ‘The Square Yard’, lying opposite
the house to the north-west, screened by some fine specimen cedars and oaks. The yard is
enclosed by two-storey ranges (Limestone with sandstone trim, render removed) entered through
a tall pedimented round arch with cupola surmount. Behind this lies the Farm Yard, originally an
open square with a two-storey range also by Cooley flanking its northern side, behind which lay a
narrow Cow Yard. In the woodland east of the yard is the dog’s graveyard (a ‘safe’ is also shown
here on the 1818 map), while the south-east sector of the coachyard is linked to the north-east
side of the house basement by a remarkable stone-vaulted service tunnel (Listed HB 13/10/013),
also built in the 1780s, which is 340ft (104m) long and like that at Castlecoole was wide enough
for tradesman’s carts to drive up. Adjacent to the west side of the coachyard and farmyard are a
series walled enclosures, a small piggery at the north end; a fowl yard (later dog kennels) and a
laundry yard at the south end, the latter entered through a Victorian era horse-show opening
(Listed HB 13/10/025) like one at Tynan. Close-by is an attractive one storey colonnaded building
with pediment, the Dowager Cottage (Listed HB 13/10/026), very probably designed by Nash but
not built until the 1820s. This gives access to a large walled garden on the slopes adjoining the
west of the yards. This walled garden (not listed), built in the early 1780s, has an irregular four-
sided polygon plan (2.25 acres/0.9ha); in 1863 a lean-to glasshouse (80 ft/24m long) was built by
architect James Boyd against the north wall (peaches and nectarines), while a frame yard was
made in the north-west section of the garden; glasshouses including a vinery and cold-frames are
still present here, while against the north side of the north wall are late Victorian lean-to ranges,
including boiler house and various potting sheds. The garden was largely devoted to kitchen
produce, vegetables, fruit and cut flowers; today the area is under mowed grass with a hard court
tennis court. This walled garden was extended considerably, c.1800-07 on the west side by the
addition of another large walled enclosure (2.9 acres/1.17ha), subdivided symmetrically into
three: a central long rectangular area (1.65 acres/0.67ha) flanked each side by trapezoid
Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020
enclosures (‘back gardens’), that on the east (0.63 acres/0.26ha) and west (0.24 acres/0.58ha), the
latter now the ‘Plum Garden’. The central area, referred to as the ‘Flower Garden’ on Sherrard’s
1816 map and designed as an ornamental garden, had a large lean-to glasshouse (200ft/61m
long) built at its north end in 1807-08, the work being undertaken by the ‘Mr. Lilly’, almost
certainly the carpenter and timber merchant, Charles Lilly. Estate accounts indicate these
hothouses were designed by the landscape gardener John Sutherland, who no doubt was
probably responsible for the layout of these later walled gardens. The glasshouses here (now
gone), including no doubt the rere lean-to ranges (now ruined), cost the enormous sum of £2,024.
11½s. in 1808. There are presently two small modern glasshouses on the site. The central section
of this garden was remodelled in the 1860s, its axial paths lined with fastigiate Irish yews, which
have now grown to enormous sizes. A fountain on its main axial path is an original feature of this
garden and was fed from a pump house located in the wood south-east of the garden where
there is a small pond and former engine house. West of this garden lay the former estate nursery,
while to its north-west is the mid-19th century head gardener’s house (Listed HB13/10/020) – a
gable-ended three-bay two storey building with mullioned windows and camed glass. North-east
of the former piggery and farm yard lies the ice house, probably c.1820 in date; In the winter of
1863 it was recorded that estate staff were supplied with two gallons of whiskey, bread and
cheese to fill this ice-house. The celebrated landscape gardener John Sutherland, who worked on
many Nash houses, was responsible for designing the landscape park; his work had started by at
least 1807 when 24,000 trees were planted and while some planting had certainly taken place
prior to 1802 the park in its present form was undoubtably largely his work. It is not however
clear if the Cooley house was ever used much by James, 1st Earl of Caledon for it was stated to be
in a poor state of repair by the early 1800s. On inheriting the estate in 1802, Du Pre Alexander,
now the 2nd Earl of Caledon, visited Nash in his offices in London with a view to remodelling
Caledon. Nash paid his first visit to Caledon in 1808 (he later re-visited in 1810), by which time De
Pre Alexander was in the new colony of Cape of Good Hope where he was serving as its first
British Governor (1806-1811). Nash’s work on the main house, which involved adding a screen of
Ionic columns between two domes pavilions, was mostly undertaken between 1809 and 1811. In
1812 he was also engaged to design the main entrance into the park, built with a pair of matching
gabled lodges each with Wyatt windows and Coade coat of arms, which flanked piers surmounted
with Coade ‘Grecian sphinxes’ (all Coade stone here was supplied in 1813 for £98.16s.11d) with
decorative wrought iron gates (Listed HB 13/10/005). The north gate and gate lodge (Listed HB
13/10/15-16), comprising a primitive Doric tetrastyle pedimented portico in ashlar (limestone
with Dungannon sandstone trim), were also designed by Nash and is similar to the Park Square
lodges in Regent’s Park; having housed a schoolroom for many years, this lodge became sadly
dilapidated, but has recently been restored. Nash also designed a timber steeple for St. John’s
Church in the village, the work here being undertaken by Belfast architect James Boyd of Newry in
1809-10 (replaced 1830). During the 1820s the second earl devoted his attention to rebuilding
the village town of Caledon, but following Nash’s death in May 1835 he engaged the English
architect Thomas Hopper to carry our alterations to the house, notably by building the present
entrance portico at the east end and adding a third floor; he was evidently assisted by Newry
architect Thomas J. Duff who engaged McAnaspie brothers based in Dublin to create the family
arms inserted into the pediment. Following De Pre’s death in 1839, his son James Alexander, the
3rd earl (1812-55) decided to erect a testimonial in honour of his father; this was designed by
architect William Murray (1789-1849) who had already designed buildings in the village including
the market house; his monument (Listed HB 13/10/011), blown up in the 1970s, took the form of
a Doric Column on a plinth with four flanking lions, surmounted by a statue of the 2nd earl by
well-known Dublin sculptor Thomas Kirk. It was placed in a long rectangular enclosure (1.7
acres/0.69ha) and at the time fastigiate Irish yews were planted outside the base of the plinth;
later c.1880 lines of monkey puzzles (Araucaria araucana) were planted each side of the path
(360ft/110m long) leading up to the monument from the Killylear Road, where it is entered
Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020
through a fine cast iron gate with side screens (Listed HB 13/10/012). The outstanding landscape
park that John Sutherland created for the 2nd earl in 1807-10 has remained largely intact; his
woodland planting was focussed in the south side of the park, mainly around the yards and
gardens, south-west of the house and above the banks of the Blackwater to the south with
further plantations on the east bank of the river (in county Armagh). There were also plantations
on the north perimeter, where a large lake with island had been planned by Sutherland; in the
event this lake was never made, but rather a four-pipe duck decoy enclosed by woodland was
constructed. The park meadows around the house and on the northern side of the park were well
endowed with tree clumps and isolated trees, carefully positioned for best effect as seen from the
approach avenues. In the 1820s further improvements were made on the advice of the English
artist and landscape designer, William Sawrey Gilpin (1761-1843), who came here twice; his works
included the upper two terraces on the south side of the house, made in 1827 as a ‘parterre
garden’ with myrtles planted on the terrace walls; the earl of Caledon himself decided to add a
lower third compartment a few years later. Other alterations by Gilpin may have included the
straight western avenue created at this time (the back avenue) and tree belts along the parks
south-western perimeter. The gate lodge here is a later addition – it lies opposite the back
avenue
and Glaslough gate is an imposing multi-gabled Tudor style building of limestone ashlar believed
to be the work of Thomas J. Duff of Newry in the mid-1830s (Listed HB 13/10/054); he is also
believed to have designed the Tynan gate lodge. Following the construction of the Ulster Canal
through the east part of the demesne and Blackwater in the early 1840s, the 3rd earl
commissioned the landscape gardener James Fraser (1793-1863) to undertake more
improvements in the park; he was assisted in this work by the Dublin landscape gardener Maurice
Armour. New plantations put down at this time east of the Blackwater are probably their work;
also additional landscaping south of the river was undertaken and to provide access to this, an
iron suspension bridge (1845) with deck width of 10 ft known as ‘The White Bridge’, was built
across the Blackwater south of the house (Listed HB 13/10/029); it was designed by James Drudge
of Bath, one of three known by him in Northern Ireland. Part of the scheme south of the river was
the building of an eight-pipe duck decoy covering 2½-acres in 1846; the largest in Ireland and
similar to one made at Lakenheath in Suffolk, it was designed by an English specialist William
Skelton who managed it for many years. The decoy ceased operating around 1875, but in its
heyday, according to Payne-Gallawey, it caught 2,000 to 3,000 fowl in a season. Around 1850
Fraser designed a substantial lake (5.9 acres/2.4ha) lying to the west of the main entrance gates;
this lake on its north side was equipped with a boat house and hydraulic ram; there were also
separate fish ponds here, presumably to help stock the lake. Changes made to the park by the
4th Earl of Caledon, James Alexander (1846-1898), who inherited in 1855, reflected his travel and
sporting interests. He had ranched in the American west and brought back a bear, which was
housed in wrought iron cages opposite the stable yard (Listed HB 13/10/24). He introduced red
deer into the park in 1868; later fallow deer were introduced and towards the end of the century
a wapiti hind from Canada. The 4th earl’s most significant addition to the demesne however, was
the creation of a pinetum in what had previously been open parkland west of the walled gardens.
Begun in the 1860s, it has one of the most notable tree collections in Ulster with many
champions; some of these include a number of Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) 48m x
7.53m and 52m x 6.34, the latter being the Irish height champion and 2nd tallest tree in Ireland;
Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis) 50.2m x 7.47m, the Irish girth champion and another 54m x 5.86m
being 2nd tallest of its kind in Ireland & 6th tallest tree in Ireland; a Coastal Redwood (Sequoia
sempervirens) 38.5m x 7.46m; Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), 36.5m x 6.14m, being the Irish
girth champion; a Grand Fir (Abies grandis) 49mx 4.91m, being the 4th tallest of its kind in Ireland;
Low’s Fir (Abies concolor var. lowiana, 48.8m x 4.83m , being Irish height and girth champion;
Noble Fir (Abies procera Glauca Group) 42m x 4,82m, being 2nd tallest of kind in Ireland; Grand Fir
(Abies grandis) 52m x 4.75m being Irish height champion and 13th tallest tree in Ireland; Western
Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) 40.4 x 4.55m, being 2nd tallest of its kind in Ireland; Turkey Oak
Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020
(Quercus Cerris) 33.1m x 4.52m, being Irish height champion; Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) 26.4m
x 4.38m being 2nd greatest girth of its kind in Ireland; Crimean Pine (Pinus nigra var. caramanica)
40.7 x 3.51m, being Irish height champion; Lawson Cypress (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana ‘Triompf
van Boskoop’) 28.5 x 3.47m, being Irish height and girth champion; Oriental Spruce (Picea
orientalis) 33.8 x 3.44m, being Irish height champion & 2nd greatest girth of its kind in Ireland;
King Boris’s Fir (Abies borisii-regis), 42m x 3.33m, being Irish height champion; Monkey Puzzle
(Araucaria araucana) 30.5m x 3.27m being Irish Height Champion; Norway Spruce (Picea abies),
39m x 2.81m, being 2nd tallest of its kind in Ireland; Western Yellow Pine (Pinus ponderosa),
35.7m x 2.38m, being Irish height and girth champion; and Red Maple (Acer rubrum), 13.8m x
2.16m. Exotics were also planted elsewhere in the park; north-east of the decoy for example
there is a notable avenue of giant sequoia. There are SMR: sites, SMR: TYR 71:1 Caledon Cross and
well, 71:2 enclosure/tree ring. And ARM 11:16 enclosure and 11:22 site of graveyard. Designated
an ASSI in March 2010 with Tynan
Irish Historic Houses 