Aughentaine Castle, Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, demolished and new house built 1954. 

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. 15. “(Knox-Browne, sub Browne/IFR; Hamilton Stubber/IFR) A large Victorian mansion, built 1860 by T.R. Browne, consisting of symmetrical two storey main block, and a lower two storey wing, with two very tall Italianate campaniles of equal height, one at each end, to give the building that air of near-symmetry so beloved of many Victorian architects. Open porch; two-light and 3-light windows, some rectangular, others round-headed. Prominent roofs. Sold following the death of Mervyn Knox-Browne 1954, to Major J.H. Hamilton Stubber, who demolished it and built a modern Classical house to the design of Hon. Claud Phillimore.” 

https://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2013/08/aughentaine-castle.html

THE KNOX-BROWNES OWNED 10,350 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY TYRONE
JOHN HAMILTON BROWNE, of Cumber House, near Claudy, County Londonderry, and Aughentaine, County Tyrone, son of THOMAS BROWNE, of County Londonderry, by Elizabeth Hamilton his wife, niece of James Hamilton, Provost of Strabane ca 1720, and grandson of GEORGE BROWNE, also of Derry, by his wife Mary, daughter of Colonel Hogg, married, in 1795, Jane Matilda, daughter of William Lecky, of Castlefin, County Donegal, MP for Londonderry City, 1790-7, by Hannah his wife, daughter of Conolly McCausland, of DRENAGH, and had issue,

Conolly William Lecky, of Cumber House; died unmarried;
THOMAS RICHARDSON, his successor;
GEORGE, of Cumber House;
John Hamilton;
Hannah Sidney; Elizabeth.

Mr Browne died in 1848, and was succeeded by his second, but eldest surviving son,

THOMAS RICHARDSON BROWNE JP DL (1810-82), of Aughentaine, High Sheriff of County Tyrone, 1832, who wedded, in 1839, Sarah, fourth daughter of Hervey Pratt de Montmorency, of CASTLE MORRES, County Kilkenny, and had issue,

JOHN HERVEY, his heir;
Raymond Saville;
Conolly William Lecky Browne-Lecky;
Rose Sarah; Caroline Frances; Matilda Theodosia.

Mr Browne was succeeded by his eldest son,

JOHN HERVEY KNOX-BROWNE JP DL (1841-1927), of Aughentaine Castle, High Sheriff of County Tyrone, 1887, who married, in 1867, Louisa Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Arthur Knox-Gore Bt, of BELLEEK MANOR, County Mayo, by Sarah his wife, daughter of Colonel Charles Nesbitt Knox, of Castle Lacken, County Mayo, and had issue,

Charles Arthur Hervey (1870-1934), died unmarried;
MERVYN WILLIAM CHARLES NESBITT;
Sarah Hannah Madeline; Augusta Caroline; Eileen Hester Louisa.

Colonel Knox-Browne, ADC to His Grace the Duke of Abercorn, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lieutenant-Colonel, 9th Brigade, North Irish Division, Royal Artillery, assumed the additional surname and arms of KNOX in 1874.

He was succeeded by his younger son,

MERVYN WILLIAM CHARLES NESBITT KNOX-BROWNE DL (1880-1954), of Aughentaine Castle, High Sheriff of County Tyrone, 1935, who wedded, in 1911, Mary, daughter of Captain Thomas Barry George, and had issue,

MERVYN HERVEY, his heir;
Louisa May (1912-69).

Mr Knox-Browne was succeeded by his only son,

MERVYN HERVEY KNOX-BROWNE MBE JP DL (1927-2022), who married, in 1956, Catherine, daughter of Hugh Ferguson, and had issue,

MAUREEN; DEIRDRE ROSEMARY.

Family of Hamilton-Stubber

Mervyn Knox-Browne, who moved to Perthshire, sold Aughentaine Castle to Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Hamilton-Stubber.

It was subsequently demolished in 1955. 

An ancestor of the Hamilton-Stubbers, Hugh Hamilton, settled at Lisbane in County Down during the reign of JAMES I, died in 1665 and was interred at Bangor, County Down. Hugh’s son was called John Hamilton, of Ballymenoch near Holywood. A second son was Alexander Hamilton, of Killyleagh.  

MAJOR ROBERT HAMILTON-STUBBER DSO (1879-1963), of MOYNE HOUSE, married, in 1920, the Lady Mabel Florence Mary Crichton, daughter of John, 4th Earl of Erne, and had issue, an only child,

JOHN HENRY HAMILTON-STUBBER DL (1921-86), Captain, Coldstream Guards, Lieutenant-Colonel, Ulster Defence Regiment, 1972, who wedded, in 1953, Fiona Patricia, daughter of Geoffrey Wyndham Breitmeyer, and had issue,

JAMES ROBERT;
Richard J, Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Co Armagh; m Susanna, dau. of 2nd Viscount Brookeborough;
Charles Geoffrey, born 1960;
David Hugh, born 1962.

The eldest son,

JAMES ROBERT HAMILTON-STUBBER DL (1954-), of Aughentaine, former Lieutenant, Coldstream Guards, married Carola E A Savill, and has issue,

HENRY JAMES HAMILTON-STUBBER, born in 1984.

AUGHENTAINE CASTLE, near Fivemiletown, County Tyrone, was a large Victorian mansion, built in 1860 for Thomas Richardson Browne.

This mansion house was named after the plantation castle mentioned by Mrs Knox-Browne in 1937 for a BBC interview.

It consisted of a two-storey main block and a lower two-storey wing, with two tall Italianate campaniles of equal height, one at each end.

There was an open porch; two-light and three-light windows some round-headed and others rectangular. The roofing was prominent.

The image above is shown by kind permission of McClintock of Seskinore, which contains more pictures of Aughentaine.

The house was demolished ca 1955 by Colonel Hamilton-Stubber, who built a neo-classical house (below) ca 1958 to the design of the Hon Claud Phillimore.

Land was acquired in the 18th century and a demesne was set out but not walled in.

There are many fine mature trees, evidence of the planting that took place for this imposing house.

The landscape designer, Percy Cane, planned an ornamental garden for the house and this is maintained.

Excellent distant views can be seen from the house over Cane’s double terraces and tree-tops on lower ground.

Extensive rhododendron and other shrub planting cascades below the terraces and into the parkland to the south.

Expansion took place post-1958 in the planting beneath mature trees on either side of Ballyness Glen, which runs to the east of the house in an attractive declivity.

There is a lake on high ground to the north of the house, which has an island and is backed by a wood and, further back, extensive forest planting.

It is referred to as a ‘Fish Pond’ in 1858, prior to the erection of the 1860s house.

The 1860s stables are retained and beyond lies the walled garden, which is pre-1858.

It is part-cultivated and the original glasshouses have gone except one, which is in operation.

Several bridges are necessary in the park: one, built in the 1860s, was designed as part of the planned landscape.

Aughentaine estate, near Fivemiletown, is renowned for its garden and forestry.

First published in September, 2010.  Knox-Browne arms courtesy of the NLI.

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

AUGHENTAINE CASTLE, County Tyrone (AP MID ULSTER 10) T/001 
REGISTERED GRADE A 
Mid-Victorian demesne parkland (285 acres/115ha) laid out to accompany house of 1860-63, 
subsequently demolished to make way for present 1958 house by architect Claude Phillimore. 
Located 2.4 miles north-east of Fivemiletown and 4.9 miles (7.9km) west of Clogher, it lies in the 
townland of Ballyness – the real ‘Aughentaine (Aughentain) Castle’ is in fact an early 17th century 
ruin 2.2 miles (3.6km) to the west (Scheduled TYR 058:012). While there is a tale that Hamilton 
Browne (d.1848), of Comber House, Co. Londonderry, acquired the land here around 1800 with 
the intention of creating a house and demesne, the work did not begin until the 1850s when his 
son Thomas Richardson Browne (1810-82) made the park from 1855-60, prior to the building of 
the house. In what was clearly a professionally designed landscape, extensive plantations were 
laid down to best accommodate the land, which slopes down from north to south with the 
Blackwater River flowing through the eastern part from north to south. Planting was focussed on 
the valley sides, with good perimeter shelter planting, especially on the east (Beacon Hil). Some of 
the once important plantations on the north side of the old demesne, notably Pea Hill Wood and 
Sheppard’s Wood, have been now been submerged into an extensive blanket of modern conifer 
forestry plantations. A number of roads were diverted in making the demesne, notably a road 
that ran south-north to the west of the river and the moving southwards of present Aghintain- 
road. It may be noted that the Cottage Wood and the park clumps south of the walled garden 
were all laid out in the 1850s in anticipation of these road changes which took place in the 1860s. 
The walled garden, reached by a steep path, also was built before the house and was present by 
1858; it occupies a large trapezoidal area (1.43 acres/0.58ha) enclosed by high brick walls. It 
formerly was surrounded on all sides by slips (average width 8m/25ft), enclosed by banks and 
hedges, giving the kitchen garden a former area of 2.14 acres (0.86ha); these slips have now 
more-or-less disappeared. Inside the garden the ground slopes gradually to the south and was laid 
out in the standard traditional kitchen garden manner with inside circuit paths and two cross 
paths, dividing the area into quadrants. The long south facing wall was lined for much of its length 
(60m) by a series of co-joined lean-to high glasshouses, traces of which remain. One glasshouse 
survives (50ft/15m) containing datura, grapes, peaches, apricots and camellia. There is a door in 
the north wall and, against the outside of the north wall, a potting shed. There were formerly Irish 
yews in the garden centre, now the area is almost entirely under grass save for a few cultivated 
plots in front of the glasshouses. As we would expect, the walled garden is enclosed by woodland, 
though that on its south has been felled in recent years. With the creation of the parkland came 
carefully laid out new drives and inevitably, bridges; the most noteworthy of these lies south-west 
of the house and carries the rear drive from the Aghintain Road over the River Blackwater (Listed 
HB 13/01/050). Another bridge, also associated with the late 1850s landscaping is located along a 
drive to the north of the house (Listed HB 13/01/051). The original house, built between 1860-63 
on the site of an old farmhouse, was in an Italianate style with an irregular plan and with walls of 
local ashlar. Designed by William Robert Farrell of Dublin and his then partner Isaac Farrell (1798- 
1877), it was a two storey building but distinguished by four-stage square campaniles at each end. 
Having been sold in 1954 on the death of Mervyn Knox-Browne (1880-1954), the house was 
demolished on the grounds that ‘restoration and upkeep would be too costly’ and in its place the 
present house was built in 1958 to designs by the distinguished architect Claude Phillimore, 4th 
Baron Phillimore (1911-1994). This new residence is a relatively long, low, two-storey hipped-roof 
rendered building of asymmetric plan in a Neo-Regency Style, with a lengthy two-storey wing to 
the south with a large L-shaped projection extending northwards, as well as various – largely 
curved – bays. To the north front there is a large pedimented breakfront and extending from the 

Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020 
ground level of this is a Tuscan colonnade. A short distance to the west of the house is the stable 
yard which contains an L-shaped two-storey hipped-roof block which would appear to have been 
built to serve the 1860s mansion, but which seems to have been converted to living 
accommodation in recent years. The north of the house is flanked by a large rectangular 
forecourt, beyond which lies a large lawn looking onto a large lake on higher ground with a tiny 
island (2 acres/0.83ha), which was part of the 1850s landscape design (labelled ‘fish pond’ on the 
1858 map), but was enlarged in the late 19h century, and given a boat house at the north end; in 
recent decades gunnera has been planted north of the lake. The area is enclosed with handsome, 
mature, deciduous trees. West of the house and stable block Major Hamilton Stubber planted an 
arboretum. This is in grass on sloping ground and a summer house built there East of the house is 
Ballyness Glen and south of the house are new ornamental gardens for the new house were 
designed by the English landscape designer Percy Stephen Cane (1881-1976). He created a level 
flagged area and two parallel terraces running from west to east south of the house. The flags 
were derived from Albert Square, Belfast. In the 1990s there were beds in the flagged area with 
herbaceous material, but formerly roses. A set of central steps leads down through them and the 
ground slopes down below the terraces. Rhododendron and other shrubs cascade below the 
terraces and into the parkland to the south. The crane sculptures on the terrace are a symbol of 
longevity. There are shrubs between the terraces and mature trees to west and east with yew 
trees in the front and taller trees behind. Excellent distant views can be seen from the house over 
Cane’s double terraces and tree tops on lower ground. Private.