Magheramorne, near Larne, County Antrim 

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. 198. (Hogg, Bt/PB; McGarel-Groves, sub Groves/G1969) A gabled Victorian house with a pillared porch.” 

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

MAGHERAMORNE (BALLYLIG), Co. Antrim (AP MID AND EAST ANTRIM 09) AN/109 
REGISTERED GRADE A 
Small Victorian demesne parkland (81.3 acres/32.9ha), partly walled, with house of 1881 (Listed 
HB 06/05/017) on a coastal site, 3 miles (4.9km) south-east of Larne and 5 miles (8km) north-west 
of Whitehead. The present house was preceded by an earlier house of 1817 located on the east 
side of the demesne, just west of the 1881 stable block (Listed HB 06/05/023). It was called 
Ballylig House, after the townland, and was built by Agnew Farrell, who leased the land from 
Arthur Hill-Trevor, second Viscount Dungannnon (1763-1837). There was some planting 
associated with this house, mainly along the stream in a very attractive deep, narrow glen that 
bisects the demesne from south-west to north-east. The OS Memoirs of 1835 mentioned that the 
demesne then contained 55 acres under ‘planting or shrubberies and ornamental grounds’ with 
‘every variety of forest tree, but chiefly fir, larch and beech’, which were ‘tastefully laid out and in 
its diversity and disposition constitutes the greatest ornament of Larne Lough…There are 
numerous well contrived and pretty walks throughout the grounds, the extreme diversity in the 
formation of which admit of much variety’. Also associated with this period was the building of an 
ice house into the side of a hill close to the shore on the north-east (Listed HB 06/05/033). This is 
of rectangular and circular form, constructed mainly of brick, and consists of a vaulted passage 
(facing west) leading to a domical end chamber. In 1824 these lands were sold to John Irving ‘of 
London,’ proprietor of the adjacent limestone quarries, whose agent occupied the house. It was 
during this time that the present shore road was built, considerably improving the Larne- 
Carrickfergus road. In 1842 property was acquired by Charles McGarel (d.1876) of Belgrave 
Square, London, who remodelled and considerably enlarged Ballylig, renaming it ‘Magheramorne 
House’ and built a wall along the coast road. The planting was extended with new wood blocks on 
the south-west side of the demesne, on the west side of the Ballylig-road with parkland to the 
north and north-west of the house. After the death of Charles McGarel in 1876 the demesne 
passed to his brother-in-law James MacNaghten Hogg (1823-90) on condition that he assumed 
the additional name of McGarel. He succeeded his father as 2nd Baronet Hogg in 1876 and for 
many years had been chairperson of the London Metropolitan Board of Works for which he 
received a KCB. In 1878 he was created 1st Baron Magheramorne of Magheramorne, and in the  
same year commissioned architect Samuel P. Close of Belfast to build the present Maghermorne 
House in the ‘Elizabethan Style’ on a de novo site 180m north-west of the old house on the 
opposite side of the glen and on much lower ground. Built in 1878-80 with James Henry as the 
contractor, this is a large two and a half-storey rectangular Tudor-style mansion with squared 
rubble walls, red sandstone quoins and dressings, a steeply-pitched roof with multiple gables and 
dormers. Samuel Close also built an attractive stable yard (listed HB06.05.023) beside the old 
house, which remained standing and served for years as a Masonic hall (now demolished). The 
grounds were substantially refashioned around the new building, forming the basis of much of the 
landscaping we see today. On the rere or seaward side of the new mansion a series of three large 
terraces were constructed. A central path, at right angles to the façade of the house, bisects the 
top two. The upper terrace, which is rectangular, is paved and has seats with steps down to a 
lower one which is rectangular with a semicircular extension. This is grassed with symmetrically- 
placed urns, clipped shrubs, and parterres with colourful flowering plants. The focus of this area 
is a stone fountain in a circular pool. These terraced are enclosed by high clipped yew hedging 
which follows the line of the semi-circle. Leading down from this terrace is another flight of steps, 
broken halfway, down to a lower rectilinear area with a central classical-style figure sculpture. 
The high steep slope between the two terraces appears to have been a rockery. On the lowest 
level are palms and, an enclosing belt of rhododendron and other shrubs. Beyond this mature 
exotics, including evergreens provide a backdrop on all three sides, with a view of the sea 
between the trees from north round to north-east. South-west of the dwelling house are views to 
grass with woodland rising above. The kitchen garden that serviced these gardens and the 
produced household fruit and vegetables reeds was located 350m east of the house close to the 
Shore Road, where it had its own road entrance. It was a small rectangular walled area (0.8 
acres/0.33ha), on the north side of the existing brick walled kitchen garden (1.2 acres/0.52ha), 
which contained a glasshouse and potting sheds; both were abandoned in the 1960s and what 
survives is now covered with woodland. The extensive tree planting that accompanied the 1880s 
house saw the putting down good shelterbelts along the road and around the property, extending 
the woodlands to the north-west and enhancing the plantations along the glen, which today is 
densely wooded with mixed trees, mainly beech. South of the dwelling house there is bamboo, 
escallonia, holly, rhododendron and other shrubs. Paths through the woodland lead off the 
original main carriage drive to north-east and south-west. The woodland paths are well-kept and 
the woods are full of wild flowers. The more westerly glen is particularly picturesque today with 
the north-easterly path running adjacent to the stream for some length. The main area of 
parkland meadow, north of the dwelling house and east of the main avenue has mature specimen 
trees including a weeping ash and conifers. Elsewhere in the demesne are more mature specimen 
trees including two champions—a Summit Cedar (Athrotaxis laxifolia) which, at 20.5m, is the Irish 
Height Champion of its kind, and a Grand Fir (Abies grandis). The old demesne entrance off the 
‘high’ or Ballylig Road was superseded in the 1880s by two off the Shore Road. The main entrance, 
to the north-west, has a carriage drive that curves from north-west to south-east and today is a 
lime avenue with bulbs around the base of each tree. This drive is on a scarp with parkland falling 
to the north-east and a wooded slope to the south-west. The second new carriage drive, east of 
the original was also constructed and ran down over the stream and curved westwards to join the 
main drive just north-west of the dwelling house. There were gate lodges associated with both 
1880s entrances, that on the north-west (Listed HB 06/05/016) is by S.P. Close and is an attractive 
one and half-storey dwelling which like the house has steeply pitched gables, basalt walls with 
sandstone quoins and dressings. In 1890 Magheramorne passed to James’s son, James Douglas 
McGarel Hogg (1861-1903) 2nd Baron Magheramorne, after whose death it was sold to Colonel 
James Martin McCalmont (1847-1913), MP for East Antrim (1885-1913). For some years after Col. 
McCalmont’s death it appears to have lain vacant and left in the hands of a caretaker. In 1932 it 
was purchased by Major Harold Robinson, who is said introduced new planting and generally 
improved the demesne. At some point in the 1950s a plot at the northern edge of the demesne  
(facing the roadside and immediately north of the house) was given up for a small housing 
development (‘New Park’), and before 1965 the Magheramorne House itself had become an old 
peoples home. It was later converted to a hotel and the grounds adapted to a low maintenance 
regime whilst retaining the bare bones of a late Victorian layout. In the 1990s the hotel made a 
new wider entrance off the shore road, a short distance down from the old main entrance. The 
hotel closed in the later 1990s and in 2000 the property was sold to Mr. Rex Maughan and 
became the headquarters of Forever Living Products Ireland Ltd. Mound SMR: ANT 41:41. 
Private.