Walled Garden & Dovecote / Ice-house

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Quadrangular plan walled garden and circular stone dovecote, erected c.1780. Set on a northwest/southeast axis on the east side of Seacoast Road to the west of Downhill House (HB03/12/015A) forming part of the Downhill Demesne (HB03/12/015A-J). Now run by the National Trust as a visitor attraction within the Downhill Demesne.

Dovecote/Ice-house
Double-height circular rubblestone structure surmounted by a domed roof constructed with vaulted double-baked black brick on a cement base and having an octagonal black brick blind lantern with cement top. To the south elevation is a series of dove niches constructed in redbrick with slate ledges. To the north elevation is a battered rubblestone retaining wall, accommodating the sloping terrain with stone steps and gravel area providing access to the ice-house at the lower level. Over the retaining wall is a parabolic arched footbridge constructed in redbrick with timber balustrade, providing access to the dovecote. The west elevation is abutted by the northern boundary wall to the garden with a pedestrian opening constructed in redbrick having a timber gate. The pedestrian bridge gives access to a square-headed door opening formed in voussoired basalt. At the lower level is a rubblestone projection with a camber-headed door opening formed in voussoired basalt and brick lined walls opening into the ice-house.

Garden
The rectangular plan is divided by a tall rubblestone wall with redbrick courses running across the centre, creating a north garden and a south garden with a range of single-storey lean-to rubblestone structures to the north garden, providing public facilities. The south garden is further divided by rubblestone walls into three compartments. The east boundary wall has a one-and-a-half-storey rendered former gardener’s house to the north end with its west gable fronting into the north garden. The central dividing wall has a pair of segmental-headed openings with voussoired stone and a single red and yellow brick chimneystack abutting the north elevation. The southern boundary wall has a pointed-arched pedestrian opening with rock-faced basalt surround and a bitmac car park to the south. The West boundary is enclosed by a wire fence only.

Setting
Located on the east side of Seacoast Road on an elevated site to the south of the north Londonderry coast and accessed via Lion Gate (HB03/12/015D) to the south. Beyond the north boundary wall is a further single-storey rubblestone outbuilding with an enclosed yard to the east. The former gardener’s house has an enclosed front garden and a separate access lane running along the south and east boundary walls.

Roof Vaulted black brick
RWG None
Walling Rubblestone
Windows None

Historical information

The walled garden was laid out in 1778 shortly after building of the main house began on the site. The garden was extended in 1783 and the dovecote/icehouse added in 1786. (Rankin; PRONI) The dovecote/icehouse and walled garden are shown, uncaptioned, on the first edition OS map of 1831.

The dovecote/ice-house performed an important function with regard to the Earl Bishop’s dining table, but was also a picturesque addition to the estate buildings. Cooing pigeons flying to and from the building, when it was in use, would have added to the ambience of cultivation expressed in the walled garden. Architecturally, the cylindrical, domed shape of the structure provided an echo of nearby Mussenden Temple and closed the vista at the end of the glen to the south east. (Rankin)

The dovecote would originally have been fitted with a heavy door to prevent vermin from entering, also the reason for the high level of the nesting holes. (HB file) Pigeons have a rapid breeding cycle, producing two chicks eight or more times a year and therefore three nesting holes are likely to have been provided for every two pairs of birds, so that the Downhill dovecote could have accommodated 225 pairs. Pigeons would have provided an important source of fresh meat at a relatively low cost, especially in winter, the young birds or squabs being particularly prized for their soft, juicy meat. (HB file)

The dovecote, of local basalt, is surmounted by a cupola and ventilator and rows of nesting boxes line the inner wall. A central post, which may have been at one time fitted with a rotating arm, could have allowed a ladder to be rested on it in order to gain access to the nesting boxes and harvest birds for eating. An icehouse is built into the lower part of the building. Circular pigeon houses were typical of the period but Eccles takes the view that the domed roof was added in order to give stylistic coherence with the nearby temple, the ventilator taking the place of the temple’s urn. (Eccles) Louvred openings opposite the door allowed the birds to gain access to the building and are south-facing so that the birds were sheltered from the prevailing winds. (Eccles; HB file)

The dovecote/icehouse was added to the walled garden in 1786 and was built by David McBlain. According to Eccles, ice would be gathered in the winter months from a depression in the field to the north of the building and then packed into the icehouse using insulation such as sawdust or shavings. What is thought to be the first ice-house ever constructed was built for Charles II in St James’s Park in 1660 and in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, before refrigeration, were a feature of most large country houses throughout Ireland. (Howley; Eccles)

It is thought that heated glasshouses were installed in the walled garden towards the end of the nineteenth century and local people recall buying peaches from the Downhill gardens. (Eccles)

A gardener’s house is shown on the first edition OS map of 1831 extending from the north-east corner of the garden. However, this appears to have been rebuilt in 1878 when it is newly inserted into valuation records at a valuation of £5. The occupier of the house for many years was the Head Gardener at Downhill, English-born Charles William Lynes. The 1911 census shows that he lived with his wife and six children in the second-class, eight-room house and a photograph of c1900 in Jan Eccles ‘Downhill Scrapbook’ shows him with his wife and elder three children. Charles Lynes created a bog garden, originally called ‘Lady Bruce’s Garden’ behind the bridge at the Bishop’s Gate. (Eccles)

In the First General Revaluation of 1933/4 the accommodation in the house is listed as a reception, kitchen, scullery and pantry on the ground floor and four bedrooms upstairs. The estate gardener and ‘bog baillie’ still occupied the house on a service tenancy and dimensions are given for the one and a half storey house and two single-storey returns. In the 1930s market gardening was being undertaken at Downhill and a former gardener’s bothy in the walled garden was being used as a potting shed.

The garden was bought by Londonderry County Council in 1973 for amenity purposes but soon afterwards became the property of the Department of the Environment and was listed in 1984. The walled garden was transferred to the National Trust in the 1980s and remedial repair work was carried out to the dovecote in 1988-9 including repointing, repairing the roof dome, eaves, flaunching and ventilator and restoring the bridge. In 1992 visitors’ facilities were built within the garden and a section of defective wall was removed. (HB file)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/2/1 First Edition OS Map 1831
2. PRONI OS/6/5/2/2 Second Edition OS map 1848
3. PRONI OS/6/5/2/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/2/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/10AF Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
1. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
2. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/H/4 First General Revaluation 1933-57
3. PRONI D1514 - Hervey/ Bruce papers
6. 1911 census online
7. HB file – 03/12/019

Secondary Sources

1. Eccles, J “Downhill, A Scrapbook of People and Place” London: Bath Press, 1996
2. Howley, J “The Follies and Garden Buildings of Ireland” New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993
3. Rankin, P “Irish Building Ventures of the Earl Bishop of Derry” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
Z. Rarity
V. Authorship

Evaluation

Quadrangular plan walled garden and circular stone dovecote, erected c.1780. Set on a northwest/southeast axis on the east side of Seacoast Road to the west of Downhill House (HB03/12/015A) forming part of the Downhill Demesne (HB03/12/015A-J). Formerly serving all the kitchen needs of Downhill House, this collection of structures forms an important component part of the greater demesne. The combined dovecote/ice-house is of particular interest and forms a focal point to both the garden and the wider landscape. It has group value with the other listed structures on the downhill estate.

General comments

Renumbered as part of a group. Formerly HB03/12/019.
Listing Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply.