6 Glendesha Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Semi-detached two-storey with half-dormer, three-bay semi-detached former barrack building built c.1795 by the Commissioners of the Barracks and converted into a dwelling house to provide accommodation for a doctor c.1820, with a dispensary providing free medical treatment in an outbuilding to the adjacent house. In 1891 the building was sold to the Catholic Church and became the parochial house for St Mary’s, Mullaghbawn. Rectangular plan form having single-storey single-bay entrance porch to north-west with hipped roof. Single storey and two-storey extension to rear. Building is attached on north-east to HB16/16/021A.

Pitched fibre cement roof and ridge tiles, three red brick chimneystacks having profiled brick cornices, lead flashing and terracotta chimney pots. uPVC and aluminium rainwater goods. Painted roughcast render walling with smooth rendered eaves course, plinth and narrow margin corners.

Asymmetrical principal elevation to north-west having square-headed openings with granite cills, smooth raised margins. First floor gabled wallhead dormer windows with moulded timber bargeboards surmounted by terracotta finials. Replacement uPVC casement windows. Replacement fixed margin-paned window to porch. Timber panelled door to north-east of entrance porch.

South-west elevation forms gable with single square-head window opening at ground floor with replacement uPVC casement window.

Rear elevation to south-east having two half-dormers. Windows generally replacement uPVC. Extension spanning three bays, left and right bays single-storey lean-to with two-storey pitched-roof central bay. Replacement uPVC entrance door to left cheek of extension. Larger windows to extension are replacement uPVC, smaller are timber fixed pane. Semi-circular headed window to left cheek of upper floor extension having margin-paned timber sliding sash and smooth panelled tympanum.

Garden contains free-standing, square on plan, hipped roof former bathroom built c1900 and formerly connected by a timber and corrugated iron walkway (now gone) to upper floor of main building. Natural slate roof, replacement metal rainwater goods and cast iron soil pipe. Walls painted redbrick, windows timber sliding sash, doors replacement panelled timber, plain glass transom light over entrance door to east. Interior exposed brick, timber sheeted ceiling. Currently used as storage.

Rendered boundary party wall with No.4 (HB16/16/021A) extending from south-east rear elevation into gardens. Concrete paths and rendered retaining wall with concrete coping with mature gardens beyond including historic structures forming part of the original barracks complex.

Setting:

The building is set back from and parallel with the road with gravel driveway approach from east. Attached building to north-east (HB16/16/021A), mature hedgerow to north-west, mature gardens to south-east with boundary walls and tower structure associated with former barracks forming immediate
setting.

The barracks accommodation building was formerly surrounded by an inner boundary wall with four two-storey corner towers. Adjacent to the roadside the uncoursed rubblestone boundary survives and forms a retaining wall, extending from north-eastern elevation of surviving tower. One of the corner towers, to the north-west, survives in a complete condition, while there are extant remains of the north-east and south-east towers. Several further sections of the inner uncoursed rubblestone barrack wall survive as boundary walls to the gardens of HB16/16/021A and B.

The surviving corner tower, a curtilage structure to HB16/16/021B, is a two-storey square-on-plan structure with hipped roof of fibre cement slates, having black fibre cement ridge tiles and redbrick chimneystack to north. Walls are limewashed random rubblestone. Projecting granite eaves course supporting uPVC rainwater goods. Doors and windows having timber lintels, windows having granite cills. Doors are timber tongue and groove. Main elevation faces south-east with four stone steps leading to door at upper level. Replacement metal handrail and original wrought iron door furniture. Wall abuts the south-eastern elevation having a rectangular headed archway with replacement steel lintel opening onto stone steps leading down to a door at ground floor level with a 6 over 6 timber sliding sash window above. West elevation has replacement top-hung four-paned timber window at ground floor level. Wrought iron gate gives access to the adjacent road. North elevation facing road is blank. East elevation where boundary wall abuts the building has replacement top-hung four-paned timber window at ground floor level with redbrick relieving arch above.

The former barracks complex is located at the foot of Slievebrack/Croslieve mountains with extensive views to the north of surrounding countryside within the ring of Gullion.

Materials:

Roof: Artificial slate
Walling: Painted roughcast render
Windows: uPVC (replacement), some timber
RWG: uPVC

Historical information

One of a pair of semi-detached dwellings that were originally constructed as a yeomanry barrack in 1795. The building was converted after 1821 to provide accommodation for a doctor, and a dispensary providing free medical treatment was housed in an outbuilding to the adjoining house. In 1891 the building was sold to the Catholic Church and became the parochial house for St Mary’s, Mullaghbawn.

The barrack in Shanroe townland was built in the aftermath of disturbances which followed the Berkley outrage of 1791, in which a schoolmaster and his wife were maimed (the wife subsequently died of her wounds) by members of an agrarian secret society called the Defenders. Musgrave’s Memoirs of the 1798 rebellion assert that there was an earlier barrack in Forkhill, built in 1689 ‘to repress the ferocious spirit of the raparees’ and enduring until c1755. Little supporting evidence remains to confirm this – however, some intriguing structures are shown on Rocque’s 1760 map of County Armagh to the north of ‘Cross Clave mountains’ which may represent the barrack towers.

Immediately following the Berkley outrage, trustees for the recently deceased landlord, Richard Jackson, wrote to the Bishop of Dromore suggesting that a barrack should be built at Forkhill for a company of foot. The formal purchase of the barracks site did not take place until some years later, although some researchers have suggested that the barracks was built before the conveyance was drawn up. The current site, located near the dwelling where Alexander Berkley had been attacked, was formally purchased in 1795 by the Commissioners of the Barracks from Jackson’s trustees for the sum of £291.12s.11d and a barracks constructed upon it, known variously as Belmo(u)nt Barracks, Mountain Barrack, Forkhill Barrack and Shanroe Barrack. A local force, the Forkhill Yeomanry, later the Upper Orier Yeomanry, was formed under Colonel Ogle shortly after the opening of the barracks. Ogle’s mother in law, and Richard Jackson’s sister, Susanna Barton, a trustee of Richard Jackson’s estate, is said to have provided the necessary funds to establish the barracks, a gesture which was publicly praised by parish inhabitants.

During the United Irish rebellion, there is evidence of activity at Belmont barracks and engagement in suppressing the rebellion. Colonel Ogle wrote from Belmont in March 1797 to an aide-de-camp to General Lake to report that a local informer in Forkhill knew of pikes hidden in caves at Cave Hill, Belfast. A company of the North Britons Fencibles were stationed at the barracks in June 1798 and were engaged in pursuing the Rebel forces on Slieve Gullion. A local ballad evokes this period:

‘Though the Scotch Horse were in Belmont, and Roden’s riders too,
We forged good steel in Quilly, beside the old Creg-Dubh.’

The North Britons were subsequently assisted at Belmont Barracks by a company of the Sutherland Fencibles who marched from Belfast to Dundalk that same month. According to L P Murray, writing about the barracks in 1937, the building retained at that time ‘many marks and evidences of its original use’ and only a few years before a ‘Whipping Tower, with its gruesome appliances’ had been removed from a position at the right corner of the entrance. According to local tradition, a lane at the rear of the barracks was known as ‘Whipping Lane’. Another traditional ballad entitled ‘The Carrive Blacksmith’ commemorates Thomas Lappin, a blacksmith and United Irishman who was arrested for making pikestaffs and flogged over a number of days at Belmont, nonetheless refusing to divulge the names of his associates.

The building is shown on the first edition OS map of 1835, captioned ‘Old Barrack’ with four roughly square-on-plan structures marking the corners of an inner enclosing wall surrounded by a three-sided outer wall. Sections of the inner boundary wall are still present. The north eastern structure may be the ‘whipping tower’ referred to by L P Murray – some evidence of this tower and of the south-eastern tower remain on the site. The tower in the north western corner has been fully restored. A newspaper article of 1912, refers to the ‘towers of Belmont – occupied in the Penal days by the soldiery and associated with many a cruel and terrible deed’, indicating that the barracks was at one time characterised by these tall structures and that they continued to occupy a vivid place in folk memory a century later.

A prominent feature of the present dwelling, the wallhead dormer windows, is also seen at another building that is known to be a former18th century barracks, Johnston’s Fews in Camly townland (H9394 2295), and may indicate higher status rooms within the barracks building, as the dormer windows contrast with the plain windows of the neighbouring block.

In due course, the barracks became obsolete, and it was sold to Rev James Campbell, Rector of Forkhill for £70 in 1821. The former barracks appears to have been purchased for the specific purpose of establishing a dispensary for the Forkhill district. Kyla Madden asserts that Forkhill dispensary was established in 1821 with funds from Richard Jackson’s trust, which fits with this timeline. The former barracks were converted into two dwellings, the present house being occupied by a doctor and one of the outbuildings being used as a dispensary, where the poor could obtain free medicines and medical treatment.

The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records the current dwelling as being occupied by Samuel Walker (1815/16-1845), the medical attendant for Forkhill Dispensary, while the adjacent house (HB16/16/021A) was the residence of Rev James Smith, the curate of Forkill parish. The current house was valued at £7.10s and dimensions are given for the dwelling, which suggest that the right-hand bay was single storey at this period and that there was a narrow ‘projection’ at the rear. Dimensions are also given for a single storey byre and for a two storey outbuilding used as a stable, which may correspond to the still extant south western tower. The dwelling’s quality mark indicates it was stone and slated, while the outbuildings were not new but in good repair. Walker was elected to the post at Forkhill by Richard Jackson’s trustees in 1825 shortly after his graduation. He was a licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and had also been educated in midwifery at the lying-in hospital there.

In a government report of 1835, the dispensary is described as a ‘neat small building, two stories high, each story containing one room; the lower room appropriated as a waiting room, the upper room used as the dispensary shop’. This arrangement of rooms is highly suggestive of the dispensary being housed in one of the former barrack towers. Samuel Walker was paid £50 per annum by the Trustees and had his house rent free. Walker attended patients at the dispensary on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays between 11 and 3 pm, although acute cases could be seen at any time. As well as medicines, the medical attendant also provided leeches, attended all difficult births and gave vaccinations. Patients could not be accommodated at the dispensary but the doctor occasionally took them into his house at his own expense. In the year 1834-5, 1,474 sick poor were treated at Forkhill Dispensary.

Samuel Walker left to take another post as medical officer to Londonderry city and surgeon to the port and Henry Stanley (1820-88) was subsequently appointed as the medical attendant at Forkhill Dispensary for the period 1844 to 1853. Stanley had been trained at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, graduating in 1841 and at Glasgow University (1843). Stanley ran the Dispensary through the years of the Great Famine in Ireland and some records survive of the illnesses treated during this period. In May 1847, at the height of the famine, Stanley sent a quarterly report to the trustees informing them that ‘you will find the great amount of disease to be dysentery, fever and cold’, largely diseases associated with starvation. Stanley treated 112 patients with dysentery, 83 with bronchitis and 38 with fever in this quarter, 292 patients in total. Stanley also made home visits, 120 in the quarter to April 1846.

Rev Campbell, the owner of the houses and dispensary, died in 1858 and the building passed ultimately to Campbell’s nephew Peter Quinn of the Agency, Newry. The houses are shown on the 2nd edition OS map of 1862, captioned ‘Belmount’ and ‘Forkhill Dispensary’, the captioning appearing to indicate the north east tower as the location of the dispensary. Griffith’s Valuation of 1862 lists the houses as owned by Peter Quinn and occupied by John and Waddell McBride with valuations of £9.10s and £10 respectively. Valuation records suggest that John McBride, medical officer to Forkhill Dispensary District and constabulary, lived in the current house, with his father Waddell McBride residing in the adjacent house. Dimensions are given for the house (the right-hand bay remains single storey at this period) and two structures which may correspond to the barrack towers, although they differ somewhat from the dimensions given in the Townland Valuation. The valuator assessed the house as not new but in sound order and good repair and the towers as slightly decayed but in good repair. The dispensary building was exempt from taxation but given a value of £2.10s. John McBride (d c1904) was the son of Waddell McBride, farmer. John had studied medicine at Glasgow University and graduated in 1855, subsequently becoming medical officer to Forkhill Dispensary District and constabulary.

In 1891 the building was sold to the Catholic Church for £300 and subsequently became the parochial house for St Mary’s, Mullaghbawn. Parish priests and their curates lived in the two semi-detached dwellings, the priest living in the current dwelling and the curate occupying the neighbouring house. The first occupants in the 1890s were Rev John Markey (who purchased the barracks for the parish and was parish priest from 1888-95), Rev John Carraher and Rev Peter McCartney (parish priest from 1895 to 1909). The valuation of the current house was raised from £9.10s to £11 in 1893. This corresponds with the probable construction date of a bathroom behind the dwelling which is shown on the third edition of 1906-7. The valuation was reduced to £8 in 1901, suggesting that the house had fallen into disrepair or was re-evaluated for some other reason. Porches to the front elevations of the two houses are first shown on the third edition OS map of 1906-7. These were originally flat-roofed and were re-roofed after 2015.

The census returns of 1901 and 1911contain a record of the priests who lived in Belmount at this period. Peter McCartney, the parish priest and a native of County Louth lived in the current dwelling and had two servants. The two houses had six rooms each and were designated 2nd class, although they had 13 outbuildings between them ranging from stables to a potato house. In 1911 the current house was occupied by Eugene (sometimes recorded as Owen) Clarke, parish priest from 1909 to 1946. Rev Clarke was a speaker of Irish and English from County Louth who lived with his housekeeper and a boarder. It appears that the house occupied by the parish priest was extended between 1901 and 1911, as it now contained nine rooms and had been designated 1st class. However, this extension in accommodation is not reflected in valuation records.

At the time of the general revaluation in 1933 the priest’s house occupied by Rev Eugene Clarke was judged to be ‘in fairly good repair’ The accommodation comprised two sitting rooms, a kitchen, pantry and dairy on the ground floor and three bedrooms on the first floor, also having a bathroom with hot and cold water. The bathroom and, a separate WC and separate wash basin were said to have been added by Rev Clarke, although this outbuilding is shown on the 3rd edition map before Rev Clarke became priest of the parish. There was also a private oratory or small chapel on the upper floor. Dimensions are given for the house in the valuation book drawing which shows a variety of outbuildings including earth closets and the bathroom at the rear connected by a passage to the main house. Dimensions are also given for the towers at the four corners of the site which were between 16 and 20 feet tall.

Subsequent occupiers of the priest’s house were Rev James Corry (1936), Rev John O’Neill (parish priest from 1946-1958), Rev Brian Maginnis (parish priest from 1958 to 1971) and Rev P V Cooney (parish priest from 1971).

The building continued as the parochial house in the ownership of the Catholic Church until December 1984 when the two houses were sold as private domestic dwellings.

References:

Primary Sources:

1. PRONI D1594/291 Rocque’s map of County Armagh 1760
2. Belfast Newsletter, 25th May 1795
3. PRONI T755/4B Transcripts of Pelham Papers (1797)
4. PRONI T680/1 Extracts conveyance of old barrack and ground at Shanroe, Forkhill, Co Armagh (15 October 1821)
5. First report from His Majesty’s Commissioners for inquiring into the condition of the poorer classes in Ireland. London: House of Commons (1835)
6. PRONI OS/6/2/28/1 First Edition Six Inch OS map (1835)
7. PRONI VAL/1/B/247 Townland Valuation, Barony of Upper Orior, Parish of Forkhill (c1835)
8. PRONI D4338/4/3 Bundle of letters from Forkhill Dispensary to Chairman of Forkhill Board of Trustees (1845-47)
9. PRONI OS/6/2/28/2 Second Edition Six Inch OS map (1862)
10. PRONI VAL/2/B/2/35B Griffith’s Valuation Parish of Forkhill (1862)
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/12/13A-D (1859-1923) Annual Revision Lists, ED Forkhill
12. PRONI Val/12/A/3/75 (1895-1897) Newry Union Valuers’ Notebook, Vol 1
13. Portadown News 21st April, 1888
14. Irish Weekly and Ulster Examiner, 2nd November 1912
15. PRONI VAL/12/B/15/21A (1924-1929) Annual Revision Lists, ED Mullaghbane
16. PRONI OS/6/2/28/3 Third Edition Six Inch OS map (1906-7)
17. PRONI VAL/3/C/2/15 (1935-1957) First General Revaluation, Rural District of Newry, Vol 1
18. PRONI VAL/3/D/2/6/Z/5 (1933-57) Valuers RV Binder, ED Mullaghbane
19. PRONI CR/2/15/2/6 Account book relating to renovation and decoration of St Mary’s Mullaghbawn and the parochial house (1940-41)
20. Frontier Sentinel, 30th June 1945
21. PRONI VAL/4/B/2/24 (1956-1972) Second General Revaluation, Rural District of Newry, No 2
22. PRONI OS/6/2/28/4 Fourth Edition Six Inch OS map (1956-7)

Secondary Sources:

23. Clarke, R S J A directory of Ulster doctors (who qualified before 1901): Vols 1-2 Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation (2013)
24. Madden, Kyla. Forkhill Protestants and Forkhill Catholics, 1787-1858 Liverpool: Liverpool University Press (2006), pp.21, 37-8, 43
25. Murphy, K ‘Belmont Barracks’ Journal of the Creggan Local History Society, Vol 1, No 3, pp.52-59
26. Murray, L P ‘Shanroe Barrack (1795-1821)’ Journal of the County Louth Archaeological Society, Vol 9, No 1 (1937) pp.19-29
27. Musgrave, Sir Richard (Myers, S W and McKnight, D W eds.) Memoirs of the 1798 rebellion [1802] 4th edition. Fort Wayne, Indiana: Round Tower Books (reprinted 1995), p.51
28. O Fiaich, Thomas ‘Parish Priests of Mullaghbawn’ Journal of Mullaghbawn Historical and Folklore Society, Vol 2
29. Walsh, Una and Murphy, Kevin (eds.) Kick any stone: townlands, people and stories of Forkhill parish. Jordanstown: O’Donnell Press (2003), p.100

Online sources:

30. https://www.ringofgullion.org/living-history/villages/forkhill/
31. Shanroe – Army Barracks of Eighteenth-Century Ireland (ucd.ie)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed
Not listed
Not listed
Not listed
Not listed

Evaluation

The former Belmont Barrack building dates from 1795, possibly replacing an earlier structure built to serve the same function in 1689. After 1821, the barracks became the dwelling of a doctor and one of the outbuildings housed a dispensary, providing medical assistance to the local community for 70 years including througout the period of the Great Famine. After 1891 the former barracks became the parochial house for St Mary''s Mullaghbawn. As such, the site has played a crucial role in the history of the local area spanning over three centuries.

Over time a number of alterations have been made to the current building. These include the addition of a front porch c1900 to which a hipped roof has recently been added; the replacement of windows with uPVC, and the replacement of roof and rainwater goods; an extension to the east and a paved area to the front. These alterations have detracted from the integrity of the original barracks building and, despite the structure''s local and regional historical significance, it does not therefore meet the criteria for listing.

General comments

Building originally scoped 2015 by Consarc. Recording visit carried out 16 December 2019 by ACA. Further recording visit carried out 23.08.2022 by GA and NO'R. Evaluated 22.11.22 as RO, but also assessed by LMcQ as meeting criteria for scheduling. SMR number ARM028:041 has been allocated and scheduling process due to take place within coming year.
GA (13.12.2022)