Meat safe

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A small single storey pavilion-like rendered building on a stone base, of square plan with hipped roof. Entrance faces west.

West elevation symmetrical, three-bay: hipped roof of black-painted corrugated metal bolted onto timber boarding supported on shaped green-painted rafters and similarly painted plain timber framing; shaped wooden finial to apex, with painted metal covering; wall rendered, lined and blocked, surmounted by a chamfered granite cill which carries a timber framework containing window openings with black-painted iron trellis-work grilles affixed. Central doorway contains a rectangular ledged timber door with open upper panel with trellis-like grille affixed; modern brass door knob and lock case. Stone flagged doorstep.

Side and rear elevations are of similar character to front, with two window openings containing grilles as previous; walling as previous, but with partly battered rubble stone base; lime mortar.

SETTING: The building stands on steeply sloping ground immediately to the rear of Myra Castle reached down three steps from a path along the base of the retaining wall of the garden to the south side of the castle.

Historical information

Built as a meat safe in association with Myra Castle: precise date of building not known but it appears for the first time on the OS map of 1920 (not shown on OS map of 1859). It does not appear on a photograph of Myra Castle published in 1871. It may be supposed to have been built c 1880. It remained in regular use until 1970. Building restored in 2003.

Myra Castle was built from 1844 onwards (with numerous alterations and additions) by Rowland Craig-Laurie who had married the daughter of Richard Anderson who owned the nearby medieval Walshestown Castle. The Craig-Lauries were followed by the Wallaces from 1900 onwards, but by then all the significant elements of the house and associated estate buildings had been erected.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1834, Co Down 31 (shows no building development on Myra Castle site).
2. OS Map 1859, Co Down 31 (shows Myra Castle but not meat safe).
3. OS Map 1920, Co Down 31 (shows meat safe but not named as such).
4. Information from owner in 2004.

Secondary Sources
1. A. Knox, A History of the County of Down (Dublin, 1875), p 450.
2. R.M. Young, Belfast and the Province of Ulster (Brighton, 1909), p 219.
3. UAHS, Portaferry and Strangford (Belfast, 1969), p 35.
4. M. Bence-Jones, Burke’s Guide to Country Houses, Vol 1: Ireland (London, 1978), p 221.
5. J.A.K. Deane, The Gate Lodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer (Belfast, 1994), p 86.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

B. Proportion
F. Structural System
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This is a freestanding domestic meat safe designed in a fairly plain style, which probably dates from the late 19th century. It is of special interest both as an integral part of a country house estate, and as a comparatively rare example of its type. It enjoys a pleasant garden setting to the rear of Myra Castle, and together with the main house and other associated structures in the grounds nearby, such as the covered horse-walk and the ‘Mogul pavilion’ garden house, forms part of an interesting group