Boat House at Myra Castle Demesne

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-cell stone-built boat house, built c.1860 and located on the southern shore of Strangford Lough, at the north side of Myra Castle demesne.

Half-hipped natural slate roof with roll-moulded ridge tiles and flat hip tiles. Rainwater goods are gone, although cast-iron gutter brackets remain. Random greywacke walling throughout. Openings comprise a timber boarded door to south and a large pair of replacement timber sheeted doors to shore side (north). There is historic graffiti inscribed on slates near the eaves.

Setting:
The boat house is situated in a highly picturesque
setting on the shores of Strangford Lough, overlooking the drumlins and directly opposite Killyleagh. It forms part of the demesne of Myra Castle, and is accessed from the public road past the castle, farmyard and walled garden, via a tree-lined lane. The boat house punctuates a traditional County Down sea wall of rubble greywacke, vertically laid without mortar. Access to the shore is via a timber gate supported on square rubble stone piers with shallow pyramidal dressed stone caps and roughly dressed stone stile. The remains of a pier are located imediately to north-east. There is historic graffiti inscribed on the stile.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Rubble stone
Windows: None
RWG: None

Historical information

Myra Castle (see HB18/08/092) was constructed in 1844 by Rowland Craig-Laurie; Bell, Brett and Matthew described Myra Castle as ‘a remarkable early-Victorian mansion, built over a period – with many changes of plan – about the 1850s [sic].’ The castellated mansion house was erected to the south of Walshestown Castle, a 16th century tower house. Lewis states that this fort was constructed on the site of an earlier castle built by John de Courcy as part of the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. Writing in the 1830s, Lewis recorded that Walshestown Castle had been occupied by Captain Richard Anderson’s ancestors since the reign of Charles I in the 17th century (Anderson was Craig-Laurie’s father-in-law) and, prior to his death in c. 1840, Anderson resided at the 300 year old fortification making it the only one of 27 similar examples to remain inhabited during the 19th century. The contemporary townland Valuations (c. 1830) described the fort as a ‘house,’ recorded Anderson as occupant and valued the structure at £25 12s. (Lewis).

The boathouse at Myra Castle, a small single-storey building located in the townland of Walshestown along the shore of Strangford Lough, was constructed between 1834 and 1859, most likely between the 1840s and 1850s when the mansion and its parklands were set out by Rowland Craig-Laurie. The boathouse did not appear on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1834) for the area but was recorded on the second edition in 1859 where it was depicted as a small square building (captioned ‘Boat Ho[use]’). The map also depicted a long pier, extending from the boathouse out into Strangford Lough; contemporary with the boathouse, the pier had also been raised prior to 1859.

The main function of the boathouse and pier was to provide a landing where supply boats laden with coal could offload their cargo close to Myra Castle, however the current owner states that this initiative failed and was only ever attempted once (LQ Files), due to the distance between the house and the pier.

Under Griffith’s Valuation (1861) Myra Castle continued to be occupied by Rowland Craig-Laurie who owned the estate outright; the valuer did not individually value the boathouse but combined the value of the mansion house and all its offices and outbuildings at £130. The subsequent Annual Revisions (1866-1929) and the General Revaluations (1935; 1956-72) continued to combine the value of the entire site making it impossible to determine the individual value of the boathouse throughout this period. The later editions of the Ordnance Survey maps (1900-21) depicted the boathouse (and its associated pier) along its current layout, showing that no major discernible change has been made to the building since its construction in the mid-19th century.

References
Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/31/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/31/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/31/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1900-01
4. PRONI OS/6/3/31/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1920-21
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/75 – Griffiths Valuation 1861
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/18/22A-E – Annual Revisions 1866-1929
7. PRONI VAL/3/B/4/7 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland 1935
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/3/41 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland 1956-72
9. Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)
10. Listing Query Files – HB18/LQ115

Secondary Sources

1. ‘Register of parks, gardens and demesnes of special historic interest Northern Ireland’ (Belfast: Department of the Environment Northern Ireland)
2. Bell, G. P; Brett, C. E. B; Matthew, R., ‘Buildings of Portaferry and Strangford’ (Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1969)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A simple stone boat house situated on the southern shore of Strangford Lough on the Myra Castle demesne. The boat house is of simple rubble greywacke construction, and is largely intact. The boat house is located adjacent to a scheduled pier (MDR206090), and is enhanced by a traditional County Down sea wall and high quality stone gate piers and stile, providing pedestrian and vehicular access to the shore. The group occupies a magnificent setting on the shores of Strangford Lough, and contributes to a remarkably intact cultural landscape complete with several high quality listed buildings, including the Romantic nineteenth century Myra Castle (HB18/08/092A).

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply.