Walled Gardens

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The Moneyglass Estate garden features consist of two adjoining walled gardens and three bridges, built before 1832 and remodelled c.1850. The portico (HB20/01/001A) to the centre of the estate stands at the end of a two-branched avenue leading from the southeast. The main walled garden is located to the northeast of the portico with the stable yard (HB20/01/21B) within the southeast corner and the farmyard abutting the west end of the south elevation. The second walled garden adjoins the first garden west elevation.

First walled garden is square in plan, built c.1800, remodelled c.1850. Walling is random rubble stone with saddleback coping to a height of three metres.

Second walled garden adjoins the first to west and is rectangular in plan. Central section of west elevation second walled garden walling is red brick (remains of a demolished estate outbuilding). Farmyard buildings abut south elevations of both gardens and have slit openings with red brick jambs. Stable yard abuts internal southeast corner of first walled garden. Both gardens are now pastureland.

Historical information

The two walled gardens and three bridges are located to the extensive grounds of Moneyglass House estate. The two vast walled gardens were originally formally arranged, and consist of an area c.5 acres. Reputedly, the larger garden was an orchard and the smaller was for vegetables. The brick ruined section to the west of the second walled garden was reputedly an old laundry house.

Another estate structure located to the east, the mausoleum to the Jones family, was demolished without a trace in the mid twentieth century after being ransacked in the early twentieth century during the same period that the country house was destroyed. The mausoleum was raided for the rich lead-lined coffins; human remains were later transferred to Duneane Presbyterian Church (HB20/01/19).

The 1833 OS map shows a house, a walled garden, a small building on the present farmyard site, and a stable block with an extended east block (located to the northeast). By the time of the 1857 OS, house, farmyard complex, and stable court had been enlarged and a stream dammed to create the ornamental lake. Added to the east block of the stable court visible in the 1833 OS was the present quadrangle of four blocks. Sir Charles Lanyon is recorded to have rebuilt the estate gate lodges in the mid 1850s and is likely to have worked on the house and estate buildings.

Lendrick’s Map, dated 1782, reports Moneyglass to be the seat of Thomas M. Jones Esq. According to the OS Memoirs, the house was built in 1787 by Thomas Morres Jones Esq., replacing an earlier house in which an earlier ancestor, Mr. William Morres Jones, dwelt as the first recorded occupant of Moneyglass. The 1836 Townland Valuation records the estate as being owned by a Major Kennedy.

References --Primary:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/94/1, OS Map, 1st edition, Co Antrim, sheet no. 94 (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/94/2, OS Map, 2nd edition, Co Antrim, sheet no. 94 (1857).
3. Lendrick’s Map (1782)
4. PRONI VAL/1A/1/42, Townland Valuation Map, Co. Antrim, no. 42, 1836 VAL1 1836
5. OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of Co Antrim VI 1830, 1833, 1835-38 (South west Antrim) Vol 19

--Secondary:
1. Dean, J. A. K. The Gatelodges of Ulster: A Gazetteer, 1994

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Two adjoining walled gardens retaining their original form and setting. The vast size of the walled gardens makes them of some note. The collection of the group of estate structure is still quite complete in spite of the fact that the country house was lost nearly a century before. However, the walls are of a common type and there are no ancillary structures to add to their interest.