Comgall House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey three-bay Gothic Revival house, built c.1830, located in an extensive site to the north side of Seahill Road, Holywood, and used as a residential unit for people with learning difficulties. The house is of rectangular plan form and much altered with additions to south entrance front and large residential extension to east.

Roof is pitched replacement natural slate with angled ridge tiles, concealed behind a parapet, part crennellated with raised finialled gables. Chimneystacks removed. Rainwater goods are extruded aluminium. Walling is cement rendered over a chamfered plinth with string course between floors and buttresses to front extensions. Windows are generally triple transom-and-mullioned four-centred-arched 4/6 sashes (4/4 to first floor) in chamfered cast stone surrounds with quatrefoil frieze and offset roofs. Windows to main house extensions are bi-partite sashes with plain reveals and projecting cills with label moulding over.

Principal elevation faces south; first floor side bays are all that remain of the original configuration, each having a single transom and mullion window. Central bay comprises a full height extension with single-storey full-width entrance lobby to front and flat-roofed single-storey bays to either side (that to left is wider, projecting westward). Side bays each have a transom and mullion window to south, that to left also has two windows to west; entrance lobby has a breakfront four-centred-arched rebated entrance door with gable over, and a window to either side; three windows to first floor. To east side is a lower wing, similarly detailed, with a bi-partite window to first floor set in projecting offset surround, and two windows with label moulds to ground floor.

West elevation has a window to each floor set in a central breakfront.

North elevation has a full height canted bay to centre and a window to each floor to side bays; lower left wing has windows as front.

East elevation is abutted by the extension; gable is incorporated into courtyard extension and has modern openings.

Setting

The house is set within the Glencraig Camphill Community, in extensive mature planted grounds with several other residential buildings, offices and workshops on site. The site has views over Belfast Lough and is accessed via a long tarmacadam drive from west.

Roof: natural slate
Walling: Cement rendered
Windows: timber
RWG: Aluminium

Historical information

An article in ‘Perspective’ of 1993 gives a short history of the area and states that there were two previous houses on the site, ‘Child Haven’, which was destroyed by fire in 1688 and Glencraig Manor which was completed in 1743, and was later remodelled. However, much of the history conflicts with primary evidence, and its reliability is uncertain.

According to Auld, construction of ‘Glencarrick’ began in 1833 and the house is captioned on the OS map of 1834. OS Memoirs mention the house as a gentleman’s seat, ‘the residence of Miss Sims’. The house is also listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as a house and offices, occupied by Miss Sims and valued at £36.18s. (Auld, p.48; OS Memoirs, p.81)

The second edition of 1858 captions the house, ‘Glencraig’ and in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) it is listed as the residence of Miss Mary A Simms who leases it from the Representatives of Robert S Kennedy. It is valued at £95 and the valuer comments, “A very neat well-built house, well situated and all in excellent repair...Elizabethan’. Dimensions are given which include a kitchen wing, steward’s house, cellar store, byre and barn. Miss Symes (Auld's spelling), a ‘generous donor to all Holywood charities’, who lived in Glencraig until her death in 1863 was succeeded by Alexander Mitchell and then in 1881 by William Thompson. The Thompson family are in residence for some time, adding a gate lodge in 1894. By the third edition of 1900-2 a section of wall has been added in the garden which contains ‘bee boles’. (Auld, p.48)

In 1901 the landlord appears to have been Sir Daniel Dixon who had twice been Lord Mayor of Belfast and went on to be Mayor twice more. In 1933 his son, Major Daniel Dixon, is listed as occupier but the property was subsequently let to Sir James Craig the first prime minister of Northern Ireland, as his country seat. Craig died suddenly at Glencraig in 1940. (Perspective)

In 1933 the house was valued at £125, and the accommodation comprised; ground floor – inner hall, drawing room, dining room, WC, pantry, kitchen, scullery, two larders, servants’ hall, store study, boots’ room, half landing and store room. First floor – dressing room, six principal bedrooms, two bathrooms, WC, housemaid’s pantry, servants bathroom and WC, linen room, four servants’ bedrooms. Second floor – two disused attic rooms. Basement – small wine cellar and strong room. Dimensions are given.

In 1935 the valuer commented, “This residence is beautifully situated on the shores of Belfast Lough about 10 miles from Belfast. The approach is by a private avenue lined with trees and flowering shrubs. The gardens round the house have been tastefully, though not elaborately, laid out. The rooms on one side of the house enjoy a delightful sea view. Those on the other side enjoy the sunshine most of the day and have a view over nicely wooded country. The house is old and has not been modernised in any way except by the installation of electric light. While the house is in good repair it must require a large sum to keep it as the exterior is of rather ornate design. The water supply (except drinking water) is unsatisfactory in a dry summer. The house is not in first class condition…Some of the bedrooms are not large enough for a house of this type and the bathrooms are not up to date.”

In September 1943 the house was purchased for £6,000 and was run as a general nursing home with 15 patients in 1944 who were charged £3.3s to £5.5s weekly. It was then known as Knock Nursing Home, Glencraig. According to Auld, the house was then bought by the Swain and then the Noble family, who both trained racehorses in the grounds. (Auld, p.48)

The house was purchased by the Royal Victoria Hospital in 1950 for £11,000, the purchase being made out of private funds, with the intention of using the house as a private hospital, but lack of funds prevented this plan from going ahead. The house remained empty and by 1952 was on the market for sale.

Glencraig was bought by Glencraig (Rudolf Steiner) Curative Schools Ltd from the Management Committee of the Royal Victoria Hospital for £10,000, the purchase money being provided by voluntary subscription and established the first of these communities in Northern Ireland. It was opened on September 18th 1954 by the Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry. In 1955 the valuer commented, “No grants are made by the Government or Hospitals Authority for the upkeep of the school. The Ministry of Health and Local Government pay the fees for ten pupils. A voluntary body ‘The Friends of Glencraig’ helps to provide funds. At present it is responsible for the maintenance of one child at the school and hopes to maintain more in the future. Messrs Short and Harland send subscriptions which are ear-marked for the maintenance of children.”

Now known as the Glencraig Camphill Community, the house is home for a community of people, some of whom have learning difficulties and need special care. Over two hundred people live on a campus covering one hundred acres. The community is based on the guiding philosophy of curative education proposed by Rudolf Steiner, which holds as one of its tenets that people with special needs are more receptive to the healing and harmonising power of form, and that buildings can communicate through their sculptural properties. The Camphill Movement established its own architectural practice and developed a unique style of architecture. In 1964 the community began to remodel the facade of the Manor in a style inspired by the organic movement. Wolodymyr Radysh of Camphill Architects has stated that the work at Glencraig ‘came from a desire to remould the environment to the human forms around it...it was a positive attempt to find a relationship to nature.’ The alterations made at this time included a large extension to the front facade, a photograph of which is shown in the Perspective article. (Perspective)

In 1993 Consarc carried out a remodelling of the property, now renamed Comgall House, with the aim of restoring its Elizabethan revival appearance, including rebuilding the porch area. The floor plan was altered substantially in order to include a wheelchair lift and a series of therapy rooms.

References:

Primary Sources

1.PRONI OS/6/3/1/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2.PRONI OS/6/3/1/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3.PRONI OS/6/3/1/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1900-02
4.PRONI OS/6/3/1/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-31
5.PRONI OS/6/3/1/5 – Fifth Edition OS Map 1938-41
6.PRONI VAL/1/A/3/1 – Townland Valuation Map (1828-40)
7.PRONI VAL/1/B/318 – Townland Valuation (1828-40)
8.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/1 – Griffith’s Valuation Map (1856-64)
9.PRONI VAL/2/B/3/18B – Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
10.PRONI VAL/12/B/17/10A-G – Annual Revisions (1867-1930)
11.PRONI VAL/12/B/17/11A-C – Annual Revisions (1888-1930)
12.Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down II, 1832-4, 1837, Vol. 7.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1991.

Secondary Sources

1.Auld, C. ”Forgotten Houses of Holywood, Co Down” Holywood: Con Auld, 2003
2.Perspective, Vol 1, Iss1, Jul/Aug 1993, pp. 46-50

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Comgall Hall is the remains of an early nineteenth century manor house, originally called Glencarrick and built in the Gothic Revival style. Since undergoing a change of use as a residential and treatment centre in the 1950s, the building has been subject to a series of radical alterations which have stripped its historic character, layout and almost all of its fabric. Substantial portions of the original house have been demolished and rebuilt to different designs. What remains today is an approximation of the original Gothic manor house. Its historical association with the Mayor of Belfast and with William Craig are of some interest but the house that they knew has been severely compromised.