Ha-ha

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A ha-ha or sunken fence comprising a rubble stone retaining wall along one side of a sunken driveway and a grassy earthen bank to the other side. It runs along the north-east side of Rosemount House, between the lawn adjacent to the house and the parkland or pasture-land beyond, the stone revetments retaining the lawn with the bank on the parkland side.
The stone revetments to one side and grassy bank to the other extends in a straight run from the footbridge over the sunken driveway to a point level with the south-east end of the house, and within that area allows a largely uninterrupted view from house to parkland except where trees or shrubs have been cultivated; part of the stone revetment of the ha-ha has been replaced by concrete blockwork at a point where the main lawn begins, just to the south of the footbridge, but immediately in front of the main house it is intact.
To the north-west of the footbridge the stone retaining wall continues to the outbuildings, and is paired with a rendered wall to the other side of the sunken driveway.
To the south-east of the ha-ha proper, the stone retaining wall continues until it reaches a gateway roughly level with the sundial in the garden; some of the stone walling has collapsed in this area.

SETTING: The ha-ha lies within the demesne of Rosemount House between a well kept garden and extensive parkland or pasture-land. The surface of the sunken drive is soft and muddy in parts and hard and grassy in other parts. The sunken driveway enclosed by the ha-ha continues to the east at normal ground level, with wire fences to each side, except for a rubble stone boundary wall at its eastern extremity.

Historical information

Built for the Montgomery family of Rosemount (Grey Abbey House); precise date not known, but it appears on the OS map of 1834. Probably built in the mid-to-late 18th century as part of the garden setting for the rebuilt Rosemount House of the 1760s onwards, and intended to allow an uninterrupted view from the main house to the parkland or pasture-land to the north beyond the lawn immediately adjacent to the house.

An early 19th century watercolour drawing of a view of the ruins of Grey Abbey as viewed from Rosemount House shows a path on the edge of a lawn but it is uncertain whether the line of the ha-ha is depicted in it or not.

Sometime between the first OS map of 1834, and the second, of 1858, a masonry footbridge to link the lawn with the parkland was erected to span the sunken driveway which is incorporated within the ha-ha.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1834, Co Down 11.
2. Original early 19th century watercolour drawing of a view of the ruins of Grey Abbey as viewed from Rosemount House, in the collection of the Ulster Museum.

Secondary Sources

1. M. Bence-Jones, Life in an Irish Country House (London, 1996), p 125 (reproduces an original early 19th century watercolour drawing of a view of the ruins of Grey Abbey as viewed from Rosemount House, in the collection of the Ulster Museum.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A ha-ha comprising a stone revetment to one side and a slight grassy bank to the other side of a sunken driveway, which forms an important part of the 18th century landscape setting of Rosemount House, and an integral element of the garden layout, being designed to allow an uninterrupted view of the parkland from the main house.