Pigeon House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small single storey gabled d pigeon house set within wooded surroundings at the NW edge of the Ballywalter Park estate, less than one mile SW of Ballywalter.

The walls are stone faced and rendered with an entrance door on the S side and a small opening near the W gable apex. There is an unusual thin projecting slate course/ledge c.1.5m from ground level. Above the door is a small (partly broken) slate plaque which reads ‘H.H. 1750’ (?or 1758 or 1759). The gables have kneelers but the building is now roofless with only a truss and some laths remaining.

Historical information

As the slate plaque suggests, this pigeon house dates from the mid eighteenth century. The land around the building was originally part of the estate belonging to Ballyatwood House, the possession of the Hamill family. The ‘H.H.’ on the plaque stands for Hans Hamill, the then owner of Ballyatwood, mentioned by Walter Harris in 1744.

In 1837 the OS Memoirs described Ballyatwood House as ‘rather small’ having ‘nothing remarkable in its appearance’ and ‘old fashioned in style’. Between the writing of the Memoir and 1852 a flax steam mill was built just to the west of the house. Alexander Knox, writing c.1875 noted that the house had been ‘formerly in possession of the Hamill family’, suggesting that it had been abandoned by this stage. The estate itself was purchased in the later nineteenth century by the Mulhollands who added it to their own neighbouring lands at Springvale.

Ballyatwood House has not survived and the dove cote is all that remains of this estate’s former independent existence.

References- Primary sources
1 'The Ancient and Present State of the County of Down' by Walter Harris (Dublin, 1744), p. 68
2 PRONI T.1030/19 Conveyance relating to lands in possession of Hugh Hamill, 1719
3 PRONI T.753/1 Will of Hans Hamill, Ballyatwood, 1772
4 PRONI T.810/302 Will of Hans Hamill, Ballyatwood, 1796
5 PRONI OS/6/3/12/1 OS maps, Down 12, 1834
6 PRONI VAL/1B/39 First valuation, Ballywalter, c.1834-38
7 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams
(QUB 1991), pp.16-18 [1837]
8 PRONI Agricultural Statistics for Ireland- ‘Returns of Flax Mills 1852-74
5 PRONI VAL/2B/3/9 Second valuation, Ballywalter, c.1859
6 PRONI OS/6/3/12/2 OS maps, Down 12, 1860
7 PRONI VAL/12B/23/6a-f Annual valuation revision books, Ballywalter, 1866-1929
8 Alexander Knox 'A History of the County of Down...' (Dublin 1875), p.460

Secondary sources
1 Lord Dunleath et al, 'Ballywalter Park' (Belfast, 1985)
2 Alistair Rowan, "Ballywalter Park, Co. Down- I, II" in 'Country Life', vol.CXLI, No.3652, 2nd March 1967, pp.456-60: No.3653, 9th March 1967, pp.516-20
3 Fred Hammond, "Flax mills in the Upper Ards: Part 2" in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society No.14' (1990), pp.19-23
4 J.A.K. Dean 'The Gate lodges of Ulster- a gazetteer', (Belfast, 1994) p.63
5 A.J. Hughes and R.J. Hannan, 'Place-Names of Northern Ireland Vol. Two, County Down II- The Ards', (QUB, 1996) p.68

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

B. Proportion
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Small single storey gabled pigeon house set within wooded surroundings at the NW edge of the Ballywalter Park estate. This building is the only surviving structure of the Hamill family estate of Ballyatwood, subsumed into the Mulholland estate of Ballywalter Park in the late 19th century.