Historic Buildings Record · Northern Ireland
Former Old Forge Hotel
Miller Hill, Ards and North Down, Northern Ireland
The record
- Designation
- Record only (not listed)
- Grade
- Record Only
- Type
- Demolished
- Date of listing
- 20 December 1976
- Date of delisting
- 25 May 1988
- Date of construction
- 1860 - 1879
- Address
- Former Old Forge Hotel, Millisle Road, Miller Hill, Donaghadee, Co. Down
- Townland
- Miller Hill
- Council
- Ards and North Down
- Country
- Northern Ireland
- Coordinates
- 54.62087, -5.53449
- Date of survey
- 08 May 1998
- HB reference
- HB24/07/050
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 3 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1854 "Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
The Department's description
Exterior description and setting
Site (on a rise to the W of the Millisle Road c.1 mile S of Donaghadee) of a former substantial gentleman’s residence described in 1977 as ‘a large stucco, mid-Victorian two storey Italianate villa in the manner of Thomas Jackson with a roguish, shallow porch boldly carved and sporting a coat of arms amidst stucco fish-scale tiles; coupled windows, bold bracketed cornice, high chimneys’.The house was demolished c.1986 and a modern nursing home has since been built on the site.
Historical information
The former residence on this site appears to have been built c.1870-80 (it is not shown on the 1858-60 OS Map) by William Carmichael of Millisle and was originally named ‘Rathmona’. The Carmichaels’s sold the property in 1888 and afterwards the house had a succession of owners including Robert Corry (of the timber merchant family), the distillery owner, John McConnell, Mr. D. Reid M.P. and Major Heyn shipping family. In more recent times the residence (which at some point had had its name changed to ‘Croagh Patrick’) became a hotel. In 1981 the building was gutted by a fire and later demolished. Its site is now occupied by a modern nursing home built in c.1986/7.
References- Primary sources
1. PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 7.
Secondary sources
1. Hugh Dixon et al Historic buildings, groups of buildings, buildings of architectural importance in Donaghadee and Portpatrick (UAHS 1977), p.30.
2. Grace Seymour Echoes of Millisle and district (?Rathfriland ?1983), pp.130-31
Criteria for listing: architectural interest
Not listed
Criteria for listing: historic interest
Not listed
Evaluation
Site of former large Italianate gentleman’s residence of c.1870-80, demolished c.1982 with modern nursing home constructed in place.
Nearby in the register
- WWII Observation postWorld War II Structuresunder 1 mi
- WWII Observation postWorld War II Structuresunder 1 mi
- 73 Donaghadee RoadDemolishedunder 1 mi
- CemeteryGraveyardunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.