Buildings at former quarry site,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The former quarry site at Castle Espie is situated on the coast of Strangford Lough to the E of the Ballydrain Road, 2 miles SE of Comber.

Much of the N and W of the site, centred around the former Quarry Farm, is now a dedicated conservation area for wildfowl with the former quarry pits now fresh water ponds and the whole area landscaped and now heavily wooded. The Quarry Farm buildings (just E of the Ballydrain Road) now serve as a visitor centre, coffee shop etc. A large, recently constructed, two storey building (which has been built generally in the style of a traditional farm house with Georgian paned sash windows etc.), to the W side of the farmyard, contains offices. This building stands on the site of the original single storey farm house. A single storey outbuilding (to the N side of the yard) is now a shop and has been extended and completely modernised internally.

The S and E of the former quarry site has not (in the main) been landscaped. Most of the structures associated with the quarry and the brickworks have been demolished, however a few remnants remain. The most prominent of these is the long narrow pier which stretches finger-like into the Lough and is now largely overgrown and uncared for. Apparently the very end of the pier used to stretch further but a timber section was removed in fairly recent times.

To the S of the pier there are remnants of former tennis courts (now largely overgrown) and a runway for light aircraft. Both of these were constructed in the late 1960s, with the former lime and brick kilns and a terrace former quarry workers’ houses (known as ‘The Red Row’) demolished in the process. To the S of the runway, however, there is a fairly large, rectangular shaped ‘courtyard’ area with high walls of rubble and brick. Inside the yard, on the inner sides of the walls, are the remains of small lean to structures (?once used as stores or workshops). The main entrance to the yard on the N side has an adjacent section of walling (to the W) which was apparently once a small bell tower but whose remains are now covered in thick plant growth.

A short distance to the W of the ‘courtyard’ is a small octagonal former pump house in brick. This is now largely smothered in thick plant growth and has several small openings to several of its sides. These openings are crudely formed and are probably not original. A tall narrow opening to the N side does appear to be original, however. It is now partly filled with a perspex ‘window’. Within the former pump house the Wetland Trust has placed a cone shaped ‘time capsule’.

Historical information

The quarrying of the limestone deposits (for farm and building use) had been carried out on a small scale since the 1600s at least. In 1740 it was reported that the activity had largely ceased as ‘there is no great demand for it’, but the OS Memoirs noted in 1834 the area had ‘extensive limestone quarries’ the stone of which was ‘principally sent to the various towns on the shores of Strangford Lough’, and, three years later, Lewis Topographical Dictionary reported that the quarries were ‘extensively worked’.

At this stage much of the land with Castle Espie belonged to the See of Down, who in 1802 had leased it to Mr. Henry Waring Knox. Waring Knox appears to have sub let the quarry lands to a local farmer named McKee. Around 1850 most of Waring Knox’s lands in the area were bought by Samuel Murland, a prominent linen merchant from Castlewellan. Murland did not purchase the actual land on which the quarries lay, as these remained the subject of a suit in the Court of Chancery until 1864. Once the suit was settled, however, the land was acquired by Samuel’s son, Robert, who commenced the large scale production of lime for agricultural purposes in 1865, installing new kilns and building the present pier. To make use of the large amounts of clay extracted during the quarrying process, Robert also installed some new ‘Hoffman’ kilns from Germany, capable for both the burning of lime and firing of brick.

Robert Murland died in 1867 (aged only 30), before the business was fully up and running, and the Castle Espie works were taken over by his father who ran them with his nephew, Charles Murland, and his son in law, John Fenton. They purchased two vessels, the ‘Jessie Ray’ and the ‘Woodland’ [?or ‘Woodlawn’] and began shipping burnt lime and bricks throughout the Strangford area. A description of the Castle Espie site in 1874 noted that what was previously a bare beach had been converted to a hive of industry with nearly two hundred people employed. As well as lime and the production of 100,000 bricks per year, tiles were also made as well as unglazed and half-glazed crockery in the form of bowls, jugs, tea pots and flower pots. A small amount of fully glazed ornamental wares were also produced. Houses were built on the site for some of the employees.

Though Castle Espie appeared prosperous the production techniques were costly and Samuel Murland appears to have heavily subsidised the whole business from his own pocket. Thus, when he died in 1878 with him died the main drive behind the whole scheme. The works closed down in 1879 and though offered for sale in 1885, were never re-opened save for a small amount of lime burnt by a local named Petticrew. The offer for sale indicated that the plant was capable of producing 12,000 tons of lime per annum as well as 24,000 bricks daily (obviously brick production had risen sharply after 1874).

In 1885 the site was bought by the Craig family who in 1912 sold it to William Dickson, a local man whose family had owned the neighbouring Quarry Farm since at least 1724. Dickson grazed the land and used the buildings to house live stock and farm produce. In 1966 the Quarry Farm and the former works lands were sold by Mr. Dickson’s daughter in law to a Mr. McCleery, who built a small runway for light aircraft, clearing away the kilns and the workers’ houses in the process. McCleery sold the lands in 1978 to Paddy Mackie who landscaped the former quarry holes into fresh water lakes and introduced water fowl. Today, mainly through Mr. Mackie’s efforts, Castle Espie is a thriving conservation centre, providing a habitat for over 80 species of wild fowl.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/1/3/10 OS map, 1st ed. 1834, Down 11.
2 ‘Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II’, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB1991), p.123.
3 Samuel Lewis ‘Topographical Dictionary of Ireland’ (London 1837).
4 PRONI OS/6/3/10/3 OS map, 1st rev. 1858, Down 11.
5 PRONI 2nd valuation, Comber.
6 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886), pp.303-305.
7 PRONI OS/2/3/10 OS map, 2nd ed. 1901, Down 11.

Secondary sources
1 ‘Castle Espie: A Short History’ (Pamphlet produced at Castle Espie ?1990s).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Largely derelict remains of various structures once associated with the former Castle Espie quarry and brickworks, including a long pier, a pump house and a ‘courtyard’ containing remains of what may have been stores and/or small workshops. The whole site, including a neighbouring former farm, is now a wild fowl conservation centre and has mainly been landscaped with the former quarry pits now fresh water ponds.