Milestone

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Stone milestone of perhaps c.1750, set in shubbery at the edge of a line of trees within Malone Playing Fields, approximately 100m east of the eastern end of Old Coach Road. The stone is rectangular in form and plan, with a flat top. It is worn and pitted, and partly covered in lichen, and as such little of the original inscription can be discerned. Its front face belived to have read 'Belfast 3' - the '3' standing for three Irish miles (the equivalent of 1.27 statute miles or 2.048km).

The stone, associated with a stretch of a road probably cut sometime between c.1730s and c.1765, and closed c.1835, was removed during the laying out of the surrounding playing fields in 1962, and reinstated on or close to its original position in c.1963.

Historical information

This milestone lies along what was at one time the line of the main road heading south-westwards from Belfast, connecting the town to Lisburn, Banbridge, Newry and ultimately Dublin. For the most part, the route is likely to have followed a series of ancient trackways, but with the introduction of legislation for the upkeep of roads from the early 17th century onwards, some of these may have witnessed upgrading - and possibly realignment in some places, particularly from the mid-1700s as Belfast began to grow in economic importance. In the 1730s the route as far as Banbridge was made into a turnpike (toll) road. It is probably from at this time that milestones would also have been established at regular distances, though older markers may well have been in place at some points prior to this.

A Donegall estate map of 1767-70 marks the present course of the road through this part of Upper Malone townland – that is from around the junction of present-day Dorchester Park arcing west then southwest. It also shows a much straighter (and generally flatter) route to the south, running approximately along the present main drive to Malone House, then tracking along what is now the northernmost path of Barnett’s Park, before continuing in a direct line across what is now the QUB playing fields, along the current ‘Old Coach Road’ and merging with the more westerly road roughly at the junction of today’s Viewfort Park. A Malone estate map of 1825 shows the same arrangement and marks the former, westerly, curving alignment as ‘Old Highway’, with ‘to Lisburn’ written on the latter (and ‘Malone Road’ in the legend.) This clearly indicates that the more direct route was a newer creation, most likely cut post-1730s when the Belfast-Banbridge turnpike trust assumed the management of the road. It is probable, therefore, that the milestone is of similar date.

Both routes appear on the 1832 OS map, but by the time the revised edition map of 1857, much of ‘newer’ road had closed and been subsumed into the Malone demesne, where most of its north-eastern half had been repurposed as private drives. The western half, the current Old Coach Road, remained a public thoroughfare, albeit one merely leading up to the western gateway to the expanded demesne.

The closure of the road was brought about by William Wallace Legge (1769-1868). William had inherited the Malone estate from his uncle in 1821 and with his inherited fortune, plus the security of a long lease obtained from the cash-strapped 2nd Marquis of Donegall in 1829, set about transforming his property, building a new mansion c.1830 (present Malone House) and re-fashioning the grounds as a larger landscape park. The former house, which appears to have been built in the late 17th or early 18th century, had stood further westwards close to the former outbuildings (now Belfast Activity Centre), and in the manner of many of the more modest farmhouses in in the Malone area, relatively close to the road itself. Removing the road was key to the greater gentrification of the property.

In 1915 an 110ac swathe of land on the western and northern sides of the Malone demesne, which contained part of the site of the former road, was leased by Legge’s descendants to Malone Golf Club, and a course laid out. In March 1926 there is a reference in the ‘Northern Whig’ to ‘an old milestone’ at the ‘present golf links at Malone’. It was mentioned again in ‘Belfast News-Letter’ articles of July 1929 and July 1934, the latter describing it as ‘a very old stone near the eighth tee…in a very bad state of repair’, with ‘the figure three hardly discernible’, whilst a short piece in ‘Ireland’s Saturday Night’ in June 1937 remarked that ‘this relic of a bygone age…to be found on Malone Golf Course…has never been moved.’

In 1962 Malone Golf Club moved to its present home at Ballydrain and the former course land was sold to Queen’s University for use as playing fields. During the works, reported the Belfast Telegraph of 5 October 1962, ‘the National Trust asked the contractors to look out for the milestone, and it was found in a bed of shrubbery where the 17th tee used to be… . “We were using it as a level point for our surveying,” said resident engineer Bill Donaldson, “before we realised what the weather-beaten rock was. It took three men and a wheelbarrow to bring it down to my office”’. An accompanying photo shows Mr. Donaldson alongside the fully removed stone, with ‘Belfast 3’ traced out in chalk on its front face. The report also states that on the back were the letters ‘A’ and ‘P’, but that the other inscriptions were indiscernible. The article concludes with Donaldson explaining that, “We brought it in for protection while the work was going on, but when the job is completed next year we will return the stone to its site and it will be preserved by the National Trust’.

There appears to be no contemporary documentation on the reinstatement of the stone, so we have no knowledge of whether the spot where it now resides (although seemingly in line with the former road) is an approximate relocation. The role of the National Trust in the whole occurrence is also unclear. Since the 1960s there appear to have been no accounts of the stone and it must be assumed that it has remained undisturbed from that time.

References – Primary sources
1 ‘Belfast News-Letter’ – 24 April 1739, p.4; 30 January 1749, p.4; 3 April 1753, p.4; 14 November 1755, p.4; 2 July 1929, p.6; 14 July 1934, p.6;
2 PRONI D835/1/3/19 Donegall estate map of the lands of Upper Malone – 1767-70
3 PRONI D915/18/3 Map of Malone Demesne - c.1775
4 PRONI D915/18/9 Map of Malone Demesne - 1825
5 OS maps – 1832, 1857, 1901, 1920, 1931, 1938, 1957, 1966
6 ‘Northern Whig’ – 3 March 1926, p.8; 12 January 1950, p.4
7 ‘Ireland’s Saturday Night’ – 5 June 1937, p.1
8 ‘Belfast Telegraph’ – 5 October 1962, p.7; 6 July 1966, p.5

Secondary sources
9 Herring,I.J., “Ulster roads on the eve of the railway age, c.1800-40”, in ‘Irish Historical Studies’ Vol.2, No.6 (Sept. 1940), pp.160-88
10 Carleton, Trevor, “Aspects of local history in Malone, Belfast”, in ‘Ulster Journal of Archaeology’, Vol.39, 1976
11 W.A. Maguire et al, ‘Malone House’, (UAHS, 1983)
12 HERoNI AN-053 Malone House-Barnett’s Demesne Historic Garden file – c.1991-

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Milestone of probable mid-18th century date associated with a stretch of road removed c.1830s. The stone was completely removed from site during the laying out of the surrounding pitches in 1962-63 comprising its historical integrity. It is uncertain if it now stands in its original position.

General comments

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