Tag: clive staples lewis

Categories
Architects Architecture Design Developers Hotels Luxury People Restaurants Town Houses

Grand Central Hotel + Grand Central Hotel Belfast

With Th’Angelic Host

How to Get from Belfast to Heaven written by Lisa McGee of Derry Girls fame and directed by Michael Lennox of dynastic renown is a great tourism advert for Ireland and the Six Counties in particular. This Netflix comedic thriller is also worth watching to play spot the filming location. Buildings of South County Down by Philip Smith (2019) contains two: the 1830s St John’s House (a singular shade of grey) in Killough and the nearby 1840s St John’s Point Lighthouse (black and yellow wasp stripes). One of the early scenes is shot in The Seahorse Restaurant of Grand Central Hotel on Bedford Street, south of Belfast City Hall.

The original Grand Central Hotel opened in 1893 on Royal Avenue, north of City Hall. Erected as the 19th century came to a close, it was a five storey plus attics 200 bedroom hotel with a corner copper dome over an octagonal turret. The elaborate Italianate red brick elevations were dressed with stone ornamentation. Sir Charles Lanyon’s son John was the architect. Octogenarians recall it being the venue for important job interviews, special occasion dinners and high society events. The Grand Central was Belfast’s top hotel until it closed in the late 1960s as The Troubles turned the city centre into a no go zone. Castlecourt shopping centre replaced the hotel in the 1980s.

The London equivalents of the original Grand Central are, or in some cases, were: The Grand, Trafalgar Square (1881, Frederick Francis, Henry Francis and James Ebenezer Saunders, interior scooped out to insert offices and façade thinly reinstated in the late 20th century); The Langham, top of Oxford Street (1865, John Giles and James Murray, extended in the late 20th century); The Ritz, Green Park (1906, Charles Mèwes and Arthur Davis, correctly extended 2026); The Savoy, The Strand (1889, Thomas Colcutt, revamped in the 1920s); and The Strand Palace, The Strand (1909, Sir Henry Tanner, rebuilt two decades later, still there today).

In recent years, Hastings Hotels has flown the flag of high end hospitality in Northern Ireland. The collection includes Ballygally Castle (Ballygally, County Antrim), Culloden (Cultra, County Down), Everglades (Derry City, County Londonderry), Stormont (outer Belfast), Europa (inner Belfast) and since 2018, Grand Central (inner Belfast). Europa and Grand Central hold a similar record: the former as the world’s most bombed hotel and the latter as the world’s most bombed office block. Hastings Hotels also has a 50 percent share of The Merrion, one of Dublin’s finest establishments.

Ballygally Castle, Culloden and Stormont all started life as country houses. The Merrion was once a row of townhouses. Europa is the only purpose built hotel in the collection. Grand Central used to be Windsor House. Marcus Patton describes the building in Central Belfast An Historical Gazetteer, 1993, “Tall office block of 24 storeys including two storey black marble podium and attic level, the upper levels being clad in white mosaic panels; with a narrow frontage to Bedford Street but extending back considerably. At 270 feet, this is the tallest building in Northern Ireland. In 1852 a new stone warehouse had been built on this site for Robert and John Workman, linen and muslin manufacturers, by Sir Charles Lanyon. One of the first developments in the street, this was four storeys high with channelled ground and first floors, central first floor balcony, arched tops to third floor windows, outer bays set slightly forward, and chimneys rising above deep eaves.”

Taggarts architects retained Dennis McIntyre and Devon’s 1970s concrete frame and faced the structure with dark cladding giving it a contemporary £53 million facelift. Above the 300 bedrooms (50 percent more guest accommodation than its namesake) is the penthouse level Observatory Bar and Restaurant with its 360 degree panorama of this small city. Cave Hill looms to the north. Harbour and Laganside to the east under the embrace of the Holywood Hills. Twin peaks of St Peter’s Catholic Cathedral to the west. And surprisingly, the view to the south stretches over the city and on to the Mourne Mountains. The view inside is of the beautiful people.

The Protestant United Irishman freedom fighter Wolfe Tone made this entry in his June 1795 diary: “I remember two days we spent on the Cave Hill. On the first Russell, Neilson, Simms, McCracken and one of two more of us on the summit of MacArt’s Fort took a solemn obligation which I think I may say I have on my part endeavoured to fulfil – never to desist in our efforts until we had subverted the authority of England over our country and asserted our independence.” In his 1955 memoir, the great writer Clive Staples Lewis recalled, “County Down in the holidays and Surrey in the term – it was an excellent contrast.” He saw the Holywood Hills as “an irregular polygon” and the Mournes were famously his inspiration for the land of Narnia.

Grand Central Hotel is linked to the past and not just in name. Its seahorse motif symbolises Belfast’s maritime heritage. Curtain fabric pattern is inspired by the flax flower of Ulster’s linen history. The building has not been restored to its former glory – a depressing Civil Service office block. Instead, it has been reimagined as a symbol of the revification of Belfast as a tourist destination. The interior is filled with literary and artistic references. A framed extract from local poet Paul Muldoon’s composition Belfast Hymn (2018) is on a stairwell: “Known too, the best days begin and end at the Grand Central where we counter the cold and damp with oatmeal, ancient grains, entrecôte aux champignons, champ, a flute of gold Champagne.”

Another extract is engraved on the glass wall of the lift: “The flute on which James Galway soared was really made of gold. Some dwell in the House of the Lord and some on the threshold of hotels like the Maritime. Van Morrison and Team summoning from our glow and grime meticulous mayhem.” Paul explains, “I was tempted by the idea of trying to write a new poem about Belfast for several reasons. The first is that, despite my not having lived here since 1986, I still feel very connected to the city. I came here first as a child in the 1950s, usually traveling by train via Portadown … In 1969, I came to Queen’s University as a student, just as things were hotting up on the streets. On July 21, 1972, a date that would become known as Bloody Friday, Smithfield Bus Station was bombed. Smithfield Market was destroyed by incendiary bombs in 1974. By that stage I was at the BBC, where I worked as a radio and television producer between 1973 and 1986. I spent several of those years in an office in Windsor House. Having long been an admirer of the Hastings family and their profound sense of civic responsibility, I am delighted to offer this poem in the spirit of hope and the idea of home they so wonderfully embody.”

A gigantic artwork Still Life Consommé Cup dominates The Seahorse Bar. Born in Lancashire, artist Neil Shawcross spent his working life teaching at Belfast College of Art. His painting – not dissimilar to Chi Peng’s two cups and saucers Scattered Aesthetic and Concrete Depth in the foyer of Waldorf Astoria Beijing – symbolises the return of dining elegance. A mural by Tandem Design hangs over The Seahorse Restaurant. The illustrated mythology represents Sir Arthur Chichester (who established the city in 1611) as a wolf. A seahorse makes an appearance in the mural. Even the staircase has a life size seahorse wrapped round its newel post.

A trawl through the Public Records Office Northern Ireland reveals highly sensitive documents dating from around the War of Independence era. A memo stamped “Secret” dated 2 June 1922 states, “Owing to the recent activities in the city it appears to be very important that the Night Watchmen be armed, and it is therefore hoped that this matter may be treated as urgent … The matter has been discussed with Mr Harrison and Colonel Goodwin, and it is understood that if no regular constables are available, there would be no difficulty in engaging Special Constables for this work. The Minister of Finance has arranged for the building to be closed to the general public from 5.00pm to 8.45am Monday to Friday, and from 1230pm Saturday to 8.54am Monday, and I am directed to request that suitable protection be afforded, and that, if necessary, additional Special Constables be engaged. A plan of the thrid floor of the building is attached. The remaining floors are almost identical.” John Robinson, Establishment Division, Ministry of Finance.

A Minute Sheet dated 2 June 1922 from the Secretary of Ministry of Finance, to the Secretary of Home Affairs is titled Protection of Grand Central Hotel. It records: “I am directed by the Minster of Finance to state that the question of police protection of the Grand Central Hotel has been under consideration, arising out of a request received from the Ministry of Pensions. The building consists of six floors and has two entrances. It is, however, proposed to close all entrances except the main entrance, and convert the rear and side entrances to emergency exits. The protection of this building was recently considered together with all other Government buildings, and doubt was expressed as to whether effective protection could be afforded.”

It wasn’t just members of the public staying eating and sleeping in the hotel. “As you are no doubt aware, a considerable number of people visit the building daily to attend the undermentioned offices: Ministry of Pensions, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Finance (Works and Valuation), Inland Revenue Inspector of Taxes and Post Offices Engineer, and it is not possible to institute a system of passes or interview forms. The provision in the building of sleeping quarters for men offering themselves for recruits for His Majesty’s Forces is a very undesirable feature, and the military authorities are being asked to accommodate these men elsewhere.”

Protection for Grand Central Hotel was estimated at £6,000 per annum. “It is considered that the building is most liable to attack between 6.30am and 8.45am during the time the cleaning staff is on duty, from 12.00 noon to 2.15pm when the staff is depleted during the luncheon interval, and from 5.00pm to 8.00pm when the building is almost deserted except for casual attenders at the Ministry of Pensions Clinics and Inland Revenue Office. An armed Night Watchman is on duty from 9.00pm to 7.00am and a caretaker sleeps on the premises. The technical staff has arranged for alarm bells to be installed and a wire screen to be affixed insider the main entrance, and they are of opinion that the two Constables patrolling each corridor from 6.30am to 9.00pm would provide suitable protection. The matter is, however, submitted for the consideration of the police authorities for their opinion, which will be accepted.”

On a brighter note, the Public Records Office Northern Ireland holds a very meaty menu for Christmas Luncheon in the Grant Central Hotel on Friday 25 December 1964 (25 shillings a head). Honeydew Melon, Pâté Maison, Soused Herring. Rich Brown Game Soup, Scotch Broth. Salmon Mayonnaise, Fried Fillet of Sole Tartare Sauce. Roast Irish Turkey Gammon Cranberry Sauce, Roast Leg of Pork Apple Sauce, Roast Sirloin of Beef Horseradish Sauce. Roast Irish Chicken Bacon Bread Sauce. Cold Buffet: Irish Ham, Assorted Meats, Roast Turkey, Brussels Sprouts, Green Peas, Seasonal Salad, Creamed Roast Potatoes. Fresh Jellies, Plum Pudding, Sherry Trifle, Fruit Salad, Dairy Cream, Mince Pie. Assorted English Cheeses and Biscuits. Tea or Coffee. It’s enough to turn the most dedicated carnivore vegetarian.

Categories
Architects Architecture Art Country Houses Design Developers Hotels Luxury People Restaurants Town Houses

Murlough Country House + Dundrum Down

The Business of Heaven on Earth

County Down, the east coast riviera of the north of Ireland, is blessed with large Georgian houses. The five bay two storey variety with all the upright prettiness of a doll’s house is especially prevalent in the southern half of this county. Woodford House, Dromara; Milltown House, Lenaderg; Beech Park, Leansmount and Kilmore House, all in Lurgan; Tullymurry House, Newry; Cabragh House, Rathfriland; and Annaghanoon House, Waringstown are just a few examples.

Murlough Country House (formerly known as Murlough Farm) on Keel Point betwixt Dundrum Bay and Murlough Bay looks earlier than most. The roof is higher; the wall to window ratio greater; the window boxes deeper. It firmly falls into the category ‘middling sized houses’ (a phrase originally adapted by Sir Charles Brett from Maurice Craig’s 1976 Classic Houses of the Middle Size) in Philip Smith’s 2019 guide to architecture in South County Down, a continuation of Charlie’s series. The windowsills and entrance door are painted peach to match the colour of the jagged brick eaves.

We spoke to leaders in tourism and the arts to garner their views ahead of staying at the house and experiencing the local village of Dundrum. Tim Knox, Director of the Royal Collection, observes, “Murlough Country House is indeed a rather fine house, charmingly Irish and looking very good newly harled and painted.” Charles Plante, international tastemaker and former Art Advisor to Sir Hardy Amies, Queen Elizabeth II’s dressmaker, remarks, “This house brings together neoclassical and provincial architecture in an appealing vernacular – the Georgian style at its best and rarest in Ireland.”

David Roberts, Director of Strategic Development at Tourism NI, elaborates, “Northern Ireland’s heritage is a cornerstone of our tourism offering. For more than a decade, Tourism NI and our partners have been working closely together to drive investment in high quality heritage experiences and accommodation which are attractive to visitors. Our research has shown that the ‘culturally curious’ segment of visitors represents great potential for being attracted to Northern Ireland in the future.”

He tells us, “Historic buildings can provide exciting, place based visitor experiences which can encourage longer stays in one location and more local exploring. Promoting connections between places and a more regionally balanced tourism sector are key objectives for the emerging Northern Ireland tourism strategy. The visitor brand for Northern Ireland ‘Embrace A Giant Spirit’ embodies and draws inspiration from the area’s heritage. Tourism NI is delighted to have Murlough Country House as a provider of high quality visitor accommodation. It provides a fantastic base for visitors to explore the Mournes and the wider area.”

Philip Smith writes, “The first Murlough House was not the large Victorian era Italianate style villa built by Lord Downshire but this smaller less formal yet in many respects more interesting house about one kilometre to the east. It is a charming unpretentious two storey over high basement block with a steeply pitched hipped roof, large multiphase but relatively homogeneous triple pile return and two sturdy centrally positioned chimneystacks.” Mourne Farm started out as a slim rectangular block with a central staircase return wing. An extension either side of the return enlarged the building: the blocked up rear elevation windows of the 18th century house became cupboards. Horn free sashes give way to the later horned variety.

He notes that the long straight tree lined avenue is a good indicator of age and is likely to be early 18th century despite not appearing on Oliver Sloane’s Down Map of 1739. The present house is marked on Kennedy’s Map of 1755. The Centre for Archaeology Fieldwork at Queen’s University Belfast completed an Excavation Report of Blundell’s House at Dundrum Castle in 2009. Included in this report is a 1758 ink, graphite and wash drawing by Mary Delany titled The Ruins of Dundrum Castle. In the background it appears to show Murlough Farm albeit three rather than five bays wide. The Delanys rented Mount Panther three kilometres to the north of Dundrum around that time.

Philip continues, “Since the mid 1600s, the Blundells had been absentees and thereafter their house may have been occupied by their agents; but by 1748 the ‘slate house by the castle of Dundrum’ was reported to be in ‘disrepair’ and not long after this ‘Murlough House’ begins to appear in the record; it may well, therefore, have been built as a replacement.” The hillside and hilltop ruins of the 12th century Dundrum Castle form a spectacular backdrop to the village and the perfect vantage point to survey the Ancient Kingdom of Mourne.

Dr Ciarán Reilly records in The Evolution of the Irish Land Agent: The Management of the Blundell Estate in the 18th century, 2018, that the career of father and son Henry and John Hatch as agents of the 5,600 hectare Blundell Estate lasted over 50 years. The Dublin based Henry Hatch, taking up his position in 1747, would have housed property managers at Murlough Farm. The 3rd Marquess of Downshire, a Blundell descendant, would deliver a 91 metre long pier for Dundrum in the early 19th century. The Downshire family still retains a house in Murlough.

The Armstrong family lived in Murlough Country House from 1991 to 2023 before selling it to the current owners. Belfast architect Dawson Stelfox advised on heritage matters. “We restored the blue slate and copper nail roof,” Elaine Armstrong confirms, “and added hipped roofs over the two flat roofed extensions to the back. We also added the authentic orangery style Conservatory. When we got the front door lock restored, the craftsman said the key dates from 1730. It’s a special building and we fell in love with it. We’re so thrilled to see it being brought back into life as holiday accommodation.”

Like many Belfast citizens, Clive Staples Lewis developed an early love of the Mourne Mountains. Or the Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty as it’s now known: all 57,000 protected hectares. The novelist, theologian and mathematician wrote, “I have seen landscapes, notably in the Mourne Mountains and southwards which under a particular light made me feel that at any moment a giant might raise his head over the next ridge. I yearn to see County Down in the snow; one almost expects to see a march of dwarves dashing past. How I long to break into a world where such things were true.”

The restoration of Murlough Country House and its 2.4 hectare estate – a little piece of Narnia – is an essay on correct conservation, surpassing any former glory. The courtyard facing elevation, or southeast front, is different in character to the entrance front. All three storeys are on full display and the series of hipped roofs lends it the delineated air of a château. The white painted harling of the house so admired by Tim Knox contrasts with the grey rubblestone and cut stone of the outbuildings. This is holiday accommodation at its finest.

On the lower ground floor, the large southeast facing Shield’s Conservatory with a dining table for 12 people projects into the courtyard. Agar’s Snug, a cosy room with a wood burning stove leads off the professional chef’s standard Shield’s Kitchen fitted with Shaker style cupboards. Blundell is an accessible bedroom and shower room suite. No 18th century house is complete without a Boot Room.

At ground floor level, the elegant Entrance Hall terminated by a flying dogleg staircase is flanked by Maitland, a drawing room, and Downshire, a cinema. Formerly a dining room, a dumb waiter still connects Downshire to the lower ground floor. The Entrance Hall spans three metres and three centuries of living (from 18th century elegance to 21st century technology). An abbreviated enfilade. Mitchell is the king size ground floor bedroom with a shower room next door. It’s impossible to tell it was once the kitchen. Four first floor bedrooms look out across the gardens to Murlough National Nature Reserve and onwards to the Mountains of Mourne. A tasteful roundelay.

Annesley is the principal suite and faces northwest with views onto the side lawn. The walls are painted ‘clover’ in the Edward Bulmer range. A vintage Louis de Poortere rug adds even more vibrancy. Dual aspect super king size Armstrong bedroom occupies the full depth of the 18th century main block. Two shuttered northwest facing windows set into the thick walls frame the front lawn and paddock; a third window overlooks the driveway. The king size Macartney also overlooks the front lawn and paddock. Lore has it that the handblown glass in the two sash windows of this room was salvaged from a Jacobean house. Magennes is a northeast facing king size bedroom. A former nursery, this sunny yellow room was featured in a Farrow and Ball book. We recognise Nina Campbell and Christopher Farr curtains and cushions.

“Oh I do love a bit of T ‘n’ G,” our friend Min Hogg, Founding Editor of The World of Interiors, told us over coffee one time in her nursery floor apartment above the treetops of Brompton Square in London. There’s plenty of tongue and groove panelling in these bedrooms. Naming rooms is very much a South County Down tradition: think Mourne Park House. At Murlough, the rooms are called after families associated with the house and area. No 21st century country house is complete without a Sauna.

The abutting estates of Murlough Country House and Murlough House share a coastal landmass of great natural beauty attached to mainland all protected by the National Trust. Wetlands on one side, sandy beach on the other. Designated in 1967, Murlough is Ireland’s first National Nature Reserve and has the country’s best and most extensive dune heath. We stroll through its 280 unspoiled hectares. Wildflowers, wildfowl, wild ponies (everything is wild); unbothered living, forever steeped in Sunday stillness … it’s hard to believe Belfast is only 50 kilometres away and Dublin 150 kilometres. We care to disagree with Clive Staples Lewis, “Adventures are never fun while you’re having them.”

Now London based, artist Anne Davey Orr shares her reflections with us from across the water on Murlough. As Founding Editor and Publisher of Ulster Architect magazine, former Board Member of Belfast Civic Trust, Arts Council, National Trust, Design Council and Chair of The Lyric Theatre Belfast she is well placed. “Murlough or Muirbolc in Gaelige means ‘seabag’ or ‘inlet’. The modesty of this title hides its importance on a number of levels.”

Anne continues, “These heartlands of the MacCartan and MacGuinness clans were forfeited to John de Courcy when he marched on Ulster in his attempts to conquer Ireland. MacGuinness Castle was renamed Dundrum Castle. Donal Oge MacCartan, a MacGuinness cousin, surrendered the castle in 1601 to Lord Mountjoy, in Irish terms renowned for the gaol named after him in Dublin. In 1605 it was made over to Lord Cromwell and sold to Sir George Blundell in 1636.”

Maurice Craig states in The Architecture of Ireland, 1982, “John de Courcy set out from Dublin and took Downpatrick in 1176. He married the daughter of the King of Man and kept princely state himself, founding Inch Abbey and (through his wife) Grey Abbey, and beginning the castles of Carrickfergus and Dundrum.” The layering of the centuries. The entrance to Murlough Country House encapsulates the duality of its character: simple square capped pillars heralding a farmhouse; a stretch of walls attached to either side suggesting something grander. On the far side of the main road, the Slidderyford Dolmen – a megalithic portal tomb – makes Dundrum Castle look positively modern.

Neighbour Edward ‘Ned’ Cummins calls by for coffee in Shield’s Conservatory. We get chatting: “I’ve lived here all my life. My dad came to work here with horses on this farm when he was 14 years of age. I own the retired racehorses in the field next door. If I hadn’t accepted them they would’ve gone to France to be eaten. The proper way into this house was down my lane before what they call the ‘Downshire Bridge’ was built. Before that there was a wooden bridge. Where would you get a causeway like that going to a private house?”

Coffee and conversation are flowing. “The Yanks stayed here during the War. The trees down the driveway are all big trees but you come to a place that is nice and flat and they’re very small trees. The Americans cut the trees down and brought aeroplanes into that field there. They took over this whole farm too. There’s a strip out there for the planes to land. There was a load of Nissan huts round the back. They’re all gone now. The Annesleys bought this place for £12,000 I would say shortly after the War. They built the bathroom extension in the 70s. It’s block not stone. The buildings behind the house are the Coach House, Middle Barn, Piggeries and Woodworker’s Barn. The one roomed Bothy was the gamekeeper’s house.”

Ned ends, “Brunel designed SS Great Britain and it ran aground in Dundrum Bay in 1846. The captain got drunk and ran it straight into the sand bar. Brunel came over and stayed in the Downshire Arms Hotel for about a year. He orchestrated strapping the ship and hacking it up to get it seaworthy again. SS Great Britain was the first iron hulled screw propelled steamship.”

Peeling ourselves away from Murlough Country House, we wend our way into Dundrum, the gourmet capital of South County Down. Thrice. Colour seeps into Irish village architecture and Dundrum is no exception. Lunch is in Mourne Seafood Bar (the exterior is painted duck egg blue on the ground floor, goose grey on the upper floors and the northeast wing is sorbet yellow). Dinner in The Buck’s Head (painted olive green). Drinks in The Dundrum Inn (pineapple yellow and blackcurrant purple). The striking house with a gable clock and weathervane opposite Mourne Seafood Bar is salmon pink. Next morning coffee is in Cúpla with its damson blue signage – its name comes from the Irish for twins after Dominque and Shane Gibben who own the café.

But first there’s a visit to Dundrum Coastal Rowing Club. Andrew Boyd and Robert Graham proudly show off two boats they’ve built: Danny Buoy and Mystic Wave. “It started off as a community project to reconnect people round this coastline with our boat building heritage,” explains Robert. Traditional St Ayles skiffs were built by locals along the County Down coast from Donaghadee to Dundrum. “It took us six months to build Danny Buoy. We finished it the night before the 2016 Skiff World Championship Rowing Race. We just got it out into the bay to give it a test that it floated and then went straight into the race and won! We generated lots of interest and so we ordered the second kit and built Mystic Wave.”

Andrew is the founder of Kilmegan Cider. He relates, “I started about a mile away from Dundrum. It was my parents’ orchard and every year when we were younger we had to gather up the apples and store them in boxes. Waste not! We’d make a wee bit of apple wine and there was one year I went down and all the apples were lying on the ground. The fieldfares and redwings were having a field day. I decided to try a batch of cider with an old winepress. So it started as a hobby and grew from there. I registered it in 2014.” Kilmegan Cider has been winning national and international awards ever since.

It’s time for lunch in Mourne Seafood Bar which is in the former Downshire Arms Hotel, a grand three storey building dominating Main Street. Owner Chris McCann joins us. “Bob McCoubrey launched Mourne Seafood Bar in Dundrum in 2005 and in Belfast a year later. We took over the Dundrum restaurant seven years ago. Chris Wayne is our Head Chef. We stick to what the brand is – it’s in the name – and just have one meat dish on our menu. Our mussels come from Strangford Lough. Our oysters come from Carlingford – they have a sweetness and there’s a consistency of quality and supply. Wednesday night is lobster night. We’ve 10 guest bedrooms too.”

Samphire, known as ‘sea asparagus’, is a popular garnish foraged from Murlough Beach. Nowhere in Ireland is further than 85 kilometres from the coast. In Dundrum, make that one kilometre. Reisling served has the surprising label ‘Donaghadee’: the German winemaker married a County Down lass. Platters arrive – this is tasting on an epic scale! Cracked crab claws, langoustines and mignonette oysters. We devour the entire starters menu.

“All our food is farm or sea to plate,” welcomes Bronagh McCormick who took over The Buck’s Head with her business partner Head Chef Alex Greene in April 2024. He’s a regular on the TV programme Great British Menu. The pub was built in 1834. She records, “We’ve 75 covers in our dining room and we’re opening rooms for guests to stay over. We’re kept pretty busy with dinner reservations at least four weeks in advance.” Wheaten bread made with treacle sums up the menu: local with a twist. Pan roast salmon with gnocchi and charred broccoli continues the Dundrumesque seafood theme. Alex tells us later they also own the Fish and Farm Shop in nearby Newcastle. They’re custodians of produce.

“There’s nothing we’re not trying and there’s nothing we’re not doing,” Alex shares over coffee and cakes in Cúpla. “It’s very much an evolving product. We’ve a lot of repeat business, especially on a Sunday. We run Sunday lunch up to 7pm. We’ll add a couple more vegetarian options but if you put too many dishes on the menu the quality starts to drop. It’s better selling 30 of one dish in a day than three of 100. But you don’t want to make the menu too small either with not enough choice for people. Our meat mostly comes from my family farm three miles up the road.”

The Dundrum Inn, a few doors down from The Buck’s Head, is the perfect place to pull a late night Guinness and order a nightcap (make that a round of Kilmegan Ciders) in the large beer garden while being entertained by live music. The Dundrum Inn has been going for 190 years so far and is still a social hub. “Dundrum Village Association organises the Summer Festival,” says Community Leader Alan Cooley. “It brings everyone together. Food stalls, bands, circus performers and a raft race fill a Saturday each July.”

“Let’s go out on our boat!” is a thrilling suggestion by our hosts upon leaving Cúpla. Soon we’re riding the waves fantastic. Leaving behind Dundrum Bay to enter the Irish Sea, looking back, the castle has vanished under a cloud and gradually landmass fades to grey and disappears. Splash, crash, splash, crash! We’re now in the midst of the vast grey sea which has merged with the vast grey sky. There’s no horizon; everything’s grey. A grey seal swims by giving us side eye.

We recall Andrew Boyd telling us, “When you get the high tide running out of the bay and you have a bit of a southerly wind, there’s a roar of the sea known as Tonn Ruairí. This is the ‘Wave of Rory’ named after a Viking who drowned in Dundrum Bay from the forces of a mystic wave. It makes a crashing roaring sound. As much as the sea round here is beautiful you need to respect it.”

Brian de Breffny, writing in Castles of Ireland, 1977, breaks away from conventional architectural historian mode to wax lyrical, “Something of Dundrum’s distant Celtic past seems to cling mysteriously to the castle and its wooded hillside. Perhaps more than any other place in Ireland, it suggests too the world of the Norman adventurers and mercenaries – conquerors and Crusaders who fortified a castle in Ulster and talked there of the palace castles of the Seleucid rulers they had seen in the East – the world of the overmighty barons and Plantagenet kings.” Almost half a century later, his words still ring true.

There was a sense of crossing a border when we went over that triple arched causeway for the first time … we’d crossed a line into a slight otherness. And when Murlough Country House appeared, there was a sensation of arrival, of distant belonging. We would succumb to the enchantment of days spent passed in South County Down. Later, much later, unfurling thoughts and images of Dundrum, we realise anew it’s a place to experience the serious business of joy. And to parrot Clive Staples Lewis, “We meet no ordinary people in our lives.” And visit no ordinary places.

Categories
Architects Architecture Country Houses People

Coastal Path Moville Donegal + Liam McCormick

Signs to Mark Sacred Times

“Yonder is Lough Foyle, debouching into the ocean,” John Weir gloriously thrills in The Ulster Awakening, 1859. St Colmcille’s Day is an appropriate day to visit Moville on the western shore of Lough Foyle, County Donegal. A coastal walk connects Moville to Greencastle, the next village to the north. It starts out as a winding path which graduates into crossing sandy coves then climbing over walls and finally clambering through gorse. On one side the lough, on the other, splendid villas, several owned at one time by prominent figures. A white painted well marks the spot where St Colmcille stopped for water before leaving Ireland for Scotland. Modernist seating pavilions, painted white of course, punctuate the path at regular intervals. Lights in the vaults of the sky.

The Ark House: Noachian named, the first residence to admire is right on the water’s edge overlooking the stone pier which extends into the quay opening into Lough Foyle. Like all the period houses to follow it is rendered and painted white with a dark slate roof. Three bay three storey with attics, this house looks like it could be an end of terrace rather than standalone. It was built by a Captain John Ramsay who bought an old brig, the original ark, and dragged it up onto this site, converting it into a dwelling in the 1820s. He later broke up this brig and used the timbers in the construction of the current building.

Ravenscliff: dating from the 1830s, it was once a hotel. The main house is a multi gabled one and a half storey mildly Tudoresque affair. A long unusually crenellated single storey wall extending out to one side encloses a garden that originally contained exotic plants. Like the following houses, Ravenscliff is separated from the coastal walk by generous lawns fringed by woods.

Gorgowan House: similar in scale and date to the main block of its neighbour Ravenscliff, it was designed by an English architect James Malton. A projecting gable containing a semilunar window rests on two columns and the chamfered bay windows on either side of the entrance door. Two 19th century residents include Reverend Charles Galway, Rector of the Church of Ireland in neighbouring Greencastle, and later, Captain Ernest Cochrane of the Royal Navy.

Carnagrave House: built as a fishing lodge in the 18th century, it was extended in three stages. A bulbous conservatory protrudes out from between a pair of chamfered bay windows. Carnagrave House and grounds are currently undergoing an extensive and expensive restoration. This estate in miniature is the grandest of all the houses and will soon be even grander.

Lafferty’s Lane: this links the coastal walk up to the main road between Moville and Greencastle. It is lined with several discreet 20th century bungalows in wooded grounds. One of the bungalows was the home of politician John Hume. The Nobel Peace Prize winner regularly entertained the good and the great at his beachside home. There is a sandy cove at the shore end of Lafferty’s Lane.

Glenburnie House: a Scottish sounding name for a Scottish looking residence. A baronial turret rises above the double fronted beach elevation of this 1830s house. It was once owned by the Marquess of Donegall. These days it can only be glimpsed through a cast iron gate propped up in the deep vegetation separating the private garden from the public access.

Ballybrack Lodge: this was another Marquess of Donegall property. He lived up to his name at least in ownership terms. It is of lower architectural pretension that the preceding villas, displaying something of the air of a farmhouse with a red painted entrance door. Ballybrack Lodge is set further back from the coastline than some of the other houses, overlooking a long stretch of garden and backing onto dense woodland.

Friel’s: this was the seaside retreat of one of Ireland’s greatest playwrights. Brian Friel was born outside Omagh but in his life and work became synonymous with Donegal. He was friendly with that other literary Irish colossus, Seamus Heaney, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. Plenty of chamfered bay windows capture views of the sea or as Seamus Heaney would call it, “The Flaggy Shore”.

Portchapel: a decent sized house masquerading as a dinky cottage. Single bays flanking a large gabled porch protrude with mini gables into the low eaves level. Single storey wings to the side and rear expand the accommodation of the main two storey block. A previous resident was Dr Thomas Terence Baird, Chief Medical Officer for Northern Ireland 1968 to 1973.

Brooklyn House: built in 1830 by the great grandfather of Donegal’s celebrated 20th century architect Liam McCormick. The house has passed down the family line. Liam McCormick may have designed modernist masterpieces but he was happy to reside on holidays at this substantial Victorian villa. Like Friel’s, chamfered bay windows maximise the unbroken sea views. It is located on the edge of Greencastle.

Anne Davey Orr, Publisher and Editor of Ulster Architect, Ireland’s longest running and most read architecture magazine, invited architects Sir Hugh Casson, Michael Scott and Liam McCormick to judge the Building of the Year launch in 1985. Later judges of the awards would include architect Max Glendinning and architectural critic Martin Pawley. Magazine alumni include the journalist Leo McKinstry, the writer Sir Charles Brett and the columnist Stuart Blakley.

One of the last articles Stuart Blakley wrote and photographed for Ulster Architect was on Carton LeVert House in Rathmullan, County Donegal. Published in February 2007, it included an interview with Tarla MacGabhann who runs the second generation practice with his brother Antoin. “I would call the house a reinterpretation of the vernacular cottage which has been formed, shaped and developed by the specifics of the site and climate.” Employing a language of skewed angles, non Euclidean geometries and shards, this building may be single storey but isn’t exactly a typical bungalow. Tarla’s five years experience working in the 1990s in the office of Daniel Libeskind working on the Berlin Jewish Museum clearly paid off. MacGabhann Architects also designed Brian Friel’s widow’s house Teach Annie in this county. They smoothly took on Liam McCormick’s mantle as Donegal’s best architectural practice.

Brian Friel’s play Dancing at Lughnasa was one of the highlights of The Lyric Theatre Belfast programme when Anne Davey Orr was Chair. She explains, “The theatre company which originally produced Translations by Brian Friel was called the Field Day Theatre Company. It was founded by Friel and the actor Stephen Rae in 1980 specifically to produce Irish plays in an attempt to build a new theatre audience in the midst of the Troubles. Other people involved were Seamus Heaney and Seamus Deane.”

Rudyard Kipling ponders in his poem The Sea and the Hills, 1903, “Who hath desired the sea? – the sight of salt water unbounded.” Clive Staples Lewis wrote in his 1955 diary about Donegal and “the monstrous, emerald, deafening waves”. A robin is perched on the sill of one of the coastal path pavilions. Signs and wonders. Wonders and signs. Signs and great wonders. Signs and symbols. Great signs from heaven. Wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below.