Jottings on a House
The historic settlement of Cookstown, founded by Planter Allan Cook in 1609, is surrounded by country houses and there are even several close to the town centre. Glen is a glen and avon means river: Glenavon House is perched above a wooded glen overlooking the Ballinderry River to the west of Killymoon Street. The Belfast Telegraph’s prediction almost 60 years ago that it “will not change too much” did not come to pass. Over the decades, extensions and modernisations have transformed the building’s appearance. The silhouette of the campanile is still recognisable. Glenavon House Hotel is a thriving family run hotel. The Cellar carvery lunch is especially popular.
Mark Bence-Jones only gives Glenavon House a one liner in A Guide to Irish Country Houses (1988). In Buildings of North West Ulster (1979), Alistair Rowan attributes the fine Italianate design to either Sir Charles Lanyon or his principal clerk Thomas Turner. He notes the house is built of local sandstone with ashlar banding. Alistair also observes Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomas window detailing and an “ingenious plan that almost dispenses with any corridors”.
Its history is most fully recalled in the words of a journalist and a member of the family who once owned the house. John Sayers reported in the Belfast Telegraph, 14 July 1967: “Tyrone mansion sale ends a family era. The auction sale at Glenavon House, Cookstown, which followed the death last year of the owner, Mr John Adair, was an enormous success. ‘Never saw anything like it; there was such a crowd that, when the lots upstairs were being sold, some buyers had to shout their bids from the hall below,’ said one observer. The auction of the antique furniture and the sale of the house itself – a solid Victorian mansion of the kind favoured by baronial merchants and businessmen of the latter half of the 19th century, complete with square tower and conservatory, marked the end of a family era in Cookstown.”
“Mr Hugh Adair came from Ballymena in the 1830s to establish the spinning and weaving mills beside Greenvale, the first family home. Hugh Adair held his land on lease from Mr William Stewart of Killymoon Castle, and it was not until the vast Killymoon estates were sold up in 1851 that Hugh’s son Thomas was able to buy them outright.”
“Thomas died in 1868, leaving his estate equally divided between three sons, Thomas, Hugh and John, although only Hugh survived to inherit. But before the death of his elder brother who was to have Greenvale, Hugh had planned to build Glenavon for his bride, Miss Augusta Graves, a member of the family of Gravesend, Castledawson. The house was probably completed on the wooded 15 acre site opposite Greenvale itself in the early 1870s. Hugh and Augusta took up residence and had six children – Augusta, Connie, Rona, John, Thomas Louis Napoleon and young Hugh.”
“Mr Hugh Adair is still remembered in Cookstown – a tall dignified figure with a red beard. Golf was his great enthusiasm and in 1888 he founded the Killymoon Golf Club – probably the third oldest in Ireland. His daughter Rona became one of the first ‘greats’ of Irish and international golf: she was Irish Ladies’ Champion and played in competitions in Europe and America.”
“Hugh died in 1916 leaving his widow ‘her day at Glenavon’ and on her death in 1924 it passed to the eldest son John, destined to be the last member of the family to live there. He was as imposing as his father – well over six feet tall – but is reputed to have been a reserved rather shy man. He left a superb collection of silver, jewellery and objets d’art. The linen business went into liquidation just after The Troubles in 1922 and the mill and warehouses lay derelict for many years. Now what remains is occupied by Fishers, a hat manufacturing firm.”
“And although Glenavon has been sold – because it is an unpractical size for any of Mr Adair’s children – there is still an Adair at Greenvale, Mrs Adair, widow of Thomas Louis Napoleon. Although no longer a home, Glenavon will not change too much – outwardly at least. Work is going on under the direction of the new owner, 33 year old Mr Richard Bell of Magherafelt, who is turning it into Cookstown’s first luxury hotel. So, dinner dances in the drawing room, afternoon tea in the conservatory and wedding photographs in the sunken garden will give the house a new lease of life. Mr Bell is anxious to preserve the atmosphere of the house and he is keeping reconstruction down to a minimum. He is not, for example, going to split up any of the large bedrooms and he is keeping all the original marble fireplaces.”
On 7 September 1987 Dr Thomas Adair of Ballavartyn House, Santon on the Isle of Man, wrote to the hotel: “I am very sorry I was unable to call with you before leaving Ireland but here are some notes which may be of use for you. The Adair family lived near Carrick in Ayrshire and came to Ireland in 1704 during the Plantation of Ulster and first lived in Finvoy near Ballymoney in County Antrim. About 1804 the family had become involved in spinning and weaving and in 1828 the firm of Thomas Adair Ltd was formed comprising spinning at Greenvale and weaving at a plant in Knightsbridge, Gortalowry.”
“Building continued by John Blair of Dungannon and the building was completed in 1874. It is said that stonemasons were at work along the entire length of the Sweep Road during the building of the house. Glenavon was first occupied by Hugh Adair in 1874, the year of his marriage to Augusta Lee Graves. Hugh Adair died in 1916 but his widow continued in the house until her death in 1924. In the following year, 1925, John Adair took up residence in Glenavon where he lived until his death in 1966.”
“The house passed to his sons Hugh and Thomas Adair who sold the house of the family in the same year. Hugh Adair, died 1750. Then there was Blainey Adair. Hugh Adair. Thomas Adair. Hugh Adair. John Adair. Hugh Adair, died 1984. The sole surviving member of the family is Dr Thomas Adair undersigned of above address. Hoping these notes may be of some use to you.” The hotel is now painted a light daffodil yellow. A flying corridor over the glen links to a new bedroom and conference block.
Killymoon Castle, further east overlooking Ballinderry River, is still a family home and was recently restored. Loughry Manor, along Ballinderry River to the south of Glenavon House, had found an institutional use but is currently empty awaiting restoration and a new purpose. The National Trust property Springhill near Moneymore is 22 kilometres to the northeast of Glenavon House. At the opposite end of the fate spectrum from Springhill, 42 kilometres west of Glenavon House lies Crevenagh House. Or rather, lay. For on 22 February 2026, a rainy Sunday evening, Crevenagh House was burnt to a shell. Aerial views reveal its exposed blackened first floor plan.
