Tag: tullylagan manor

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Tullylagan Manor + Tullylagan Country House Hotel Cookstown Tyrone

Many Mansions

A corrugated roof colour coordinating with a crinkly hedge. Driving out of Cookstown, vernacular soon gives way to splendour.

The evolution of country house styles over three centuries could be told through one estate on the outskirts of Cookstown in County Tyrone. Businessman Thomas Greer commissioned Thomas Jackson to design Tullylagan Manor. Born in 1807 in Waterford City to a Quaker family, Thomas moved to Belfast aged 22 and eventually became a partner in Thomas Duff’s office (Parkanaur in County Tyrone is one of the practice’s many projects). Belfast is still a benefiter of the diverse talent of Thomas Jackson, from the 1830s Greek Revival Old Museum Building (now home to Ulster Architectural Heritage) to the 1840s Tudor Revival St Malachy’s Catholic Church.

Built in 1828, Tullylagan Manor is a restrained Greek Revival house relying on the Doric order for detailing. It consists of a three bay (entrance front) and four bay (garden front) two storey over exposed basement villa and long lower two storey wing, faced in coursed ashlar sandstone, roofed in Bangor blue slates. The entrance is in a full height pilastered porch. Or rather consisted of a two storey over exposed basement. Montalto in County Down and Tullylagan Manor are rare examples of basements being excavated to form ground floors. In 1904, Thomas MacGregor Greer commissioned this structural work as well as exterior steps up to what became a first floor entrance.

Thomas MacGregor Greer (so many Thomases!) originally appointed London architects Alfred Henry Hart and Percy Leslie Waterhouse to design a replacement building. His grandfather’s neoclassical house must have looked positively old fashioned. The unexecuted design is very modern and very English. The layout includes state of the art bathrooms and a basement heating chamber. A proliferation of oriels, chamfered bays and gables along with transom and mullion windows creates a straight out of the Cotswolds look. The closest Alfred and Percy’s plans came to fruition was to be exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1904.

Four unsigned unexecuted schemes are in the Public Records Office Northern Ireland. One plan is for two extensions to the existing house, both projecting from the entrance front. Another plan for “Proposed Alterations to House” is much more radical. The extant drawings are of the basement, ground and first floorplans. The main reception rooms are laid out behind a two bay setback flanked by chamfered bay windows. A three storey return wing extends to the rear. Some rooms are named after colours (Blue, Crimson, Green, Pink, White and Yellow), others after outlook (East, West and South) and one after wood (Walnut). This proposal would have doubled the size of the house and created a symmetrical entrance front.

The largest proposal is for a replacement house. There are three layout variations: one with a central staircase hall; one with a central stadium shaped (rectangle with semicircle ends) hall with the staircase to the side; and another with a central polygonal hall with the staircase to the side. The fourth unexecuted scheme is of a symmetrical ground floorplan with a large semicircular porch. Accompanying sketches illustrate it was to be a two storey plus attic house. Elaborate details include Dutch gables with finials. Digging to expose the basement was clearly the least ambitious and most economic option. Perhaps Thomas MacGregor Greer decided Greek Revival wasn’t so bad after all.

A newbuild wouldn’t happen at Tullylagan until the end of the 20th century. Rather than replace Tullylagan Manor, owners Raymond and Hilary Turkington decided to build a 16 bedroom hotel in the ample grounds. Tullylagan Country House Hotel soon became one of the most popular destinations in the County. Turkingtons, their eponymous store in Cookstown remains one of the best interiors shops in the Province. Hilary’s brother designed the long two storey hotel in a neo Palladian form with a seven bay main block flanked by three bay setbacks terminated by gable fronted two bay wings. A square porch with a tripartite window to the front and entrance door to the side with 1930s style stained glass as well as a lush covering of ivy draping over the exterior add to its charm. Outbuildings of Tullylagan Manor were converted to further hotel accommodation. Tullylagan Country House Hotel closed in 2021: a new operator is sought to take it over.

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Architects Architecture Art Country Houses People

Hilton Park Scotshouse Monaghan + William Hague

Powers Hilton

Elsewhere erroneously attributed to the better known architect Francis Johnson, the core of the current house was most likely designed by James Jones of Dundalk. The rebuilding followed a fire of 1803 which destroyed much of an earlier house. A letter from James to Colonel Madden dated 24 July 1838 refers to various works to be undertaken at Hilton Park. The stables and dovecote, the latter a romantic folly, are probably by the same architect. He was also the likely designer of the ‘ride’ which adjoins the rear of the house. The ride is a distinctive cast iron colonnade erected at the rear of the house to allow the family to observe horses being broken in away from the inclement County Monaghan weather.

In 1874 County Cavan born architect William Hague was paid 100 guineas by the Maddens to redesign the house. It was a surprising commission from an Orangeman to a Catholic ecclesiastical architect. One of his many churches is St Aidan’s in nearby Butlersbridge. Drawings by William Hague line the walls of the vaulted breakfast room. “He provided my ancestor with a ‘pick and mix’,” says current owner Johnny Madden, “including ceiling designs for the main rooms.”

While the campanile, bay window and dome weren’t executed, the Ionic porte cochère, parapet decorations and lower level rustication were added. Triangular pediments (without aedicules) float over the piano nobile. The most dramatic change was the excavation of the basement to form a three storey house. Montalto (County Down) and Tullylagan Manor (County Tyrone) are two Northern Irish houses which have been similarly treated, most likely for aesthetic purposes. Johnny Madden believes many of the alterations at Hilton Park were for security reasons:

“You can’t ram the reception rooms when they’re on the first floor. The porte cochère also acts as a barrier. The central rooms on the front elevation all have metal shutters. And the front door is lined with metal. Hague went on to design the west wing of Crom Castle.” Life is more relaxed these days. A sliding sash and handily placed steps provide an exit from the kitchen into the garden. William Hague was clearly versatile. His executed design for Crom Castle (County Fermanagh) is neo Elizabethan. Hilton Park is Italianate. Many of his churches were French gothic. “The house isn’t particularly Irish looking,” reckons Johnny.

Hilton Park as it now stands is a a large three storey stone block commanding views over 240 hectares of land. The entrance front is divided into four sections: a five bay breakfront framing the three bay porte cochère; three bays on either side of the breakfront; and a single bay wing to the right. “The house isn’t as large as it first seems,” says Johnny’s wife Lucy. “It’s long and narrow.” This is apparent on the approach from the driveway which reveals the building is just three bays deep in some parts. Hilton Park looks much larger when viewed from the five bay garden front which is elongated by an ancillary wing.

The entrance door opens into a relatively small gothick hall enlivened by polychromatic encaustic floor tiles, coral walls and ribbed vaults. Most of the ground floor rooms have vaulted ceilings, a reminder they were once in the basement. The estate office and morning room are accessed off the hall. Arched double doors lead into the staircase hall which is panelled on the ground floor. The gothick theme continues in the first floor barrel vaulted dining room on the garden front. An enfilade of Italianate reception rooms is positioned across the entrance front. Stained glass windows add drama to the staircase hall; plate glass windows add light to the reception rooms.

The upper section of the staircase is lit by a tall arched Georgian window. Two blind windows in the corner guest bedroom provide balance to the entrance front. All the guest bedrooms are grouped around an upper landing and corridor to the rear of the house. The corridor ceiling slopes under the slant of the pitched roof. The section of the house closest to the driveway is used as the family wing. This article was first published in November 2012 when Hilton Park accepted paying guests for dinner, bed and breakfast. The new generation of Maddens have relaunched the house and estate as a weddings and events venue.

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Architecture Art Country Houses Design Luxury People

John O’Connell + Montalto House Ballynahinch Down

A Treatise on Georgian Architecture In Five Paragraphs 

L. V. B. R. T. P. I.

1 Montalto House Spa Ballynahinch © Stuart Blakley

The Ghosts

“Riddled!” shrieked the 5th Countess of Clanwilliam, after years were already gone since irony, when faced with the prospect of sharing her matrimonial home Gill Hall with more ghouls than an episode of Rent-a-Ghost. “Simply one damned ghost after another!” A card game later, or so the rural myth portends, the lucky Earl won neighbouring Montalto House from a gentleman surnamed Ker. “Phew!” she exclaimed, sinking into a sofa in the first floor Lady’s Sitting Room with its Robert West stuccowork of scallop shells and a brush and comb and a cockerel and fox. The only spirits ever at Montalto are the Jameson bottles rattling on drinks trolleys. Over a wee dram, it’s worth catching sight of the resident albino hare in the 10 hectare gardens on the 160 hectare estate. His son the 6th Earl, in between sewing tapestries, demolished the ballroom and a chunk of the servants’ quarters, shrinking the size of the house by a half. Under the ownership of JP Corry, a famed timber merchant, the east wing and rear apartments also had to be chopped following a calamitous fire in 1985.

2 Montalto House Spa Ballynahinch © Stuart Blakley

The Arts

Country houses form distinctive works of architecture, with appropriately furnished interiors, and considered as part of a demesne, conceived in all its complexity as a picturesque ensemble of gardens, woods and buildings, they represent what is justly described by John Harris in The Destruction of the Country House as ‘the supreme example of a collective work of art’. But whatever else a country house may symbolically constitute, it was always conceived to be decorated and furnished quite simply as a habitation, and it is that incomparable sense of home that the restitution, restoration and refurnishing of Montalto has sought to preserve for today and tomorrow. The Earl of Moira commenced construction in 1752 by which time a prosperous Irishman could have confidence that his home would remain his castle without having to look like one.

3 Montalto House Spa Ballynahinch © Stuart Blakley

4 Montalto House Spa Ballynahinch © Stuart Blakley

5 Montalto House Spa Ballynahinch © Stuart Blakley

The Orders

Ballyfin is the Montalto of the South, beloved by the Kanye–Kardashian kouple and all known cosmopolitan denizens. It is no coincidence both houses have benefitted from the hand of heritage architect John O’Connell, plucked from a slim pantheon of heroes. Nor does he spin. Ballyfin is the Morrisons’ masterpiece. John also led the restoration of Fota, another Morrison great. Both Fota and Montalto have Doric porches. He designed a Doric temple for Ballyfin. Order, order! First there were the three orders of Vitruvius’ treatises: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. Architect George Saumarez Smith, himself author of a treatise, calls Doric “solid and muscular; Ionic “graceful and light”; Corinthian “grand”. Then Renaissance men Alberti, Filarete, Palladio, Serlio and Vignola added Tuscan (a plainer Doric) and Composite (a hybrid Ionic and Corinthian). The five orders became the established canon, a sacred alphabet related to the laws of nature. Now that’s a tall order. Return to Montalto. Tall round headed windows and niches cavalierly skim the carriageway like crinoline skirts. The central shallow porch is set in a canted bay. In 1837 unlucky owner David Ker excavated the rock under the house promoting the basement to ground floor. Not without precedent, Hilton Park and Tullylagan Manor are other examples of the elevation of an elevation. Tripartite windows and more canted bays on the sides of the house overlook nature tamed as topiary taking the form of spherical shrubs and conical box hedges. The rear elevation with its generous wall to window ratio is a 20th century repair following fire and demolition. Its sparseness, bearing the greyness and eternity of a cliff, recalls Clough Williams-Ellis at Nantclwyd Hall.

6 Montalto House Spa Ballynahinch © Stuart Blakley

The Interior

A sense of order framing majestic comfort prevails indoors with eight pairs of Doric columns guarding the entrance hall, sentinels in stone. It’s flanked by the dining room and library. Straight ahead the staircase leads to the long gallery, of more than average beauty, an axis in ormolu, a spine of gilt. Trompe l’oeil and oeil de boeuf and toile de jouy abound. The interior, like beauty, is born anew every hundred years. Montalto is a sun, radiant, growing, gathering light and storing it – then after an eternity pouring it forth in a glance, the fragment of a sentence, cherishing all beauty and all illusion.

The End

7 Montalto House Spa Ballynahinch © Stuart Blakley