Clandeboye Avenue, Helen's Bay (1) - geograph

The Clandeboye Estate is a

country estate An estate is a large parcel of land under single ownership, which would historically generate income for its owner. British context In the UK, historically an estate comprises the houses, outbuildings, supporting farmland, and woods that s ...

in Bangor,

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, outside

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

. Covering , it contains

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

s, formal and walled gardens, lawns, a lake, and of farmland. Named after the former

Gaelic Gaelic is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". As a noun it refers to the group of languages spoken by the Gaels, or to any one of the languages individually. Gaelic languages are spoken in Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Man, and Ca ...

territory of

Clandeboye Clandeboye or Clannaboy (from Irish language, Irish ''Clann Aodha Buí'', "family of Hugh the Blond") was a kingdom of Gaelic Ireland, comprising what is now south County Antrim, north County Down, and the barony of Loughinsholin, Northern Irelan ...

, the estate was the home of

Lindy, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava Serena Belinda Rosemary Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava (''née'' Guinness; 25 March 1941 – 26 October 2020), also known as Lindy Guinness, was a British artist, conservationist and businesswoman. She was married to ...

, widow of the last Marquess (the title being extinct), until her death in October 2020.

History

The estate, first settled in 1674, was originally named Ballyleidy, after the

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic origi ...

in which it lay. The current Clandeboye House was built in 1801–1804 to a design by Robert Woodgate that incorporated elements of the previous building and was built for the politician Sir James Blackwood, 2nd Baron Dufferin and Clandeboye. It was named after the former

Gaelic Irish The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na Gàidheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languag ...

territory of

, which covered swathes of north County Down and south County Antrim. In memory of his mother, Helen, Lady Dufferin (granddaughter of the playwright

Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Brinsley Butler Sheridan (30 October 17517 July 1816) was an Irish satirist, a politician, a playwright, poet, and long-term owner of the London Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He is known for his plays such as ''The Rivals'', ''The Sc ...

), Lord Dufferin and Ava built the stone edifice

Helen's Tower Helen's Tower is a 19th-century folly and lookout tower near Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. It was built by the 5th Lord Dufferin and Claneboye and named for his mother, Helen. He intended it as a shrine for poems, first of all a poem b ...

on the estate, which has since been immortalised by

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

in the poem of the same name. The tower has taken on an unforeseen poignancy, as an almost exact replica of it, the

Ulster Tower The Ulster Tower, located in Thiepval, France, is Northern Ireland's National War Memorial. It was one of the first memorials to be erected on the Western Front and commemorates the men of the British 36th (Ulster) Division, 36th (Ulster) Divisi ...

, was built at

Thiepval Thiepval (; pcd, Tièbvo) is a commune in the Somme department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. Thiepval is located north of Albert at the crossroads of the D73 and D151 and approximately northeast of Amiens. Population First World ...

to honour the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division who fell at the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

. The estate was used for army training during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and the 36th (Ulster) Division trained beside Helen's Tower before leaving for France. The tower can be reached via the

Ulster Way The Ulster Way is a series of walking routes which encircles Northern Ireland. It was founded in the 1970s by Wilfrid Merydith Capper, who was inspired by Tom Stephenson's Pennine Way. The route was relaunched in 2009 by the Department of the ...

, a five-mile (8 km) section of which traverses the estate. The parklands familiar to visitors today were originally laid out by the 1st Marquess, who was also responsible for the addition of the banqueting hall to the house in 1898.

Flora and fauna

As a result of the work of the 1st Marquess, Clandeboye is home to the largest area of broad-leaved

in Northern Ireland, consisting mostly of

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...

, and

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

. The estate is also home to a large variety of animal species; those recorded as present on the estate include the

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

red kite The red kite (''Milvus milvus'') is a medium-large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae, which also includes many other diurnal raptors such as eagles, buzzards, and harriers. The species currently breeds in the Western Palearctic region o ...

tree sparrow The Eurasian tree sparrow (''Passer montanus'') is a passerine bird in the sparrow family with a rich chestnut crown and nape, and a black patch on each pure white cheek. The sexes are similarly plumaged, and young birds are a duller version o ...

barn owl The barn owl (''Tyto alba'') is the most widely distributed species of owl in the world and one of the most widespread of all species of birds, being found almost everywhere except for the polar and desert regions, Asia north of the Himalaya ...

, yellowhammer,

song thrush The song thrush (''Turdus philomelos'') is a Thrush (bird), thrush that breeds across the West Palearctic. It has brown upper-parts and black-spotted cream or buff underparts and has three recognised subspecies. Its distinctive Birdsong, song, ...

pipistrelle bat ''Pipistrellus'' is a genus of bats in the family Vespertilionidae and subfamily Vespertilioninae. The name of the genus is derived from the Italian word , meaning "bat" (from Latin "bird of evening, bat"). The size of the genus has been consi ...

red squirrel The red squirrel (''Sciurus vulgaris'') is a species of tree squirrel in the genus ''Sciurus'' common throughout Europe and Asia. The red squirrel is an arboreal, primarily herbivorous rodent. In Great Britain, Ireland, and in Italy numbers ...

fallow deer ''Dama'' is a genus of deer in the subfamily Cervinae, commonly referred to as fallow deer. Name The name fallow is derived from the deer's pale brown colour. The Latin word ''dāma'' or ''damma'', used for roe deer, gazelles, and antelopes, ...

, common newt,

marsh fritillary The marsh fritillary (''Euphydryas aurinia'') is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. Commonly distributed in the Palearctic region, the marsh fritillary's common name derives from one of its several habitats, marshland. The prolonged larval s ...

, and the wall brown butterfly. The estate is home to the Conservation Volunteers Northern Ireland.

Publication

The 2011 BBC television series ''

The Country House Revealed ''The Country House Revealed'' is a six-part BBC series first aired on BBC Two in May 2011, in which British architectural historian Dan Cruickshank visits six houses never before open to public view, and examines the lives of the families who li ...

'' was accompanied by a full length illustrated companion book, which featured Clandeboye Estate as a dedicated chapter appearing as Chapter Five of the book edition. The six chapters of the book correspond to the six episodes of the BBC series. The estate is also the inspiration for Dunmartin Hall in the 1977 novel ''Great Granny Webster'' by Caroline Blackwood, who lived at the hall as a child.

Commercial activities

Like many estates, Clandeboye has had to find ways of generating income in order to help with the running costs of the estate. Commercial activities undertaken include: * Accommodation rental * Clandeboye,

Helen's Bay Helen's Bay is a village on the northern coast of County Down, Northern Ireland. It is within the townland of Ballygrot (), between Holywood, Crawfordsburn and Bangor. It is served by a railway station and had a population of 1,390 in the 201 ...

and Blackwood golf courses * Conferences * Corporate events * Dairy cattle * Garden mulch * Pottery * Sawmill providing firewood and Christmas trees * ''Shanks'' restaurant, formerly run by

Robbie Millar Robbie Millar (26 April 1967 – 13 August 2005) was a head chef and restaurateur from Ballycarry in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Millar started his career at restaurants in Corfu, Zurich and London before returning to Northern Ireland to ...

* Wedding receptions * A rapidly growing yogurt production company "Clandeboye Estate Yogurt" run by Bryan Boggs

References

External links