Kilbroney Lodge

THE HON ALBERT STRATFORD GEORGE CANNING OWNED 4,928 ACRES IN COUNTY DOWN

THE demesne at Kilbroney, Rostrevor, County Down, has had a number of owners since the lands were acquired by Robert Ross, who built a lodge on the lower slopes of the ancient Rostrevor oak wood in 1716.

As its name implies, it may originally have been erected as a hunting lodge.

The Lodge passed to Major David Ross, father of Major-General Robert Ross-of-Bladensburg (1766-1814).

Image: RARE ~ Rostrevor Action Respecting the Environment 

The Rosses sold the Lodge and surrounding demesne in 1850 to Lieutenant-Colonel James Roxburgh (1802-84), East India Company, who had another address at Kensington in London.

Colonel Roxburgh’s father was the eminent Scottish surgeon and botanist William Roxburgh.

Colonel Roxburgh owned the Lodge for about four years, when he sold it to the Hon Albert Stratford George Canning (1832-1916), second son of George, 1st Baron Garvagh.

Albert Stratford George Canning (image: National Portrait Gallery)

Canning created a zoo and aviary within the demesne, in addition to an arboretum which was planted around the Lodge.

The Lodge was sold in 1919 to the Lyon family, of whom Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Lee Hopkinson Lyon (1833-1906), son of James Wittit Lyon, a banker and solicitor (Lyon, Barnes, and Ellis), of Miserden Park, Gloucestershire.

Colonel Lyon's son, Alick William Wittit Lyon (1879-1934) owned the Lodge until his death in 1934, when it passed to his sister, Miss Marianne (May) Constance Emmeline Lyon (1877-1962).

According to an article by Rosemary Archer in the Crabbet website Colonel Lyon established the Harwood Stud in 1896, and some of the horses were later kept at their property in Rostrevor.

The Lodge, Kilbroney (Image: Lawrence Collection/NLI)

Captain Arthur Charles Nugent, High Sheriff of County Down in 1930, gave his address as The Lodge, so perhaps the Lyons leased or rented the property at that time.

In 1967 the Lodge operated as a guest-house: Ron Duffy on Facebook stayed there when it was run by Mrs Morgan and her six daughters. 

The Lyon family sold the property to the local council in 1977; and the Lodge was demolished in 1980.

The Lodge was situated on a rise overlooking the lower meadow.

The Lodge, Kilbroney, Rostrevor ca 1834 (Historic OS map); Click to enlarge

The Northern Ireland Register of Parks, Gardens, and Demesne of Special Historic Interest remarks that the parkland surrounding the Lodge had two avenue approaches leading to the Lodge, one from the village of Rostrevor, and the other from the south at the Quay opposite May Cottage, the former Steward's House; both had Victorian gate lodges (demolished in the 1970s).

The May Cottage lodge was almost beside the Great Northern Hotel.

A modern visitor centre was built considerably higher up the slope.