Ballywillwill House

RICHARD McDOWELL-JOHNSTON, son of William Johnston, of Netherlaw Park, Kirkcudbright, (whose sister married Captain, subsequently Colonel, James McDowell, son of Colonel John McDowell, and Janet Ross, his wife, sister of the Countess of Stair), assumed the surname and arms of McDOWELL, in compliance with the will of his uncle, Colonel James McDowell, who bequeathed him the estates of Gillespie and Craignarget, Galloway, Dumfriesshire.

He married Jane Crooks, and had two sons,

WILLIAM, his heir;

Henry, died young.

Mr McDowell-Johnston died in 1772, and was succeeded by his son,

WILLLIAM McDOWELL-JOHNSTON, of Ballywillwill, who wedded, in 1768, Rebecca, daughter of the REV GEORGE VAUGHAN, Rector of Dromore, County Down (whose father, John Vaughan, and grandfather, George Vaughan, had been Rectors of the same place).

Mr McDowell-Johnston died in 1784, leaving a son and heir,

THE REV GEORGE HENRY McDOWELL-JOHNSTON JP, of Ballywillwill, County Down, Vicar of Donegore and Kilbride, 1814-64, who married, in 1811, the Lady Anna Maria Annesley, second daughter of Richard, 2nd Earl Annesley, which lady dsp 1835. 

Ballywillwill House (Image: UAHS)

BALLYWILLWILL HOUSE, near Castlewellan, County Down, is an elegant two-storey, five-bay house, built ca 1815, by the Rev George McDowell-Johnston.

The central upper storey and outer bays have Wyatt windows.

Ballywillwill House: Portico (Image: UAHS)

Ballywillwill has an exceptionally long portico with ten Ionic columns, urns, and a large prostrate lion on its entablature (a lion is a supporter on several Johnston coats-of-arms).

Ballywillwill House (Image: Stuart Blakley: Lavender's Blue)

Four columns in the centre protrude slightly.

Extract from UAHS Publication. Click to Enlarge.

Ballywillwill House features in the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's publication Historic Buildings in the Mourne Area of South Down, written by the late Peter Rankin in 1975.