marketing in Great Britain for Irish
Distillers and oversaw such
marketing successes as the launch
of Bushmills Malt on the GB market
in 1984.
When Brian returned to live in
Northern Ireland in 1991, he lived
at Belle Isle Estate in County
Fermanagh, where he acted as the
estate manager for the Duke of
Abercorn. It was Brian who was
responsible for the first phase of the
restoration of the house there and
the development of tourism
accommodation, which has proven
to be so successful for that estate.
When he came to live in
Ballywalter in 1997, therefore, Brian
Dunleath (as he became known
when he inherited his title) had
already established a solid set of
credentials for the work in hand on
his own estate.
 Preserving the past
That Ballywalter House
represents a past worth preserving
is unquestionable. Readers of
Country Sports and Country Life,
of course, do not need to be
persuaded of that fact. In case there
is a doubting Thomas in our midst,
however, let us state clearly from
the first that, quite apart from all
the 'bygone age' and 'sporting
heritage' arguments, Ballywalter
House is of exceptional
architectural importance.
The house has been described as
"... a classic example of an early
Victorian country house" and of a
type of architecture that was
particularly popular at that time,
the palazzo style. In the 1840's,
when the current house was built
on the estate, the palazzo style was
the modernist approach to
architecture, reflecting the rise of
 industrial wealth and deriving from
the architecture originally
developed to serve the mercantile
princes of 15th and 16th century
Italy.

Classical yet distinct
Among the great houses of
Ulster, the architecture of
Ballywalter exhibits certain formal
differences from the style of its
predecessors. Its facades are
classical yet distinct. Ballywalter
has no great portico, with columns
that scale the front, no central
pediment, and its architecture is
formed in the modern 19th century
materials of stucco and composition
cement.
Two projecting wings mark the
entrance front, with large tripartite
windows framed by rich Corinthian
columns and pediments above. Its
centre is distinguished by a Doric
 		 
 
Countrysports and Country Life Summer 2002
<< Previous