The Reverend John Moore acquired the property over successive years, and he named these combined lands near Saintfield Rowallane after his ancestral family home in Scotland.
During his time he set about removing stone walls that designated the old farmsteads in order to farm and cultivate the land. The grounds to the west of the house were laid out as open areas for the Pleasure Grounds, while those to the south and east continued to be farmed. He also started the garden’s core design and architectural features, improving the modest farmhouse, constructing a walled garden and adding the stable yard.
The Reverend Moore died in 1903 leaving the property to his Nephew Hugh Armytage Moore, who was responsible for creating the garden as we know today.
In 1955 the National Trust took over the running of his Garden, which is still maintained as much as they were in Armytage Moore’s time and officially opened to the public in 1956. In this 60th year Rowallane continues to let land to tenant farmers and this summer to celebrate the National Trust’s Diamond year at Rowallane we are working with our farmer Andrew who locally rears Dexter Cattle and is supplying us with Sausages and Burgers for our Sizzling Summer BBQ.
Northern Ireland’s Year of Food and Drink 2016 is a celebration of everything delicious so come and kick back with us on Sunday 28 August from 12-4pm and enjoy music from Duet de Ville whilst sampling our field to fork Dexter meet from the BBQ, as part of the August Love NI Meet month.
For further details, please contact Rowallane Garden on 028 9751 0131 and keep up to date with what’s happening at:
