Ballymoyer House

The newer building was constructed in 1778 for Sir Walter Synnot of a well-to-do family of linen merchants who had leased the land from the See of Armagh. He and his son Marcus improved the landscape to the extent that it was described in the Parliamentary Gazetter of 1844 in the following terms: "The mansion built by Sir Walter Synnot and the demesne attached to it is laid out and planted in a tasteful style. Three mountain streams after debouching from the glens of their upper course, unite in the lawn and form a scene both beautiful and romantic". By 1838, the family had bought the land. Sir Walter was High Sheriff of Armagh for 1783 and married Jane Seton. Marcus was High Sheriff in…

The house was a classical 7-bay three-storey building with a stucco facade and a colonnaded porch which had been linked by corridors to a previous building. The older part housed a library, the smaller bedrooms and servants' quarters and the newer part (a much taller three-storey block) the main bedrooms, drawing room and dining room with a balustraded roof parapet.