Springhill House
| Springhill House | |
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| General information | |
| Type | House |
| Location | Moneymore, County Londonderry |
| Coordinates | 54°41′10″N 6°39′22″W / 54.686°N 6.656°WCoordinates: 54°41′10″N 6°39′22″W / 54.686°N 6.656°W |
| Construction started | c.1680–1689 with notable extensions c.1765 and c.1820 |
| Governing body | National Trust |
Springhill is a 17th-century plantation house in the townland of Ballindrum near Moneymore, County Londonderry in Northern Ireland. It has been the property of the National Trust since 1957 and, in addition to the house, gardens and park, there is a costume collection and a purported ghost. It is open from March to June, and September on weekends, and is open to the public seven days a week during July and August.
This 17th-century unfortified house was built about 1680 and was originally surrounded by a defensive bawn. Around 1765 two single-storey wings were added and the entrance front was modified to its present arrangement of seven windows across its width.
The Conyngham family had come from Ayrshire in Scotland in about 1611, possibly from Glengarnock and the first of the family in Ulster was said to have been one of the family of the Earls of Glencairn. Alexander Conyngham, Dean of Raphoe, ancestor of the later Marquesses Conyngham, was probably a near relative - his son Sir Albert Conyngham's portrait is at Springhill and not Slane Castle. They were granted lands under James I's Plantation of Ulster in County Armagh. They purchased the Springhill estate in around 1630. It is believed that some form of farm dwelling was constructed on the estate at this time (probably on the site of the present carpark) but this was almost certainly destroyed during the Irish Rebellion of 1641.
The first of the family to have owned Springhill. He was a Colonel in the Civil War and one of Cromwell's Commissioners for Co. Armagh and held land at Drumcrow in the County and property in the town of Armagh itself. He was granted new title deeds by Cromwell in 1652, 'the old ones having been destroyed in the recent wars'. He died in 1666, when High Sheriff of County Londonderry. In 1676 his widow lived in a house on the north side of Armagh with a garden and a little parke called Garreturne.
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