Ballymena Castle

From a postcard of the early 20th Century.

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Ballymena is a village in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The Adairs were active in helping Scotch settlers settle the "Ulster Plantation" in Northern Ireland. In the 1600s Sir Robert Adair (d. 1655) built Ballymena Castle as a centre for their Irish estates. But a great portion of the Adair Family continued at their main residence in Kilhilt Tower in Wigtownshire, Scotland. For time Ballymena was renamed "Kinhiltshire".

Overview

The town of Ballymena is built on land given to the Adair family by King Charles I in 1626, with a right to hold two annual fairs and a free Saturday market in perpetuity. They in turn built Ballymena Castle. As of 2018, the Saturday market still runs. Ballymena is a shopping hub within Northern Ireland, and is home to Ballymena United F.C.

Ballymena incorporates an area of 632 square kilometres (244 square miles) and includes large villages such as Cullybackey, Galgorm, Ahoghill and Broughshane. It had a population of 29,551 people at the 2011 Census, making it the eighth largest town in Northern Ireland by population.

Estate Inheritance

Sir William Adair (d. c.1500) was granted the Kinhilt (also known as Kilhilt) estate on the Galloway peninsula in Wigtownshire, and his son Alexander, who was killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, built the Castle of St. John at Stranraer in about 1510, as an administrative centre for the estate. Kinhilt itself was near Lochans, just south of Stranraer; the last remains of it were removed in 1933.

Alexander’s grandson, William Adair (d. 1593) also rebuilt the stronghold of Dunskey Castle, set on a clifftop promontory jutting into the Irish sea near Portpatrick. William Adair (d. 1626), son of Ninian Adair (d. c.1608), got heavily into debt, and in 1620 agreed an exchange with Hugh Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery, one of the undertakers of the Plantation of Ulster, whereby some of the Adair lands at Kinhilt, including Dunskey Castle, were exchanged for newly-settled lands at Ballymena in Co. Antrim.

The Adairs came from County Antrim in the 1600s and for a time (1640-1736) maintained estates in both Ballymena and Kilhilt, but the main family became increasingly based in Ireland. Ballymena Castle built circa 1640, became a centre for the Irish estates of Adair, and thereafter the family was increasingly based in northern Ireland, although the remainder of the Kinhilt estate (Scotland) was retained until 1736, when it was sold to the 2nd Earl of Stair by Col. Sir Robert Adair (1659-1745).

Tower History

His son, Sir Robert Adair (d. 1655) built Ballymena Castle as a centre for the Irish estates, and thereafter the family was increasingly based in northern Ireland, although the remainder of the Kinhilt estate was retained until 1736, when it was sold to the 2nd Earl of Stair by Col. Sir Robert Adair (1659-1745), who raised a regiment of foot for King William III and was knighted at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. In 1740 the original Ballymena Castle was burned down.

In 1753, William Adair (1700-83), a great-great-grandson of Ninian Adair of Kinhilt (d. c.1608), who had made a fortune as an Army agent, purchased the Flixton Hall estate in Suffolk from the heirs of the last of the Tasburgh family (q.v.). At his death he bequeathed Flixton to his nephew Alexander Adair (1743-1834), who followed him into business as an army agent, in preference to his natural son or his daughter Jane, the wife of Edward Brice. Alexander died without issue, and bequeathed Flixton his distant kinsman, (Hugh) William Adair of Ballymena (1754-1844), who had married the daughter and heir of Robert Shafto of Benwell Tower in Northumberland. Hugh had purchased Heatherton Park (Somerset) in 1807 and Colehayes Park (aka Colehouse) (Devon) – which he rebuilt – in 1825, and sold Benwell Tower after his wife’s death in 1827. Heatherton and Colehouse were bequeathed to his younger son, Alexander (see Adair of Heatherton Park), while the Flixton and Ballymena estates were settled on the elder, Sir Robert Shafto Adair, 1st baronet. In 1846, the Jacobean house of the Tasburghs at Flixton was severely damaged by fire, and Sir Robert employed Anthony Salvin to carry out a reconstruction. The house at Ballymena was let at this period, being occupied in 1837 by P. Cannon esq. Sir Robert also bought Wingfield Castle in Suffolk, then little more than a farm, which remained in the family until the 1980s but was let and restored in the 1940s.

Sir Robert’s son and heir, Robert Alexander Shafto Adair (later 2nd bt. and 1st and only Baron Waveney) was established on the Ballymena estate in his father’s lifetime. From 1865 onwards, he employed the famous Belfast architects, Lanyon & Lynn, to rebuild Ballymena Castle in the Scots baronial style, and it became his main residence. Flixton was the home of his younger brother, Hugh Edward Adair (1815-1902), who inherited the baronetcy but not the peerage at his brother’s death. He remodelled and extended Flixton Hall in 1888-92 to the design of F.B. Wade. His son, Sir Frederick Edward Shafto Adair (1860-1915), 4th bt., sold most of the Ballymena estate to the tenants in 1904, and lived principally at Adair Lodge, Aldeburgh (Suffolk), an 18th century house enlarged in 1823 and remodelled for Adair in the late 19th century. His brother, Sir Shafto Adair (1862-1949), 5th bt., who was a London barrister with literary and musical interests, lived principally at Flixton, but the house there deteriorated during the Second World War, and when his son Maj-Gen. Sir Allan Adair (1897-1988) inherited, he sold the contents and the house in 1950, and it was pulled down shortly afterwards.

Ballymena Castle was little used in the 20th century. The house was still standing in 1953 but was subject to vandalism and arson and was sold and demolished in 1957. Sir Allan served as Lieutenant of HM Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard from 1951-67 and lived at Anmer Hall on the Sandringham estate and after his retirement at Harleston and Raveningham (Norfolk). His only son having been killed in action in 1943, the line of the Adairs of Flixton and Ballymena ended with him; the chieftainship of the Adair Clan passed to his second cousin, Dr. Allan Adair (1907-2008), whose achievement of a centenary highlights the notable longevity of many members of the family from the 17th century onwards.

Final Years

In 1865 Adair began the construction in the demesne of Ballymena Castle, a substantial family residence in the Scottish baronial style. The castle was not completed until 1887, and was demolished in 1957 after having lain empty for some years and being vandalised; the site is now a car park, where said Saturday market is held (as required by the town charter - see above). In 1870, Adair donated The People's Park to Ballymena, engaging fifty labourers to work for six months landscaping it.

The People's Park

The People's Park is set in the heart of Ballymena. The mature setting was donated to the town by Sir Robert Alexander Shafto Adair, 2nd Baronet Adair in 1870 and extends for 45-acres around a lake. It has a children's playground, toddler area, floodlit tennis courts, bowling green and picnic areas. As well as this it has an information desk, vending machines, toilets and duck seed for feeding the park's ducks.

Kilhilt Tower

Kilhilt was the name of the Adair Family castle / manor home that stood in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries in the village of Portpatrick, County of Wigtownshire, Scotland. Nothing remains of the site today. Portpatrick sits on the southwest cost of Scotland and on a clear day you can see Ireland only 21 miles west. In the 17th century, much of the Adair Family moved to County Antrim in Ireland as part of the Ulster Plantation.

• See Also Kilhilt Castle - Stravaiging.com

Estate Owners

1. William Adair (1565-1626) - awarded estate for service to the King of England.
2. Sir Robert Adair (d. 1655) - builder of Ballymena Castle,
3. William Adair (1624-1661) -
4. Sir Colonel Robert Adair (1659-1745) - Knighted for bravery by King William III at the 1690 Battle of the Boynes.

References

• Adair of Ballymena Castle - Landed Families Blog.
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See Also

• Adair Family
• Adair Family Ancestry
• Adair in County Antrim
• Adair in Wigtownshire
• The People's Park - Wikipedia
• Ballymena People's Park - Official Website
• Ballymena (village) - Wikipedia