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Subject: [DNA-R1B1C7] The Chichesters (also known as the Donegalls) wereEnglish-based in 1870
Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2008 09:49:42 EST

Belfast Castle
The Chichesters (also known as the Donegalls) were the English-based absentee
landlords of most of Belfast. However, they came to live in the Ormeau area
at the beginning of the 19th Century. When he remarried in 1862 the 3rd
Marquis of Donegall decided to build a new house within the deer park on Cave
Hill. He employed the architecture firm of Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon to design a
Scottish Baronial style home, similar in style to the newly rebuilt Balmoral
Castle. The magnificent sandstone building that was completed in 1870 still
stands proud on the slopes overlooking Belfast today.
The costs of the building greatly exceeded the estimate and the Donegall
family fortune was nearly exhausted in the process. The project was nearly left
uncompleted until the Marquis' son-in-law Lord Ashley, who was heir to the 7th
Earl of Shaftesbury, stepped in to pay the remainder of the costs. In 1884
the Marquis died followed the next year by Shaftesbury, so Ashley inherited
his title and along with his wife Harriet Augusta the Donegall family home.
These two families are remembered in a number of street names in the City
Centre.
The Donegall family coat of arms is prominent over the front door of the
castle as well as on the north wall. An unusual feature, which appears on the
exterior staircase, is a section of the Shaftesbury coat of arms; the staircase
was not part of the original design but was grafted on to the building in
1894. It is in an Italian serpentine style connecting the reception rooms to the
garden terrace. Since the castles started hosting wedding receptions it has
become a very familiar feature of Belfast. The family gifted the house and
estate to the city council in 1934 and it has been a location for weddings,
dances and afternoon tea since the end of the Second World War. It underwent
major refurbishment in the 1980s costing over £2 million before being reopened
in 1988.



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