On a summer’s day, Kilbroney Park can seem simply a place of lawns, woodland walks and family outings. Yet behind one of Rostrevor’s best-loved attractions lies a rich and surprising story stretching back more than three centuries. Though the park as we know it was created in the 1970s, the estate on which it stands has been shaped since the 1700s by remarkable owners, distinguished visitors and dramatic events.
Robert Ross came to Rostrevor and bought the lands that would become the estate in 1700. By 1716, he had constructed the Lodge in the Meadow area of the estate. Although it was likely intended as a hunting lodge, it was later developed into a larger stately home. Ross is also believed to have planted many of the park’s non-native trees during the family’s 150 years of ownership, including the famous Holm Oak. His descendant, Major General Robert Ross, would capture Washington during the War of 1812, burning the Capitol’s government buildings, including the White House, in 1814.
The estate was then bought by James Roxburgh in 1850. The son of the celebrated Scottish surgeon and botanist William Roxburgh, James had served as an officer in the East India Company’s army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. The Old Roxboro House Hotel and Roxborough Place in Rostrevor were later named after him.
In 1863, the estate was purchased from Colonel Roxburgh by A.S.G. Canning, second son of George, 1st Baron Garvagh. A Justice of the Peace, Canning also became a prolific writer on history, religion and Irish politics, as well as literary criticism and fiction. The Spectator would memorably describe him as “an incurable bookmaker of the most terrible sort”. During his time at the estate, he built and owned the pier on Shore Road, held mineral rights to the quarry at the edge of the Oak Forest, and added a small private zoo, an aviary and the arboretum that now houses the park’s Narnia Trail.
A bachelor with no children, Canning left the estate to the Lyon family on his death in 1916. Marianne Lyon inherited the property in 1934 and, in 1937, her second cousin Queen Elizabeth, wife of King George VI, stayed at the Lodge with her two daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.
In 1938, a dispute over access to Fairy Glenn, the public walkway beside the estate, led to court hearings between the Lyon family and local residents. The protest and legal battle attracted significant media attention as members of Rostrevor Women’s Institute campaigned to reopen the walkway and famously broke the chains on the gates.
In 1977, Newry and Mourne Council bought the estate grounds with plans to transform them into a public space, and the site was christened Kilbroney Park in 1978. The Lodge was demolished in 1980, and work on the park’s caravan section began in 1983. Two years later, in 1985, the park hosted the first Kilbroney Vintage Car Show, organised by Newry Lions Club, now recognised as Europe’s largest outdoor vintage car rally.
The estate and park have also welcomed a remarkable roll call of literary visitors. William Makepeace Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair, visited as a guest of Roxburgh and wrote: “Were such a bay lying upon English shores, it would be a world’s wonder.” Charles Dickens, a friend of Canning, is also believed to have visited, while C.S. Lewis famously wrote: “That part of Rostrevor which overlooks Carlingford Lough is my idea of Narnia.” Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney, too, visited the estate and park during his lifetime.
Among the most unusual chapters in the estate’s story came during the 1940s. In the Second World War, a military encampment for American and Belgian troops was established there, with Generals Eisenhower and Patton among those who visited the stationed forces. After the Normandy invasion, the camp was used to house German prisoners of war and during the heatwave of 2018, the dried earth revealed the outlines of the Nissen huts that had once formed part of the camp.
Today, visitors come to Kilbroney Park for its beauty, recreation and family traditions, often unaware of the extraordinary past beneath their feet. From stately home to wartime camp, from royal guests to literary admirers, its story is woven deeply into the history of Rostrevor
