The Warren

Here we are walking alongside the Blackwood Golf course. If you can find a spot to see out onto the course, you might think that the varied landscape is ideal for tricky fairways. On the other hand, as a farmer a couple of hundred years ago you might have thought differently. This area of about 50 acres was once split up into fifteen small fields and would have been hard graft for any ploughman. Perhaps that is why it was turned to grazing and became known as the Sheep Walk. This is the upper Sheep Walk, the Lower Sheep Walk being the far side of the entrance to the course, running down to the corner opposite the Clandeboye dairy farm. The Lower Sheep Walk is on better land, with bigger fields, but Lord Dufferin had other plans for the Upper Sheep Walk.

In the archive there are numerous references to game management. There was a pheasant shoot on the estate, but Lord Dufferin was also keen on rabbit shooting, to the extent that in 1899 he converted the Old Deer Park, which now forms part of the Clandeboye Golf Course, near Conlig, into a rabbit warren. He even introduced 100 rabbits that were shipped over from the Netherby Estate, near Carlisle.[1] But one rabbit warren was not enough, as he had also decided to convert the Upper Sheep Walk into a second warren.[2] Rabbit numbers must have grown considerably as, by the end of the next year, a day’s shooting yielded 201 rabbits in the Deer Park and another 221 in the Warren.[3]

Since then, this area was always known as the Warren, that is, until it became the par 3 golf course, although still with its fair share of rabbits. When the fairways were laid out, special care was taken to preserve as many of the rough areas as possible to protect its varied flora.

At almost the same time that he was creating the Warren, Dufferin was also turning his attention to a water supply for Clandeboye house, and was out there looking for a site for a reservoir.[4] He also invited Colonel Sharman Crawford to see where the water was being collected to show that he was not infringing on his rights downstream in Crawfordsburn.[5] Later that year he was faced with a deputation from the inhabitants of Helen’s Bay, who also wanted water from the new reservoir.[6] Maybe this increase in demand was why a second, bigger reservoir was later built on the far side of the Crawfordsburn Road.

Today, now that all houses are supplied with good drinking water, the reservoirs have important new uses: The Warren reservoir is used for watering the greens on the golf course and the second reservoir supplies water to the dairy cows whose milk is made into Clandeboye’s famous yoghurt.

[1] PRONI D1071/H/V/1/34 (15 February 1899)

[2] PRONI D1071/H/V/1/34 (2 February 1899)

[3] PRONI D1071/H/V/1/34 (6 December 1900)

[4] PRONI D1071/H/V/1/34 (7 June 1899)

[5] PRONI D1071/H/V/1/34 (28 April 1899)

[6] PRONI D1071/H/V/1/34 (11 October 1899)