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Ardress, County ArmaghThe house assumed its present appearance after a series of additions between 1790 and 1810, some of which were evidently made by the author George Ensor (1772-1845) soon after he inherited Ardress from his father in 1803. Two bays of windows were added to each end of the front facade in order to impress - an exercise that involved constructing no less than five dummy windows and a partly false front hut which allowed the formation of an elegant garden front with curved sweeps at right angles to the main façade. New wings were added to the north and east sides, the latter containing the dining-room which curiously was linked to the drawing-room by a colonnade along the garden front and was later removed in 1879.The room was restored in 1961 and now contains some exceptional furniture, most strikingly a heavily carved grotesque Irish Chippendale side-table and a pair of commodes made in 1759 by Pierre Langlois. Here hangs a fine collection of paintings from Stuart Hall near Stewartstown and now on permanent loan to the National Trust. They include a group of 'Four Seasons' by Theobald Michau, 'The Road to Calvary' by Frans Francken the younger and 'Christ on the Road to Emmaus' signed by J. Myts (1645-64).
Ardress was inherited in 1845 by the third George Ensor who died unmarried in 1879. The property then passed to his nephew Charles Ensor, and later to Charles's son Captain Charles H. Ensor who sold Ardress to the National Trust in 1960. In addition to upgrading the house, the Trust have restored the mainly eighteenth-century farmyard where visitors can inspect a milking shed, dairy, boiler house, forge and threshing barn. There is also an interesting display of old farm implements.
Located 7 miles from Portadown on the Moy Road (B28). NGR: H 914559. < < < Read the first part of this article From the Appletree Press title: Irish Country Houses.
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