Clandeboye is a private estate near Bangor in County Down, settled in 1674 as Ballyleidy and still owned by the family that made it. To see Helen’s Tower from outside, follow the Clandeboye Way through Clandeboye Forest. For the estate gardens, arrange a tour in advance. The current house was built in 1801–04 to a design by Robert Woodgate, who worked the core of an earlier building into it, for Sir James Blackwood, 2nd Baron Dufferin and Clandeboye. The estate later took its name from the old Gaelic territory of Clann Aodha Buidhe, ‘the family of Hugh the Blonde’. Its woodland, oak, birch and beech, is part of Clandeboye Forest.
Helen’s Tower and the Somme
Frederick Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 1st Marquess of Dufferin and Ava (1826–1902), a Victorian diplomat who went on to govern both Canada and India, commissioned the Scottish architect William Burn to design Helen’s Tower in the 1850s in honour of his mother, Helen, Lady Dufferin. She was a songwriter and poet and a granddaughter of the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The tower is in the Scottish Baronial style. The interior has poems by writers including Tennyson and Browning. Tennyson’s opens:
Helen’s Tower, here I stand, Dominant over sea and land. Son’s love built me, and I hold Mother’s love in letter’d gold.
Sixty years on, the tower took on a second meaning. The 36th (Ulster) Division trained at Clandeboye before deployment to France, and the tower was a familiar landmark to the men before they left for the Western Front. After the Battle of the Somme, the Ulster Tower at Thiepval, modelled on Helen’s Tower, was raised in France and dedicated on 19 November 1921. It commemorates the men of the division who died in the First World War. Plan to see the original tower from the path.
The woods and gardens
The 1st Marquess laid out the parklands in the nineteenth century and added the house’s banqueting hall in 1898. The woodland gardens were planted with rhododendrons, which take to this mild, damp corner of Down. The estate gardens are not generally open: see the section on garden tours below.
The estate is a working farm. It makes its own Clandeboye yoghurt from the dairy herd. Lady Dufferin, Lindy, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, an artist who lived here until her death in October 2020, brought the Conservation Volunteers’ Northern Ireland base onto the estate in 1975.
Walking the estate
OutmoreNI’s route guide describes a 6.5-mile linear walk from Helen’s Bay to Whitespots Country Park, passing Helen’s Tower. The Clandeboye Way is part of the long-distance Ulster Way. The full route crosses the busy Bangor–Belfast dual carriageway, so time it and cross with care. For a shorter visit that avoids that crossing, use the Forest Service directions to Clandeboye Forest and check local signs for woodland operations or temporary restrictions.
Visiting the gardens
The estate offers advance-booked garden tours for groups of up to 25, led by the head gardener. Ask the estate about dates, prices and parking when you enquire. Crawfordsburn Country Park on the coast is a short drive away. The estate also hosts the Clandeboye Festival, a classical music festival; check the estate’s website for current dates.