Ballywalter Park is an Italianate mansion on the County Down coast, 19 miles from Belfast, that hosts small residential conferences, lunches, dinners, product launches, client showcases and photoshoots. It has twelve bedrooms, an in-house catering team and a 270-acre demesne.
Seminars and company events
The house presents itself as a venue for corporate events, from small residential conferences to lunches and dinners, product launches and showcase events for potential clients. Because the house has twelve bedrooms, a group can meet and stay under one roof. The owners quote any event on an all-inclusive basis that covers everything, including wines and other drinks. The site names no guest capacity, so group size should be given in the enquiry. The house has welcomed corporate clients from several sectors over the years.
Rooms and capacities
The history page describes the main rooms of the house: a Library and a Drawing Room in a single-storey south bow wing, a Garden Room in a two-storey north bow wing, and a domed Conservatory linked to the house by the Billiard Room. The site does not say which of these are used for conferences or dinners, so organisers should ask for the rooms available to their format and the layouts possible in each.
Accommodation
The house has twelve bedrooms: two twins en suite and ten doubles, of which eight are en suite and two each have their own private bathroom. A residential conference can therefore keep a team on site overnight, with the sleeping arrangement agreed with the owners.
Catering
All catering is done by the in-house team. The policy is to quote each event all-inclusive, with wines and other drinks included.
History and setting
Ballywalter Park is the home of Lord and Lady Dunleath and has been in the family for 170 years. Andrew Mulholland bought an 18th-century house on the site in 1846 and brought in the architect Sir Charles Lanyon, who built around it in the Italianate Palazzo style. The house has Grade A* listing. It sits in 30 acres of pleasure grounds inside a walled demesne of 270 acres, within an estate of more than 1,100 acres. A private pedestrian tunnel under the coast road leads to a one-mile beach on the Irish Sea. The estate says its electricity, heating and hot water come from an anaerobic digester on the farm, making the house carbon neutral.
Getting there
Ballywalter Park stands on the Ards peninsula, 19 miles from Belfast city centre. The site gives 35 minutes by car from the City airport and under an hour from the international airport.
