About
Springhill is one of the most charming and well-preserved plantation-era manor houses in Ireland, set in attractive wooded grounds in County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. Built in the 1680s and 1690s by the Conyngham family — settlers who came to Ulster as part of the seventeenth-century Plantation of Ulster — the house is a rare and evocative example of a planter's house from this formative period of Irish history.
The property remained in the hands of the Conyngham family (later the Lennox-Conyngham family) for nearly three centuries, accumulating over that long span of family occupation an extraordinary collection of furniture, portraits, personal objects, books, and domestic items that together create a vivid picture of gentry life in Ulster from the late seventeenth century to the twentieth. Unlike many great country houses, Springhill was never extensively remodelled or refurnished in a single grand gesture; instead it grew organically, layer upon layer, retaining the character of a genuinely lived-in family home.
The house's greatest claim to national and international distinction is its exceptional collection of historic costume — one of the finest such collections in Ireland. Accumulated by the family over several generations, the collection encompasses eighteenth and nineteenth century dresses, coats, waistcoats, accessories, and children's clothing of remarkable quality and variety, providing an invaluable record of changing fashions and material culture across two centuries.
The outbuildings, which include a laundry and a gun room, are themselves of considerable interest, offering a glimpse into the working life that supported the household. The surrounding gardens and woodland walks add greatly to the pleasure of a visit.
Springhill is cared for by the National Trust and is open to the public seasonally. The property is steeped in local legend: the ghost of Olivia Lennox-Conyngham, who according to tradition took her own life here in the eighteenth century, is said to still haunt the house — a story that adds a suitably atmospheric dimension to a visit.
Categories:
Highlights
Historic Costume Collection
Springhill's costume collection is one of the finest in Ireland and represents the house's most significant contribution to the national cultural heritage. Accumulated by the Lennox-Conyngham family over several generations, the collection encompasses an extraordinary range of eighteenth and nineteenth century clothing: silk dresses, wool coats, embroidered waistcoats, children's garments, and accessories of remarkable quality and variety.
The items offer an invaluable record of changing fashions across two centuries, reflecting the tastes, aspirations, and material circumstances of an Ulster gentry family.
The collection is periodically displayed within the house and in dedicated exhibition areas.
The Plantation-Era House
The house itself is among the most historically significant features of the property. Built in the 1680s and 1690s as a settler's home within the Ulster Plantation, Springhill represents a rare and exceptionally well-preserved example of the architecture and spatial organisation of a planter's residence from this formative period of Irish history.
The building's scale — substantial but not grand — reflects the social position of a successful but not aristocratic settler family.
The layout, proportions, and building materials are characteristic of the period, and the house retains an atmosphere of quiet authenticity unusual in properties that have survived into the twenty-first century.
Family Portraits and Personal Objects
Nearly three centuries of continuous family occupation have left Springhill richly furnished with family portraits, personal objects, furniture, books, and domestic items that together create an unusually intimate picture of gentry life in Ulster. The portraits trace the generations of the Conyngham and Lennox-Conyngham family from the late seventeenth century onward, while the furniture — accumulated organically rather than assembled in a single decorating campaign — reflects changing fashions across many decades.
Personal items, household inventories, and domestic objects give the house its distinctive character: less a showpiece than a genuine family home.
The Outbuildings: Laundry and Gun Room
The outbuildings at Springhill provide a fascinating glimpse into the working life that supported the household. The laundry — equipped with original washing and drying equipment — illustrates the considerable labour involved in maintaining a gentry household in the pre-industrial and early industrial era.
The gun room reflects the sporting and self-defence preoccupations of a rural Ulster family across several centuries, and contains a collection of firearms and associated equipment.
Together, the outbuildings offer a counterpoint to the more refined domestic spaces of the main house, revealing the full range of activities that constituted life at Springhill.
Collections
The Historic House
Guided access to the principal rooms of the plantation-era house, furnished with family portraits, period furniture, and three centuries of accumulated domestic objects.
Historic Costume Collection
Rotating displays from the exceptional collection of eighteenth and nineteenth century costumes accumulated by the Lennox-Conyngham family.
Working Outbuildings
The historic laundry and gun room, illustrating the working life supporting a gentry household across several centuries.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.