ARRIVAL: Ballindoon House
ARRIVAL is funded by (NIAH) National Built Heritage Service and the Ballaghaderreen Arts Festival. Running from March to September 2026, the residency explores the historic designed landscape of Ballindoon House through walking, observation, visual art, poetic prose, sound and mapping.
Developed through site-responsive and archival research, the project explores the experience of arrival and how movement, design and perception shape our experience of place. Particular attention is given to the nineteenth-century landscape interventions associated with Ballindoon House, including its avenues, shoreline approaches, boathouse, and the shifting relationships between dwelling, water and surrounding landscape.
The project includes a public workshop at Ballindoon House on 20th June, followed by an exhibition at Edmondstown House in association with the Ballaghaderreen Arts Festival on 2nd August 2026. Details Here
Field Notes
At the edge of Lough Arrow, Ballindoon’s nineteenth-century boathouse meets the full force of the elements.
Ballindoon Boathouse
Field Notes, 4 March 2026
A cold March wind crosses the lake, rain striking tin and stone. The roof answers in sharp, irregular bursts as water presses steadily against the walls.
A low surge, settling into rhythm.
Metal. Water. Wind.
Meeting without pause.
Brick and stone, weathered into layers. A circular opening, burnt sienna, softened red.
Walls shifting through raw umber and grey. Timber doors, washed in olive and time-worn green, slightly open.
Inside, water moves through space, between worlds. Iron bars hold their line at the far edge.
The lake continues forward, indifferent to boundary.
A pause at the edge.
Then the crossing.
This exposed edge marks the beginning of ARRIVAL, Ballindoon House, Co. Sligo.
OS Map: 1837. A day of research at Ballindoon with Des Bryne from Lotts Architecture.
This online diary explores Ballindoon as a living heritage landscape, shaped through design, movement, memory and perception.
Ballindoon House, dating from the 1830s, is situated on the shores of Lough Arrow. While the estate contains traces of earlier settlement, including a medieval abbey and Iron Age ringfort, ARRIVAL focuses on the designed landscape associated with the house, and the experience of approach, encounter and arrival within the grounds.
Through slow, attentive walking, ARRIVAL traces three distinct approaches to the house, each with its own character and mood:
A northern, axial tree-lined avenue, sheltered and composed.
A shoreline path from the south, open to weather and water.
And a worn path leading from the boathouse toward the house, where a strong sightline connects water and dwelling.
Each approach reveals a particular relationship between land, design and encounter.
Walking the land with Des Byrne from Lotts Architecture.
As Ballindoon House and its grounds enter a period of new stewardship and renewal, the residency unfolds at a poignant threshold between past and future.
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This Project is funded by Historic Gardens and Designed Landscapes Events Fund 2026 - the (NIAH) National Built Heritage Service and the Ballaghaderreen Arts Festival.
The residency culminates in a public exhibition at Edmondstown House, in association with the Arts Festival.
