REDUCED TO RUINS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21912, 22 September 1934, Page 3 (Supplement)

REDUCED TO RUINS

BIG CASTLE BLAZE Hillsborough Castle, the official residence of the Governor of Northern Ireland, the Duke of Abercorn, which is situate eight miles from Belfast, was, with the exception of one corner, reduced to ruins by a fire. The outbreak began in beams beneath the roof and the upper ceiling, and the old pitch-pine woodwork made good fuel for the flames, which rapidly spread from the lodge to the main building in all directions. While the Belfast and Lisburn fire brigades pumped water from a lake in the grounds on to the burning building, the police, the castle staff and residents in Hillsborough village assisted in saving most of the contents. Among the objects were a Van Dyck painting valued at £IO,OOO, the property of the Governor, and the marshal's baton which was carried by the late Duke of Abercorn at the Coronation of King Edward. It took the firemen nearly three hours before the flames were extinguished. Among those parts of the castle destroyed were the apartments of the Duke and Duchess of Abercorn, who was in London at the time, and rooms in which the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Gloucester stayed recently. Altogether thirty rooms were burned out. Hillsborough was a very old castle, which was formerly the seat of the | Marquess of Downsliir®.