Springhill House and Snowdrop Walk

Overview

The room to see at Springhill is the Gun Room, where one of the UK’s largest surviving 18th-century Chinese wallpaper schemes frames a wall of old firearms. If you only have time for one thing inside, make it that.

Springhill is a 17th-century plantation house on a rolling estate just outside Moneymore in County Londonderry, held by the National Trust and reckoned one of the finest Plantation-era buildings left in Ulster. It draws people for its restored interiors, a standout costume archive and three woodland circuits. One practical note before you plan around lunch: the café is temporarily closed, so bring your own. The house itself keeps short seasonal hours – broadly spring through early autumn, mostly noon to five – while the grounds, walled garden and walks stay open all year, dawn to dusk.

A house through the centuries

Springhill began as a modest farmstead in the early 1600s, but the stone house standing today was built between 1680 and 1695 by William Conyngham II. It fulfilled a marriage settlement requiring a ‘convenient house of lime and stone’, and tree-ring dating of the roof timbers, felled shortly after 1690, confirms the core structure as post-Plantation.

The Conyngham family, later the Lenox-Conynghams, held the estate for three centuries. In 1765 Colonel William Conyngham added two single-storey wings – now a nursery and a ballroom – giving the front its seven-window rhythm. The National Trust took Springhill on in 1957; the last of the family to live here, Mina Lenox-Conyngham, remained until her death in 1961. Rather than keep the accumulated Victorian alterations, conservators later stripped the interiors back to their 17th-century layout.

Local folklore adds a quieter layer. Olivia Lenox-Conyngham, second wife of George Lenox-Conyngham, is said to linger in the upper corridors, and the story is a fixture of the estate’s ghost-hunting reputation and a favourite on guided tours.

Inside Springhill House

The Gun Room

The standout interior, preserved with its c.1720 hand-painted Chinese wallpaper. The panels frame a collection of historic firearms, including a ‘long gun’ presented to Alderman James Lenox after the Siege of Derry, alongside late-18th-century blunderbusses. A medicine chest once owned by the 3rd Viscount Molesworth sits nearby.

The Library

Catalogued personally by Mina Lenox-Conyngham, the library holds around 3,000 volumes and is considered one of Ireland’s most important surviving private collections. Highlights include a 1541 Latin psalter and early botanical texts. The original wood panelling and reading desks have been conserved to their 17th-century arrangement.

Costume collection

Housed in the old laundry, this is the largest collection of historic dress in Northern Ireland, running from the 18th to the 20th century. Displays rotate but reliably feature silk gowns, working garments and period theatrical costume – the reason a good number of visitors come at all.

Gardens and woodland walks

The grounds are divided into marked routes for different fitness levels and seasons.

• Beech Walk – A gentle circuit beneath towering beech avenues, with clear signage on the estate’s planting history. The main route around the house is accessible, though there are two steps at the bottom of Juniper Walk and the outer paths are rougher.
• Sawpit Hill Walk – Longer and more demanding, climbing through parkland to ridge-top clearings on steep gravel and roots. Sturdy footwear needed; the reward is a sweep across the Moneymore valley.
• Snowdrop Walk – Open in late winter, this trail shows off the walled garden’s early bulbs. Over a hundred varieties of Galanthus carpet the stone walls and riverbanks, with crocuses and early daffodils extending the display into March. Peak is roughly mid-January to late February.

Family and visitor facilities

• Café – Temporarily closed at the time of writing; check the Trust website for a reopening date and bring your own food in the meantime.
• Children’s adventure playground – An outdoor play area with climbing frames and natural play features.
• The Well-Read Bookshop – A volunteer-run second-hand bookshop that has traded here since the 1980s.
• Events programme – Craft workshops, seasonal festivals and heritage talks through the year, busiest in spring and summer, with a European Heritage Open Day in September offering free entry to the estate.

Practical information

Admission

National Trust members enter free. Prices are guide figures and subject to annual adjustment.

Facilities and accessibility

• Accessible parking and toilet facilities are in the main car park.
• On-site parking is free for National Trust members; a small daily charge applies to non-members.
• Dogs on short leads are allowed in the garden, woodland and visitor reception, but not on the farmland.
• The main route around the house is accessible; most woodland paths suit a mobility scooter, though the outer paths do not.

Getting there

Springhill is just off the A6 between Magherafelt and Moneymore, with clear National Trust signposting from the main road. Public transport is limited: the nearest regular buses stop in Moneymore, followed by a short taxi or walk to the estate.

Visitor tips

• Check the seasonal calendar before travelling. House opening hours are short and vary week to week, and the café closure means no food on site for now.
• The Snowdrop Walk peaks mid-January to late February; early morning brings softer light and fewer people.
• Bring layers and waterproof footwear. The woodland paths hold moisture well into spring.
• Allow at least two hours for the house, the costume collection and one of the shorter woodland circuits.