56 | THE LOCAL TOURIST
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Business Growth Leads to £250,000 Investment at
Killyhevlin Lakeside Hotel
February 2024 FEEL GOOD IN ARDS!
THE Portico of Ards (‘Portico’) is an Arts and Heritage Centre in Portaferry, County Down, at the mouth of Strangford Lough in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (45 mins south of Belfast).Built in 1841, Portico is a venue with unique grade A listed Greek architecture. It is owned by the charity Portico of Ards Ltd. but still used every Sunday morning by the Portaferry Presbyterian congregation. Portico was restored and reopened
in 2016 as a venue for events: Classical, Comedy, Country, Folk, Jazz, Organ, Pop, Rock, Theatre and more! There are also guided tours of the architecture, heritage exhibitions and the refurbished organ with its spectacular modern console. The church was built in 1841 by
ONE of Northern Ireland’s leading hotels is preparing to relaunch its flagship event suite following a £250,000 refurbishment project, driven by a 20 per cent increase in its conference and events business in 2023.
Killyhevlin Lakeside Hotel & Lodges in Enniskillen has upgraded its Lisgoole Suite, which features a dedicated entrance foyer, arrival reception / break out area and private lakeview terrace and can accommodate up to 500 guests. The
refurbishment includes stunning
new furnishings, carpets, fireplace, bespoke art deco inspired window screens and new feature lighting. The new elegant modern interiors are complimented by the floor to ceiling windows which offer natural daylight and inspiring panoramic views of Lough Erne, leading onto a private furnished exterior terrace area.
David Morrison, General Manager of
Killyhevlin Hotel said: “The increased demand for our conference and event facilities is testament to our first-class facilities, expert service and convenient lakeside location less than 1km from Enniskillen. Morrison continuedm “We are delighted to
have been selected as the venue of choice for a number of exclusive use events as well as international events in recent months which has economic benefits for the region. We pride ourselves in exceeding our
guests’ expectations and our events team are committed to the continuous improvement of our facilities and services. The refurbishment project allows us to further elevate our guest experience by creating a new sense of style and elegance, which creates a stunning backdrop for conferences, events and weddings. We look forward to officially relaunching our Lisgoole Suite following the £250,000 refurbishment, at our Wedding Showcase Event on Sunday 28th January.”
The newly refurbished space will couple notes of art deco and modernism with new materials and textures to create a warm and comfortable, modern tone.
Killyhevlin also offers an additional choice of four other conference and event spaces which are perfect for hosting small meetings, a large conference or wanting to say ‘I Do’, as well as choice of luxury accommodation to provide the ultimate venue.
Killyhevlin Lakeside Hotel & Lodges worked with a number of local companies including Kavanagh Construction along with Douglas Wallace Interiors to deliver this
exciting refurbishment programme. For more information, please visit https://
www.killyhevlin.com/
the Presbyterian congregation of Portaferry on land gifted to them by the Savage family. It wasn’t the first church on this site though - two churches existed here previously - although little is known of them other than a brief mention in the Ordnance Survey Memoir of 1834 which records a building “
...by no means an ornament to the town”(!) In 1839 the minister here was the Rev John Orr and it was under his guidance that this building was erected. Orr, and his clerical predecessors William Steel Dickson and William Moreland, had run a Classics School in Portaferry for the ‘sons of merchants and gentlemen’. This familiarity with antiquity, at
least in part, probably explains the adoption of the unusual Greek Revival style of design. (The building was designed by John Millar, a young Irish architect who had trained in London, and is believed to have been modelled on the Temple of Nemesis on the Greek Island of Rhamnous). It is also possible the purity of thought associated with the ancient Greek civilisation struck a note with the free-thinking Presbyterians of the day. Or maybe they simply wanted to be different and to be seen to be different The
church building was little
changed, apart from the installation of an organ in 1917, until it underwent a £1.6m restoration in 2015. This not only resulted in its structural “salvation” but also fitted it out with 21st Century facilities and equipment. Today the building is still used by the local Presbyterian congregation to worship on Sunday mornings but it is now under the ownership of the non denominational charity Portico of Ards Ltd and welcomes the whole community for a wide variety of events. An inspired and highly original
young Irish architect named John Millar designed this building in 1839. He had trained under Thomas Hopper, an eminent London architect. Portico is believed to be unique in having a double fronted reproduction of the ancient Greek Temple of Nemesis. Under each portico the central columns are in-filled to make a gallery vestibule at one end and what is now the organ loft at the other. This is a highly novel solution to the vagaries of Irish weather and one that had not previously been executed. Internally, the building has an elegant coffered ceiling and, at each end, ionic columns of the Bassean order set in antis between square pilasters. These are painted to resemble Sienna Marble as is the “noble rostrum” - the pulpit.
There are three stained glass windows
- at the rear an original window attributed to Thomas Willemont and at the front two windows by the Ward Brothers commemorating those who served and those who fell in the First World War.
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