"Holywood Then and Now – Essays by an old resident at the beginning of a new millennium" by Con Auld, published by Con Auld, 2002. Essay V (pages 38–45, 8 pages): Whiskey Galore – The Dunvilles of Redburn.
Paperback, 295 x 210 x 9 mm, 174 pages, £12.99.
"Forgotten Houses of Holywood" by Con Auld, published by Con Auld, 2003. Essay XLIX (pages 76–78, 3 pages): Redburn (1866) A.P.D.L. [Approximate Present Day Location] Old Holywood Road BT18 9GH Holywood Nursing Home. Essay LI (pages 80–81, 2 pages): Richmond Lodge (c.1800) A.P.D.L. Knocknagoney Housing Estate Belfast Road BT9 1SL.
Paperback, 209 x 198 x 6 mm, 104 pages, £7.95.
"Tales of Normansfield – The Langdon Down Legacy" by Andy Merriman, published by the Down's Syndrome Association, 2007. Chapter 13 (pages 169-184, 16 pages): A Distillery, Several Balloonists and a Redhead [Una Dunville (1903–1958)].
Paperback, 147 x 235 x 16 mm, 256 pages, £9.99.
"Redburn Country Park: A Community Guide" by Robin Masefield, produced on behalf of Holywood Shared Town, June 2017. Back cover (left): Scene in Redburn Country Park by Holywood artist Tom Kerr. The booklet includes a double-page map of Redburn Country Park and a full-page sketch of the original Redburn House, stable yard and nearby outbuildings, both drawn by Rosemary Masefield.
Paperback, 147 x 210 x 1 mm, 12 pages including cover.
"Petticoat Pilots – Biographies and Achievements of Irish Female Aviators 1909–1939" by Michael Traynor, published by Michael Traynor, 2019. Volume 1, Chapter 2 (pages 12–69, 58 pages): Violet Dunville – Rising on the Strength of Whisky.
Volume 1: hardback, 218 x 267 x 29 mm, 295 pages, €35 per volume, €60 for both volumes purchased simultaneously.
"Dunville's – The Legend" by Anne-Marie Clarke, The Echlinville Distillery, published by The Echlinville Distillery, 2019.
Hardback, 153 x 217 x 10 mm, 54 pages.
"Dunville's – The Legend" may be purchased as part of a collector's box which also contains a bottle of Dunville's VR 18 Year Old Port Mourant Rum Finish Single Malt Irish Whiskey, a sample of the 41 year old rum from the Port Mourant casks that The Echlinville Distillery refilled with the single malt whiskey, and a reproduction Dunville's Whisky mirror.
Redburn Garden Survey Report by Randal Scott, Ulster Archaeological Society, c/o School of Natural and Built Environment, The Queen's University of Belfast, in association with Holywood Shared Town, 2019.
PDF file, 22 pages.
Slightly larger versions of the photographs of Redburn House and its garden have been posted on www.dumville.org/photo_pages/redburn_house.html
The Ulster Archaeological Society Team on 26 May 2018 with members of Holywood Shared Town and the local community, including Colin Boyd, Hilary Boyd, Michael Catney, Robin Collins, David Craig, Ian Gillespie, Lee Gordon, Robin Masefield, Roisin McCaughan, Anne McDermott, Janna McDonald, George Rutherford, Paula Sandford, Randal Scott, Chris Stevenson, Harry Welsh and June Welsh.
On behalf of Holywood Shared Town, Robin Masefield applied for a Community Heritage grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The grant has enabled the production of a film which was edited by Conor Kelly in spring 2021, drawing on material from Colin Steele, the late
Members of the Holywood u3a played various roles in the project which was greatly appreciated. The Heritage grant also facilitated the reprinting of a free Community Guide to Redburn Country Park (copies of which will be in Holywood Library) and the erection of information panels showing historic images of Redburn House and gardens (which Robin and Rosemary have created). The front cover of the Guide contains a QR code that provides direct access to the film.
Alternatively, the link to the YouTube page with the film is:
On 10th October 2021, BBC Two NI screened "Lá i 1916" ("A Day in 1916"). Investigative journalist Kevin Magee examined a controversial shooting in Castlebellingham, County Louth in 1916, when the first Royal Irish Constabulary man was killed in the Easter Rising. Magee carefully recreated the events of the day and revealed how the RIC man Charlie McGee met his death.
The documentary follows the lives of four men who were caught up in the events of Easter Monday, 1916. Constable Charlie McGee, a native Irish speaker from the Donegal Gaeltacht, was shot dead, and Lieutenant Robert Dunville, heir to the Dunville's Whisky empire, was wounded. The rebels involved included Belfast republican Seán MacEntee, who later became Tánaiste in the Irish government, and Paddy McHugh, a key figure in the Irish War of Independence.
The documentary includes an interview with Christopher Dunville, who is a great-grandson of Robert Dunville. The programme is available on the BBC iPlayer for one year.
The Mystery of Zebras, Bears and Barrels of Whiskey, presented by Jordan Dunbar
"Jordan Dunbar investigates the myth of whiskey hidden in tunnels under his hometown."
Episode 1: Tunnels (Saturday 17 May 2025)
Episode 2: The Big House (Saturday 24 May 2025)
Episode 3: The Golden Years (Saturday 31 May 2025)
Episode 4: The Party's Over (Saturday 7 June 2025)
Broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle.
The programmes are available on BBC Sounds.
Robin Masefield: "The real interest for many people are the tunnels, under Holywood. They certainly did exist. They did seem to run from the hills down towards the Lough shore, where the entrances there are no longer visible."
Jordan Dunbar: "What? Did you hear that? So Robin, who has studied the family's history, believes there were or maybe possibly hopefully are tunnels under Holywood."
Robin Masefield: "And they were clearly built for a purpose. They weren't sewers. You wouldn't do that if you were just taking surplus rainwater away from the site. Quite what the purpose was I don't think we'll ever know." (episode 1)
Jordan Dunbar: "… Jackie and Sam are working in the old stable block next to us, and they'd seen something I didn't expect."
Jackie: "I was born and bred in Holywood and playing around, lucky escape. I remember there, just off the shops, the ground was clear and there was tunnels there, quite large tunnels."
"What did you think? Was it a pipe? Was it a tunnel?"
Jackie: "Oh, it was a tunnel. I went down into it."
Jordan Dunbar: "How far did you get in?"
Jackie: "I probably went in, probably about fifty yards."
Jordan Dunbar: "Hold on a minute! Jackie's saying he was in the tunnels. Not that he's heard of them. Not that he's read about them. He was in them."
Jackie: "Right in front of the shops …" (episode 2)
Jordan Dunbar: "… We're about to get the biggest lead yet. He shares a family story with me."
Interviewee: "Their front garden. Because my uncle at the very beginning, this was, thinking, '53, '54, he was sorting the garden out, my daddy was sorting his one out. The next minute Billy disappeared. …"
Jordan Dunbar: "Your uncle lived in a house, over a tunnel and fell in. …" (episode 3)
Jordan Dunbar: "That's interesting. ‘Christopher Montague Dunville’, who's the last surviving of the line. He's got a gravestone here. After managing to track him down in Canada, I set up a phone call. Who's there? Christopher? Hi Christopher. Yes, Jordan here from the BBC. How's it going? (This is Bobby Dunville's great-grandson.) I mean you live thousands and thousands of miles away, but you're planning to be laid to rest there in Holywood, County Down?"
Christopher Dunville: "Why yes, that's my family. That's who I am. That's where I come from. I'm a part of that. I remember the first time I went to Redburn and I went up to the hill. There's a bench that overlooks the gardens which were madly overgrown at the time. And I remember sitting there and looking down at the house, which wasn't there. In my mind, I could see the house. I could see all of it. I could see the fountain and the paths. And I never felt more at home anywhere, ever."
Jordan Dunbar: "What does it mean, being a Dunville to you?"
Christopher Dunville: "I suppose I feel a bit of a responsibility at this point not to let that history be forgotten."
Jordan Dunbar: "I never thought I'd speak with a Dunville. I've run out of time to prove any truth in urban legends, let alone find anything for myself.
"Then I see something truly amazing. I've just looked in the British Newspaper Archives and I just can't believe this: ‘Belfast News-Letter, Saturday tenth of June 1950.’ Headline: ‘Tunnels found at Holywood’, and there's a massive picture of huge, and I mean huge, tall as a person, a very tall person, … tunnels.
"It says, ‘A network of underground tunnels has been found by workmen excavating for the Northern Ireland Housing Trust Estate of Holywood, County Down.’ That estate is the one beside the ruins of the Dunvilles. This is amazing. Urban legend is urban fact. We were right." (episode 4)
Christopher Dunville, who is a great-grandson of Robert Lambart Dunville (1893-1931), meets Princess Anne, the daughter of the late Queen Elizabeth II, at the Dunville VC Ride Pass-Off at Hyde Park Barracks on 29 June 2017. Also, from left to right: Captain Arthur Soames, Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, who is a great-grandson of Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), Warrant Officer Paul Holliday, Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, and Kirsten Young, who is a granddaughter of William Gustavus Dunville (1900-1956). The photograph was taken by Tom Young, Kirsten's husband.
Belfast News-Letter, Saturday, June 10, 1950
Tunnels found at Holywood
A network of underground tunnels has been found by workmen excavating on the Northern Ireland Housing Trust estate at Hollywood, Co. Down. For a long time these tunnels have been the subject of local legend.
It is believed that the tunnels, the entrances to which are situated about 300 yards from the Holywood side of Palace Barracks in the middle of the new housing estate, connect with the Old Priory at the other end of the town. Legend says that Holywood House, which was demolished during the war when the site was a prisoner of war camp, was built on top of the tunnels. Some believe that they were made as a means of escape in the event of an attack on the Priory. The house itself was at one time believed to have been a convent.
A blocked up entrance to the ground at the back of the ruined Priory is supposed to be the connection with the tunnels.
A "News-Letter" reporter who inspected the tunnels yesterday found them to be constructed of common stone and brick bound with lime mortar. They are about 7 ft. in height and 7 ft. 6 ins broad. The roofs are arched, with smaller supporting arches built at intervals of 20 to 30 feet. Smaller tunnels which run off at right angles are about 5 ft. in height by two feet wide are of a peculiar "key-hole" shape.
One of the tunnels which was struck by the workmen has been broken down and filled in to allow building to continue, but the others still remain intact.
In his history of the Parish of Holywood, the Rev. James O'Laverty, M.R.I.A., who was at one time parish priest of the town, mentions an ancient Irish artificial cave in the townland of Ballygrainey. It consisted, he wrote, of several chambers connected by sewer-like passages, with walls built of common stones without any mortar and the roofs of the chambers and passages were formed of rough flags, over which a great depth of clay was laid so as completely to conceal the cave. Mr. O'Laverty suggested that the caves may at one time have been used as places of concealment or for storage of valuables in times of danger.