Lady Elizabeth Smiley

Lady Smiley stayed in the house until 1928, when, with failing health she decided to return to her native Scotland. She offered the house to her two sons and daughter but curiously none wanted it, preferring instead to go to London to make their own fortunes. Lady Smiley put the house up for sale that same year and it was bought by a local man, William Crawford who kept it for only a year, during which he sold off much of the furniture and fittings and many acres of the land. So it is that various pieces of Drumalis furnishings have found their way all over the country. One example of this is that of the original chandelier from the dining room which now hangs in the Belfast Opera House.

(Incidentally, William Crawford was also responsible for bringing a private electricity supply to Larne. It is said that Larne actually had electric street lighting before London!)

Lady Smiley died in Scotland on 14th July, 1930, by which time Mr Crawford had sold Drumalis House. The Sisters of the Cross and Passion later bought the house with a view to it becoming a Retreat Centre. Lately, some more of the Drumalis Estate - which originally had four beautiful gate lodges, two of which have been recently demolished has been sold off to the Fold Housing Association for sheltered homes for the elderly and the large walled garden has been rented out to a market gardener.

The Drumalis site is of particular historic interest because the monastic order to which it once belonged was that of the "Premonstratenses" or White Canons, dedicated to the Holy Cross. The order once had establishments in France and Germany. In Monastic descent the small Friary of Drumalis was a daughter of the larger Abbey of Woodburn at Carrickfergus which, in turn, was a daughter of the still larger Abbey of Dryburgh in Scotland.

Spectacular large ceiling window combining the Thistle, Shamrock and Rose

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