Woburn House, Millisle

Woburn House, on the big sweeping beaches just south of Millisle, was built by the wealthy Belfast businessman John Gilmore Dunbar some time between 1797 and 1830 as his summer residence. I am 99% sure that his family had come from Scotland. Like many of his ilk, big fancy houses along the County Down coast (many of which are still dotted right along the shore from Holywood on down the Peninsula) were the ultimate status symbol. The town of Dunbar is a town between Edinburgh and Berwick on the east coast of Scotland, which was the location of a famous battle involving the Covenanters in 1650. For most of my life the house has been used as a borstal. You'd think that a more suitable purpose could be found for such a fine building.