McGonigle McGrath’s Tollymore wins major RIBA awards

Portview-based architects McGonigle McGrath added another major project to their award record in 2026 when Tollymore, a riverside house in County Down, received both regional and national recognition from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

The project was named RIBA Northern Ireland Building of the Year 2026 and received a RIBA Northern Ireland Award. It subsequently received a RIBA National Award, placing it among projects recognised across the UK for architectural quality.

Set on a steep riverbank beneath the Mourne Mountains, the house is arranged as a series of connected forms responding to the landscape, river and changing levels of the site.

The awards continued a sustained period of recognition for McGonigle McGrath, whose recent work has included a series of RIBA and RSUA award-winning houses.

For Portview, the practice is another example of the quality and range of work being produced by businesses based within the former Strand Spinning Mill.

The mill was built around making things at scale. More than a century later, it remains a place where ideas are developed, designed and taken out into the world — albeit in very different forms.