The Adam House, No 3 The Adam Yard, Castle Upton, Templepatrick, Co Antrim, BT39 0BE

The Adam House is a former stable building, now converted to residential use, forming part of the Adam Yard complex at Castle Upton, Templepatrick, County Antrim. It occupies the south-west corner of the south yard and includes the south-west tower. The complex as a whole is a fine example of Robert Adam's work in a rural setting, demonstrating accomplished stonemasonry from the late 18th century, and was built to Adam's designs around 1790.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Castle Upton estate is thought to contain fragments of a 13th-century fortified Priory of the Knights of St John. The late medieval castle, a significant portion of which survives today, was built by Sir Robert and Humphrey Norton around 1610. The Plantation Commissioners in 1610 recorded: "we beheald materialles sufficient to finish a faire castle already built two stories high with two greate Towres of flankers the worke of Humfrey Northon Lieutenant of the Lo: Deputies foot companie, at a place called Tymple Patricke upon the said Sir Arthur Chichester's lande by the River of Sixmylewater. He means to build a stonge bawne of lyme and stone about it towards w'ch said Sir Arthur gives 100 li ster and a lease of the lands for many yeares at a small rent." The castle was sold in 1625 to Captain Henry Upton of Cornwall, later Viscount Templeton, and remained in that family until the early 20th century.

Clotworthy Upton, the first Lord Templeton, and his son, later the first Viscount, commissioned Robert Adam in 1783 to remodel the house "with a castle air." Adam never visited Ireland in person, and many of his proposed works were not carried out; nevertheless, the asymmetrical castellations are notable. Although the picturesque castellated style was only just becoming fashionable at the time, classical symmetry was still highly regarded. Adam's works at the castle included raising the two round towers, finishing them with conical roofs, and adding a wing with an additional round tower. The stable complex, however, is entirely Adam's work and is rigidly symmetrical, as is the neo-classical mausoleum on the estate, which bears typical Adam detailing. Original drawings for both the house and the stable yard are held at the Soane Museum in London.

According to Lady Kinahan, a former owner, the stable yard is an exact replica of the old Fish Market in Edinburgh, which was demolished in 1930. When the Kinahan family purchased the estate in 1963, the yard was in a state of advanced decay and housed a number of pigsties. The 1860 Griffith's Valuation valued the estate at £207. The yard was converted to twelve dwellings between 1998 and 2000, involving remodelling and sympathetic renovation.

OVERALL LAYOUT AND FORM

The Adam Yard is a detached, symmetrical, quadrangular-plan range of two-storey, multi-bay stone former stable buildings. The complex is organised around two yards. The main arched entrance clock tower faces south; a further arched rear entrance block faces north; and a central range on an east-west axis divides the two yards, featuring a further arched tower flanked by a pair of square-plan blocks. Six square-plan towers with chamfered corners define the corners of the two yards. The stable range, now known as Adam Yard, lies to the east of Castle Upton and is approached by a long tree-lined avenue running perpendicular to the main street of Templepatrick (the Belfast Road).

ROOFS AND SPIRES

Roofs are covered in natural slate with lead to the ridge rolls. They are pitched over the linear sections and include several skylights; hipped over the towers and over the north and south arched entrance blocks. The main south entrance clock tower is crowned by an octagonal-plan spire with lead ridges, natural slate to the lower half and metal louvres to the upper half, surmounted by a lead globe and weather-vane. The central arched tower has a square-plan lead spire, added around 2008.

PARAPETS, BARTIZANS AND EXTERNAL DETAILING

The south and central arched towers, together with all six corner towers except that to the north-west, have crenellated parapet walls with sandstone coping resting on a corbelled course of red brick. This parapet treatment is also applied along the front (south) elevation of the two linear ranges, which feature slender arched recesses with red brick heads. The central arched tower has four bartizans at its corners, formed in red brick with sandstone corbelling and replacement sandstone capstones.

Rainwater goods are replacement cast iron on iron drive-through brackets, fixed to projecting rubblestone eaves courses, with some lead hoppers. Chimneys are red brick with octagonal clay pots and lead flashing. The walling throughout is coursed and snecked rubblestone with lime pointing and a projecting rubblestone plinth course.

The south entrance tower is flanked on both elevations by a pair of full-height projecting stone piers, each with a parapet wall and sandstone coping on a red brick corbelled course. These piers carry blind balistrariae to the upper stage and blind loopholes to the lower stage on both elevations. Balistrariae also adorn the outward-facing chamfered corners of the four outer towers, and a double-height round-headed recess is formed to the south-facing elevations of the two front corner towers only. The rear entrance block has a series of balistrariae to the ground floor of its south elevation, some glazed to the interior wall, while the north elevation has loophole openings to the ground floor, also glazed to the interior wall.

WINDOWS AND DOORS

Windows are generally square-headed with rendered reveals, concrete sills, and timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes, installed around 2000. Between the paired piers flanking the arched entrance tower is a slender round-headed window opening to the ground floor, glazed with 4/4 timber sash windows, with slender 4/4 timber sash windows to the first floor. Window openings facing into the two yards are 6/6 timber sash to the ground floor with oculi openings to the first floor, formed in red brick and fitted with circular timber casement windows. Some large round-headed openings occupying former carriage arch positions in the central linear range have voussoired stone arches and multi-pane timber windows with integrated fanlights. The linear east and west ranges each have a lucarne opening to the centre of the range facing into the yards, with timber weatherboard to the gable and timber casement windows. Some tripartite sash windows have been inserted to the outward-facing elevations, comprising a central 6/6 flanked by 4/4 timber sash windows. The first floor of the outward-facing elevations also has 3/6 and 6/3 timber sash windows.

The main south entrance clock tower has a large round-headed carriage arch with a sandstone architrave surround, plinth blocks and impost blocks. Above impost level is a timber panel with glazing, and access to the yard is through a pair of 19th-century vertically-sheeted timber doors on iron hinges. The walls and soffit within the arch are smooth lime rendered, with a small square-headed door opening to either side fitted with replacement timber panelled doors. Door openings throughout are generally square-headed with multi-paned glazed timber doors, some double-leaf. Within the double-height recesses at the corner towers of the front south elevation, each entrance consists of a round-headed door opening formed in voussoired stone, fitted with double-leaf multi-paned timber glazed doors with Gothick tracery fanlights, and an oculus to the upper stage with circular timber casement windows.

YARDS AND SETTING

The two yards are surfaced in gravel. The rear (north) yard contains a flower bed formed in stone setts, laid out in the form of a Prussian iron cross, with a carved stone pedestal and iron sundial on a moulded red brick base. Stone flags surround the east, north and west elevations of the complex.

To the north of the rear yard is a lawned area with a stone ha-ha and small stone bridge, served by a bitmac driveway providing vehicular access to the north yard. To the north-east is a seven-bay, single-storey stone-clad garage built around 2000, abutting the wall of Upton graveyard.

CONVERSIONS AND ALTERATIONS

The conversion of the complex to twelve private dwellings, carried out between 1998 and 2000, resulted in heavy remodelling of the stable interiors, though the majority of the roof structure and some joinery were retained. The conversion also involved the insertion of new timber sash windows and an increase in the number of window and door openings, with concrete sills and historically appropriate fenestration. Overall, the yard retains its original format, with many appropriate replacement features where necessary — including the lead spire to the central arch — ensuring the long-term sustainability of this architecturally significant 18th-century complex.