Shane's Castle (Mansion), Shane's Castle Park, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 4NE

Shane's Castle is a neo-Regency house built in 1958 for Lord O'Neill to designs by architect Arthur Jury of Blackwood and Jury, Belfast. It stands within a substantial demesne at Shane's Castle Park, Antrim, connected to an extensive range of late Georgian basalt outbuildings which it adapts as its service wing.

The house is a two-storey rendered structure in neo-Georgian style. Its north-facing main elevation is symmetrical, comprising a central entrance bay three windows wide recessed behind projecting end bays, each two windows wide with a further window in the front return walls. The roof is hipped with Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with a central flat-roofed dormer and prominent ashlar stone chimneys featuring moulded cornices and modern pots. The walls are rendered with fine roughcast finish, with a moulded rendered plinth, moulded cornice, and plain coping to parapet. Gutters are concealed with cast iron downpipes and hoppers.

Windows throughout are rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 6 over 6 with horns, set in moulded surrounds with projecting cills; ground floor windows are taller than first floor windows. The main doorway is set in a continuous semi-circular headed raised surround with coved front, containing a pair of timber panelled double doors flanked by fluted Ionic pilasters topped by a radial semi-circular fanlight. A concrete doorstep and flagged area extend outside. A lower two-storey flat-roofed link block extends to the right, connecting to the outbuildings and containing windows sashed 3 over 3 with horns, along with a circular window in the west wall overlooking the link. A further window sashed 6 over 6 appears in the west wall of the main house.

The east elevation is two-storey, three-bay, with similar walling and window detailing to the entrance front, with a projecting low iron gate and railings of plain character. The rear elevation is symmetrical, two-storey, comprising a slightly projecting central entrance bay with walls to each side three windows wide. The central bay contains a rectangular tripartite window to the first floor and a doorcase to the ground floor with a pair of rectangular double doors flanked by side lights and surmounted by a semi-circular radially glazed fanlight over a deep panelled frieze. An armorial plaque, reused from an earlier building on the demesne, is set in the wall above the fanlight. Central openings in each flanking wall contain doorways, each also topped with an old armorial plaque. A flagged patio area bounded by curving hedges lies outside the French windows. The left-hand link block connects with the basalt outbuildings, its windows sashed 3 over 3.

The house occupies a prominent position within the demesne, with its front overlooking a gravelled forecourt bounded to the west by the long two-storey entrance block of the outbuildings, lined by segmental arched garages and surmounted by a clock turret. The forecourt is approached by a driveway from the east and entered by a gateway. Rear and east elevations overlook a garden laid out with lawns, bounded to east and south by walls. At the north-east corner of the boundary wall is a small low polygonal turret base, surviving from a taller turret built in the 1860s which terminated a wing of the outbuildings later demolished. Near the south-east corner of the same wall is a surviving portion of a ha-ha. Gardens to the south are laid out with formality, featuring a gateway in the south wall aligned with the rear entrance. Kitchen gardens lie to the west with potting sheds and more recent greenhouses. The house commands extensive views over demesne parkland to the north and toward the old Shane's Castle ruins on the shore of Lough Neagh to the west.

The entrance gateway consists of a pair of square sandstone ashlar piers with panelled faces, moulded plinths and cornices with swept caps, each surmounted by a large figure of a lion in what appears to be Coade stone. Vehicular gates with spear heads are flanked by smaller pedestrian gates, with secondary piers of open ironwork surmounted by cast iron coronets. The gateway, which probably dates from the 1830s to 1840s, appears first on the 1858 Ordnance Survey map, with which the main driveway line appears contemporary.

The house was built to replace a Victorian predecessor designed by architects Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon in 1865, which stood immediately to the north facing across the stable yard. That Victorian castle was destroyed by fire in 1922. It had itself replaced the original Shane's Castle, which was accidentally burnt in 1816. An earlier proposal to replace the Victorian castle with a neo-Georgian house designed by English architect Oliver Hill in 1938 was not executed.

Formal gardens to the south were laid out from the 1960s. The house retains all its original features to exterior and interior, exhibiting consistent neo-Regency detailing throughout and presenting an unspoiled setting within the important demesne. Together with its adjoining late Georgian outbuildings, it forms an interesting architectural group.