The Oat House, No 12 The Adam Yard, Castle Upton, Templepatrick, Co Antrim, BT39 0BE

The Oat House is a former stable building, now converted to a private dwelling, forming part of the east range of the Adam Yard at Castle Upton, Templepatrick, County Antrim. The complex was designed by Robert Adam and built around 1790, and is an outstanding example of his work in a rural setting, demonstrating exceptionally fine stonemasonry. The Oat House specifically occupies three bays of the east range of the north yard.

The Adam Yard as a whole is a detached, symmetrical, quadrangular-plan range of two-storey, multi-bay stone former stable buildings. The complex is arranged around two yards, with a main arched entrance clock tower to the south, a further arched rear entrance block to the north, and a central range running east to west, itself featuring an 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 entire complex was renovated and converted to twelve dwellings between 1988 and 2000.

Roofs are finished in natural slate with lead to the ridge rolls. The roofs are pitched over the linear sections — with several skylights — hipped over the towers and over the north and south arched entrance blocks. The entrance clock tower carries 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. The south and central arched towers, along with five of the six corner towers (all except that to the northwest), have crenellated parapet walls with sandstone coping resting on a corbelled redbrick course. This same parapet treatment is used along the front (south) elevation of the two linear ranges, which feature slender arched recesses with redbrick heads. The central arched tower has four bartizans at its corners, formed in redbrick with sandstone corbelling and replacement sandstone capstones.

Rainwater goods are replacement cast iron, carried on iron drive-through brackets fixed to projecting rubblestone eaves courses, with some lead hoppers. Chimneys are redbrick with octagonal clay pots and lead flashing. 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 corbelled redbrick course. These piers carry blind balistrariae (arrow loops with circular openings) to the upper stage and blind loop-holes to the lower stage on both elevations. Balistrariae also adorn the outward-facing chamfered corners of the four outer towers. The south-facing elevations of the two front corner towers each have a double-height round-headed recess. The rear entrance block has a series of balistrariae to the ground floor of its south elevation, some glazed from the interior, while the north elevation has loop-hole openings to the ground floor, also glazed from the interior.

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, there is a slender round-headed window opening to the ground floor fitted with 4/4 timber sash windows, with slender 4/4 timber sash windows also to the first floor. The window openings facing the two yards are 6/6 timber sash windows to the ground floor, with oculi openings to the first floor formed in redbrick and fitted with circular timber casement windows. Some large round-headed window openings occupy former carriage arch positions in the central linear range, retaining their voussoired stone arches and fitted with multi-pane timber windows incorporating integrated fanlights. The linear east and west ranges have a lucarne opening at the centre of each range facing the yards, with timber weatherboard to the gable and timber casement windows. Some tripartite sash windows have been inserted to the outward-facing elevations, with a central 6/6 sash flanked by 4/4 timber sash windows. To the first floor of the outward-facing elevations are 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. A pair of 19th-century vertically-sheeted timber doors on iron hinges give access to the yard. 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 are generally square-headed with multi-paned glazed timber doors, some double-leaf. Within the double-height recesses of the front south corner towers, each has a round-headed door opening formed in voussoired stone, fitted with double-leaf multi-paned glazed timber doors featuring Gothick tracery fanlights, and an oculus to the upper stage with circular timber casement windows.

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

The Adam Yard is set to the east of Castle Upton and is accessed by a long tree-lined avenue running perpendicular to the main street of Templepatrick (Belfast Road). To the north of the rear yard is a lawned area with a stone ha-ha and a small stone bridge, with a bitmac driveway providing vehicular access to the north yard. To the northeast stands a seven-bay, single-storey, stone-clad garage built around 2000, abutting the wall of Upton graveyard.

The complex has considerable historical significance. According to Lady Kinahan, the former owner, the stable yard is an exact replica of the old Fish Market in Edinburgh, which was demolished in 1930. Original plans for the yard are held at the Soane Museum in London. When the Kinahan family purchased the estate in 1963, the yard was in a state of advanced decay and was being used to house pigsties. The yard forms part of the wider Castle Upton estate, which 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 reported: "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, in whose family it remained 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." Original drawings are held at the Soane Museum. 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 coming into fashion at this time, classical symmetry remained highly regarded. The works included raising the two round towers, which were finished with conical roofs, and the addition of a wing with an additional round tower. The stable complex is entirely the work of Adam and is rigidly symmetrical, as is the neo-classical mausoleum, which features typical Adam detailing. The 1860 Griffith's Valuation valued the estate at £207. The yard was converted to housing between 1998 and 2000, involving remodelling and sympathetic renovation.

Although the conversion of the complex to private dwellings resulted in heavy remodelling of the stable interiors, the majority of the roof structure and some joinery have been retained. New timber sash windows were inserted and the number of window and door openings increased, with concrete sills and historically appropriate fenestration. Overall, the yard retains its original format, with many appropriate replacement features where necessary — such as the lead spire to the central arch — ensuring the long-term sustainability of this architecturally significant 18th-century complex. The building is also recorded as a monument.