Walled Garden, corner of Oldstone Road and Seven Mile Straight, Muckamore, Antrim, Co Antrim

Walled Garden, Muckamore

This walled garden dates from at least the early 19th century, probably between 1820 and 1839. It forms an irregular enclosure at the corner of Oldstone Road and Seven Mile Straight in a rural setting, positioned within the grounds of Muckamore House and occupying part of the site of a medieval Anglo-Norman Augustinian Priory. While of limited architectural interest, it holds historic significance as part of the development of Muckamore Abbey demesne.

The structure comprises an irregularly shaped field bounded partly by brick and stone walling, with two archways. The north-facing exterior wall is of roughly coursed basalt rubble with a projecting rendered coping. At the east end, a lower uncoursed basalt rubble wall abuts it tangentially, forming the boundary to Muckamore House demesne. At the west end, the masonry is uncoursed with a raking coping of basalt rubble. The inner face of the north wall consists of hand-made brickwork on low basalt base courses; towards the east beyond the main curved expanse, the brickwork abuts uncoursed basalt rubble, ending in three-course long and short blocks.

Near the corner where the eastern run meets the south wall stands a Gothic archway set within a segmental arched recess with basalt reveals. The archway has roughly dressed voussoirs with some cement trim to the edges. The main walling is basalt rubble; the exterior face of the main walling facing east contains some small rectangular recesses.

The south wall's interior face is of basalt rubble with projecting roughly shaped basalt coping stones. Near its centre is a semi-circular archway of dressed sandstone, comprising three curved blocks with a projecting moulding at the springing of the arch. This archway is approached by a set of now-derelict sandstone steps and contains a broken timber gate with main posts that are stop-chamfered. The exterior and interior faces of this archway are similar. Beyond the gateway to the south, a flight of stone steps forming part of a previous garden layout is now overgrown. The western boundary is formed by modern ranch-style timber fencing.

The walled garden was built in connection with Muckamore Abbey, the residence of the Thompson family before the construction of the present Muckamore House. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of the 1830s reference garden walls already in existence, describing a walled enclosure about one and a half acres in extent. A walled enclosure, curved to the north with paths laid out inside, appears on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1857. Medieval walls below the present ground level, stumps of the priory, were temporarily revealed by excavations in 1973. Part of the western portion of the garden wall was demolished in 1973 due to a road-widening scheme.

The site now appears as a field with lines of previous pathways obscured. Mature trees stand beyond the walls to the south and north-east. The walled garden is recorded as a historic monument (ANT50:76).