Stable Flat, No 4 The Adam Yard, Castle Upton, Templepatrick, Co Antrim, BT39 0BE

Stable Flat, No. 4 The Adam Yard, Castle Upton, Templepatrick, County Antrim

The Stable Flat occupies the central three bays of the west range of the south yard of Adam Yard, a remarkable late 18th-century stable complex designed by Robert Adam and built around 1790. The complex is one of the finest examples of Adam's work in a rural setting and represents exceptional stonemasonry of the period. According to Lady Kinahan, the former owner of the estate, 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.

The complex as a whole is a detached, symmetrical, quadrangular-plan range of two-storey, multi-bay stone former stable buildings arranged around two yards. The main arched entrance clock tower faces south, a further arched rear entrance block faces north, and a central range runs on an east-to-west axis through the middle of the complex, 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 roofs are finished in natural slate with lead to the ridge rolls, pitched over the linear sections (with several skylights), and hipped over the towers and the north and south arched entrance blocks. The entrance clock tower carries an octagonal-plan spire with lead ridges, natural slate to its 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, and all six corner towers with the exception of the northwest corner tower, have crenellated parapet walls with sandstone coping resting on a corbelled course of redbrick. This same parapet treatment is applied to the front (south) elevation of the two linear ranges, where slender arched recesses with redbrick heads are also incorporated. 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 attached to projecting rubblestone eaves courses, with some lead hoppers. Chimneystacks 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 redbrick corbelled course. These piers carry blind balistrariae to the upper stage and blind loopholes to the lower stage on both elevations. Balistrariae also feature on 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 on the interior wall, while the north elevation has loophole openings at ground floor level, also glazed to the interior wall.

Windows are generally square-headed with rendered reveals, concrete sills, and exposed-box timber sash windows, inserted around 2000. Between the paired piers flanking the arched entrance tower, a slender round-headed window opening at ground floor level contains a 4/4 timber sash window, with slender 4/4 timber sash windows to the first floor. Window openings facing into the two yards are 6/6 timber sash at ground floor level, with oculi openings to the first floor formed in redbrick with circular timber casement windows. Former carriage arch openings in the central linear range have been converted to large round-headed window openings, retaining their voussoired stone arches and filled with multi-pane timber windows incorporating integrated fanlights. The linear east and west ranges each have a lucarne opening to the centre of their yard-facing elevation, 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, with 3/6 and 6/3 timber sash windows at first floor level on those same outward-facing elevations.

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 elsewhere 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, round-headed door openings formed in voussoired stone contain double-leaf multi-paned timber glazed doors with Gothick tracery fanlights, with an oculus to the upper stage fitted with circular timber casement windows.

The two 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 situated to the east of Castle Upton and is reached by a long tree-lined avenue running perpendicular to the main street of Templepatrick (the Belfast Road). To the north of the rear 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 is a seven-bay, single-storey stone-clad garage built around 2000, which abuts the wall of the Upton graveyard.

The Castle Upton estate has considerable historical depth. It is thought to contain fragments of a 13th-century fortified priory of the Knights of St John. The late medieval castle, of which a significant portion survives today, was built by Sir Robert and Humphrey Norton around 1610. The Plantation Commissioners of 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 actually visited Ireland, and many of his proposed works were not carried out. Nevertheless, the asymmetrical castellations he introduced are particularly notable: although the picturesque castellated style was only just beginning to gain popularity at that time, classical symmetry was still highly regarded. Adam's works at the house included raising the two round towers, which were finished with conical roofs, and adding a wing with an additional round tower. The stable complex is entirely Adam's work and is rigidly symmetrical, as is the neoclassical mausoleum on the estate, which displays typical Adam detailing. The 1860 Griffith's Valuation assessed the estate at £207.

The complex was converted to twelve dwellings between 1988 and 2000. This conversion involved heavy remodelling of the stable interiors, but the majority of the roof structure and some joinery were retained. New timber sash windows were inserted and the number of window and door openings was increased, 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 — and the conversion has secured the long-term sustainability of this architecturally significant 18th-century complex. The property is also recorded as a monument.