The Studio House, No 1 The Adam Yard, Castle Upton, Templepatrick, Co Antrim, BT39 0BE

The Studio House, Castle Upton, Templepatrick, County Antrim

The Studio House forms part of the Adam Yard stable complex at Castle Upton, designed by Robert Adam and built around 1790. It occupies the majority of the entrance clock tower and the south-east corner of the south yard, including the south-east tower. The complex as a whole is a fine example of Robert Adam's work in a rural setting, demonstrating accomplished stonemasonry of the late 18th century. 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. Original plans for the yard are held at the Soane Museum in London.

The wider complex is a detached, symmetrical, quadrangular-plan range of two-storey, multi-bay stone former stable buildings arranged around two yards. There is a main arched entrance clock tower to the south, a further arched rear entrance block to the north, and a central range on an east-west axis with its own 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 complex was renovated and converted to twelve dwellings between 1988 and 2000. While this conversion involved heavy remodelling of the stable interiors, the majority of the roof structure and some original 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 layout, with many fitting replacement features, including the leaded spire to the central arch added around 2008.

The roofs are covered in natural slate with lead to the ridge rolls. The linear sections are pitched, the towers are hipped, as are the north and south arched entrance blocks. The entrance clock tower has 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.

The south and central arched towers, and five of the six corner towers (all except the north-west), have crenellated parapet walls with sandstone coping resting on a red brick corbelled course. This parapet also runs 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. Chimneystacks are red brick with octagonal clay pots and lead flashing.

The walling 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 have blind balistrariae to the upper stage and blind loopholes to the lower stage on both elevations. Balistrariae also appear on the outward-facing chamfered corners of the four outer towers, and the two front corner towers have double-height round-headed recesses to their south-facing elevations. 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 at ground floor level, also glazed to the interior wall.

Windows are generally square-headed with rendered reveals, concrete sills and timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes, dating from around 2000. Between the paired piers flanking the arched entrance tower is a slender round-headed window opening at ground floor level fitted with 4/4 timber sash windows, with slender 4/4 timber sash windows at first floor. Windows facing into the two yards are 6/6 timber sash at ground floor with oculi openings at first floor, the latter formed in red brick with circular timber casement windows. Some large round-headed window openings occupy former carriage arch openings 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 each have a lucarne opening at the centre 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, with a central 6/6 flanked by 4/4 timber sash windows; to the first floor of these elevations there 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, and 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 generally are square-headed with multi-paned glazed timber doors, some double-leaf. Within the double-height recesses on the front south elevation corner towers, each has a round-headed door opening formed in voussoired stone with double-leaf multi-paned timber glazed doors featuring Gothick tracery fanlights, and an oculus to the upper stage with circular timber casement windows.

In terms of setting, 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 red brick base. Stone flags surround the east, north and west elevations. The stable range, now known as the Adam Yard, sits to the east of Castle Upton and is accessed 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 north-east is a seven-bay, single-storey stone-clad garage built around 2000, abutting the wall of Upton graveyard.

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, of which a significant portion remains, 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 what Adam described as "a castle air." Adam never visited Ireland, and many of his proposed works were not carried out; however, the asymmetrical castellations are notable — the picturesque castellated style was only just becoming fashionable at the time, while classical symmetry remained highly regarded. His works included the raising of two round towers finished with conical roofs and the addition of a wing incorporating a further 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 Griffith's Valuation of 1860 valued the estate at £207. 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 yard was converted to housing between 1998 and 2000, involving remodelling and sympathetic renovation.