The Cockle House, Crumlin Glen, Crumlin, Co Antrim

The Cockle House

This is a grotto-type summer house or belvedere built in the Picturesque movement tradition of the late 18th and early 19th century, dating probably to the early 19th century (though possibly as late as the mid-19th century). It was built as a covered shelter overlooking a waterfall on the Crumlin River as part of the development of the Glendaragh estate, at a time when picnic parties from Belfast and neighbouring districts regularly walked along the river banks in this vicinity. The building was apparently part of the tradition of garden follies and Picturesque landscape features. Its original character and quality has been diminished by inappropriate refurbishment. A popular but unfounded belief holds that it was built as a chapel by the landlord for a Muslim servant oriented towards Mecca. The origin of the name "The Cockle House" is unknown. The glen was sold by the Aldworth family of Glendaragh to the present owners around the 1960s.

The structure is created by excavation into the side of a small hillock above the river bank, forming a grotto or cave-like covered shelter. The building consists of a single oval chamber with an oval domical vaulted ceiling, apparently of brickwork roughly rendered. It has arched openings on the front and rear faces, with a main entrance facing westwards down-river and a rear entrance facing up-river.

The front elevation features a bowed wall of random rubble basalt, partly buttressed at the base, with splayed sides to the approach and basalt rubble revetments. Twin Gothic-arched entrance openings have new red brick voussoirs with jambs of basalt rubble to the outer face. The humped top of compacted earth is covered with grass and vegetation, bordered by mature trees whose roots form part of the covering. A course of projecting slates sits beneath the roof covering at the front, with a small hole or opening in the roof serving as an outlet from a small fireplace inside.

The rear elevation, facing up-river, is constructed similarly of random rubble basalt with a splayed approach to a central entrance bay. This contains a single segmental-arched opening with new red brick voussoirs and jambs rendered with wet dash of small crushed stones. The humped roof covering is similar to that of the front, though without the slate course at wall head. Ground covering immediately to front and rear is compacted earth.

The interior consists of a single chamber of oval plan with an oval domical vaulted ceiling. The floor is of stone cobbles and the walls are rendered with wet dash of small crushed stones. At the north end is a square recess at intermediate height with smooth cement-rendered reveals and back. At the south end, at ground level, is a small square recess with red brick reveals, which appears to be a crude fireplace with a flue hole opening into the humped earthen roof. The twin openings at the front have deep splayed reveals rendered with wet dash of small stone chippings. At the rear the main oval chamber opens into a wide segmental-arched recess which narrows at the exterior to a small opening leading onto a small natural terrace overlooking a weir and waterfall, bordered by modern horizontal timber fencing at the edge of a precipice.

The structure stands in an elevated position on the north bank of the Crumlin River. It is approached by concrete steps down from a pathway above and up concrete steps from the riverside walk below. The concrete steps above are bounded by modern tubular steel railings, and those below by modern horizontal timber fencing. The immediate environs are densely vegetated with trees. The structure does not appear on the first or second Ordnance Survey maps, nor is it named on the most recent map.