Shane's Castle - Nash extension, Shane's Castle Park, Antrim, Co Antrim

Shane's Castle – Nash Extension

This is the unfinished remains of a large early 19th-century castle-style masonry addition to an 18th-century castellated house, now both in ruinous condition. The extension forms a suite of ground floor rooms arranged on a terrace to the south-east of the earlier house, with a considerable area of vaulted basement rooms immediately behind.

The south front suite stands to approximately 1.5 metres at its front elevation and 3.5 metres at its rear walls. It comprises a central entrance hall approached by an open doorway, with an elongated end room to the right and two rooms to the left. The left-hand rooms consist of a square room followed by a rectangular room with two splayed projecting corner bays to the front. All three main front rooms have doorways arranged in enfilade along the cross axis through the hallway, terminating at the west end in a doorway leading to the conservatory (the Camellia House), the only completed structure in the scheme. Behind the left-hand rooms, connected by an open doorway to the rectangular room, is a long rectangular passage with doorways at each end; the eastern doorway opens onto a rear terrace on the roof of part of the rear return, while the western doorway leads into a circular lobby built against the old castle and house to the north, with an opening now suspended above an open basement court.

The exterior of the south front is built of regular coursed basalt rubble with sandstone dressings. A projecting moulded stringcourse sits at cill level, below which the wall is battered. Cills and parts of moulded window dressings remain. Interior surfaces are of random basalt rubble with some brickwork.

The east elevation comprises the side wall of the elongated octagonal end room, which contains a projecting central chimney breast and a polygonal bay extending to the right extremity. Masonry matches the south front. The polygonal bay is circular on its interior and lined with brick. The rear face of this turret contains a rectangular window opening at basement level with chamfered reveals, the only complete window opening in the entire suite of rooms.

The rear elevation presents two open basement courts separated by a rear return, with low unfinished ground floor north walling overlooking the courts. A rear entrance to the south-front suite at ground floor level is approached over the top of the eastern portion of the rear return. East of the rear return, at basement level, the rear elevation contains one rectangular doorway with sandstone block dressings and a flat arch. West of the rear return, at basement level, are three wide arched openings (both semi-circular and segmental) separated by tall sandstone block-dressed buttresses. To the right of these is an angled semi-circular archway abutting the base of the old castle and house; it leads into a circular brick vaulted lobby connecting with a passage to the extensive vaulted area below the main terrace and also to an open court between the old castle ruins and the Camellia House.

The rear return comprises two portions: a low basement storey to the east, open arcaded on that side and covered at terrace or ground floor level by a screed roof, and a double-storey height basement storey to the west, enclosed by blank basalt rubble walling on the south and east faces and regularly coursed roughly squared basalt rubble on the north face, all at ground floor level. The west side is open arcaded, rising from basement level.

The east elevation of the return retains some original regular coursed basalt rubble walling of the ground storey at its left-hand extremity returning from the south-front suite; otherwise only the basement storey remains. This contains a narrow semi-circular arched opening (now blocked with rubble) to the left, with an open arcade of three wide segmental arches separated by weathered buttresses with sandstone block dressings to the right. The arcade leads into a rectangular area with three free-standing square stone pillars (apparently Portland stone) carrying segmental brick cross vaulting. Segmental arched openings in the inner walls connect with the western part of the rear return, a small vaulted lobby or passage, and a long transverse vaulted passageway with openings into a series of basement rooms beneath the south-front suite.

The west elevation of the return is a double storey height wall in basalt rubble rising from basement level, containing an arcade of three tall semi-circular arches dressed in sandstone and separated by tall weathered buttresses with sandstone block dressings. The arcade leads into a lofty rectangular area with two tall square stone pillars (apparently Portland stone) carrying semi-circular brick cross vaults. Iron tie bars link the caps of the pillars to pilasters and piers around the perimeter walls. A large rectangular segmental arched fireplace is set in one wall. Segmental brick arched openings lead into a vaulted compartment and thence to a long transverse vaulted passageway with openings into a series of basement rooms beneath the south-front suite.

The building stands in a very rural area within the demesne of Shane's Castle, close to the shore of Lough Neagh, partly elevated on a terrace overlooking the water as part of a complex of important architectural structures surrounded by heavily wooded parkland.