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

Shane's Castle Nash Extension, Shane's Castle Park, County Antrim

These are the unfinished remains of an early 19th century castle-style addition to Shane's Castle, designed by the prominent London architect John Nash and built for Lord O'Neill around 1812 to 1816. Work came to an abrupt halt when a fire in 1816 destroyed the main house. Although incomplete, the remains are substantial enough to trace the intended plan form clearly, and the basement areas — vaulted over at the rear and supported on tall stone pillars — create an impressively gaunt and dramatic interior. The ruins stand in an unspoiled setting within a heavily wooded demesne overlooking Lough Neagh, and together with the other structures on the site they form part of a group of considerable architectural and historic interest.

The remains consist of a large masonry-built addition to an 18th century castellated house, which is itself now ruinous. The addition forms a suite of ground-floor rooms arranged along a terrace on the south front of the earlier house, with an extensive area of vaulted basement rooms immediately behind. The main entrance faces south-east.

The south front suite survives to a height of approximately 1.5 metres at the front and approximately 3.5 metres at the rear walls. It is arranged as follows: a central entrance hall approached through an open doorway; an elongated end room to the right of the hallway; and two rooms to the left of the hallway — a square room followed by a rectangular room containing two splayed projecting corner bays facing the front. The doorways of all three principal front rooms are arranged in enfilade on the cross axis, passing through the hallway and terminating at the west end in a doorway leading from the rectangular room into the conservatory, now known as the Camellia House. The Camellia House is the only fully completed block in the whole scheme and is recorded separately. Behind the two rooms to the left of the hallway, and connected by an open doorway with the rectangular room, is a long rectangular passage with a doorway at each end: the east doorway connects with a rear terrace area on the roof of part of the rear return, while the west doorway leads into a circular lobby built against the old castle and house to the north, with an opening in the west end now suspended above an open basement court beyond.

The exterior face of the south front is constructed in regular coursed basalt rubble with sandstone dressings. A projecting moulded stringcourse runs at cill level, below which the wall is battered. Cills and parts of moulded window dressings still remain in place. The interior surfaces of the rooms along the south front are of random basalt rubble with some brickwork.

The east elevation forms the side wall of the elongated octagonal end room. It contains a projecting central chimney breast, with a polygonal bay extending to the right-hand extremity; the masonry is similar to the south front. The polygonal bay is circular on the inside and is 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 surviving in the entire suite of rooms.

The rear elevation is divided by a rear return into two open basement courts. Low, unfinished ground-floor walling to the north overlooks these courts, and the rear entrance to the south-front suite at ground-floor level is approached over the top of the eastern portion of the rear return. To the east of the rear return, at basement level, the rear elevation of the south-front suite contains one rectangular doorway with sandstone block dressings and a flat arch. To the west of the rear return, at basement level, the same elevation contains 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; this leads into a circular brick-vaulted lobby which connects on one side with a passage leading to the extensive vaulted area below the main terrace and on the other side into an open court between the old castle ruins and the Camellia House.

The rear return consists of two distinct portions. To the east is a low basement storey, open and arcaded on its east side, covered over at terrace or ground-floor level by a screed roof. To the west is a double-storey height basement storey, enclosed on the south and east faces by blank basalt rubble walling and on the north face by regularly coursed roughly squared basalt rubble, all at ground-floor level, and open and arcaded on the west where it rises from basement level.

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

The west elevation of the rear return presents 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. This arcade leads into a lofty rectangular area with two tall square stone pillars, again apparently of 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 of the room. A large rectangular segmental-arched fireplace is set into 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 location within the demesne of Shane's Castle, close to the shore of Lough Neagh, partly elevated on a terrace overlooking the lough. It forms part of a complex of architecturally and historically important structures surrounded by heavily wooded parkland.

Historical background

The additions were built for Lord O'Neill around 1812 to 1816 to designs by John Nash of London, intended to provide a southern aspect to the old castle. The broader scheme also comprised a battery and terrace and a conservatory on the terrace, all of which were completed before the fire of 1816. The suite of south-facing rooms on the terrace and a kitchen return to the rear were still incomplete when work halted following the fire.

Nash is recorded as having been consulted by Lord O'Neill early in the 1800s, around 1802 to 1803, at the time he was working on Killymoon Castle in County Tyrone. Early undated and unsigned perspective drawings, attributed to the Nash office, survive for a larger scheme of additions than was ultimately adopted; these show an extensive embattled terrace of similar but not identical design to what was finally built, and a much larger addition to the old castle than was eventually carried out. No drawings are known for the precise scheme as executed.

The first identification of Nash with the project in print appears to have been by Fedden in 1954, though he believed Nash to have been employed only after the fire of 1816. This apparently mistaken view has been repeated by Summerson (1980) and Colvin (1995). Earlier references to Shane's Castle do not name the architect but confirm that the additions were under way before the fire: the Parliamentary Gazetteer of Ireland of 1844 to 1845, published in 1846, records that "a superb addition to the original pile was in course of erection." The building stands within the area of an ancient monument (no. ANT49:29).