Watermill House, Dunadry, Co. Antrim, BT41 2HA

Watermill House, Dunadry

A two-storey five-bay former mill with attached two-storey five-bay mill-house, built in 1747. The buildings are located within the grounds of Dunadry Hotel, south of Belfast Road. The mill building is rectangular, connected to the mill-house at its south-east corner by a link block containing the entrance and stairway. A flat-roofed two-storey painted brick extension extends to the north-east. The roofs are pitched and slated with brick corbelled eaves.

The mill block walls are constructed of random rubble basalt, whilst the mill-house walls are coursed rubble. Windows throughout are timber-framed 6/6 sliding sash with exposed boxes. Reveals are fitted with projecting concrete bands; ground floor windows have segmental heads whilst first floor windows are square-headed, both with brick surround and voussoirs and masonry sills.

The principal elevation of the mill faces west and is five windows wide, with one window to each level. The first floor centre window is surmounted by a semi-circular cast-iron balcony. Below this is an elliptical-arched carriage opening with stone voussoirs, containing a large sliding sash window with flanking sidelights framed by fluted timber mullions and surmounted by a segmental fanlight. To the south, the elevation is abutted by a segmental stone arch connecting to a one-and-a-half storey outbuilding. The north gable of the mill features a large segmental-arched recess with brick dressings to first floor and is abutted to the east by the extension, which has one square-headed window to each level. The east elevation of the mill is abutted by the extension. The south gable-end has two square-headed windows to ground floor and two to first floor, with voussoirs only. This gable is abutted by a two-storey link containing an elliptical-headed carriage opening with granite quoins and brick voussoirs, accessed by three concrete steps. The opening houses a timber-panelled entrance door flanked by fluted colonettes and latticed sidelights, surmounted by a segmental fanlight, above which is a window with semi-circular cast-iron balcony.

The mill-house west elevation is abutted by the two-storey link block, with the exposed gable-end blank. The north elevation is abutted by the flat-roofed extension, which is three bays wide with square-headed windows to each level in each bay. Entrance doors are located to the internal east and west elevations. The east gable-end is painted roughcast and abutted by hotel accommodation. The principal elevation of the mill-house faces south and is five windows wide, with one window to each level. The central bay contains a timber-panelled entrance door with glazed lights to ground floor, accessed by three semi-circular concrete steps. The elevation is abutted to the east by random rubble stone walling marking the site boundary.

The outbuilding to the south is one-and-a-half storey to the north and two-storey to the south, following the topography of the site, with random rubble and rendered walling. The roof is pitched and slated with a gabled dormer to the east pitch and a flat-roofed dormer to the west. The building has modern timber casement windows. The outbuilding to the north has five bays with 6/6 sliding sash segmental-headed windows to first floor and three large openings to ground floor. The central opening is segmental-headed with stone voussoirs, whilst flanking openings are square-headed with brick voussoirs. All have modern timber doors.

The buildings are set south of Dunadry Hotel and Country Club, with the mill abutting hotel accommodation to the north. A river runs to the south of the site, with a sluice gate beyond and a canted cast-iron bridge spanning the river. The mill-house faces an access road with a random rubble wall surmounted by fencing. A pair of circular random rubble gate pillars with coping stands to the north.

Rainwater goods are replacement cast-iron half-round gutters with round downpipes.