The Swallow House, No 9 The Adam Yard, Castle Upton, Templepatrick, Co Antrim, BT39 0BE

The Swallow House, No. 9 The Adam Yard, Castle Upton, Templepatrick, County Antrim

The Swallow House is a Grade A listed former stable building, now converted to residential use, forming part of the Adam Yard complex at Castle Upton, Templepatrick. It was designed by Robert Adam and built around 1790, making it one of the few surviving examples of Adam's work in a rural Irish setting, and one of outstanding architectural and historical significance. The property incorporates two former dwellings — No. 9 Swallow House and No. 10 North Archway Flat — occupying the north-west corner of the north yard and the rear entrance block.

Historical Background

The stable yard forms part of the wider Castle Upton estate, which is thought to contain fragments of a 13th-century fortified Priory of the Knights of St John. The late medieval castle, a significant portion of which still survives, was built around 1610 by Sir Robert and Humphrey Norton. The Plantation Commissioners of 1610 recorded their visit in the following terms: "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 the Upton family until the early 20th century.

Robert Adam was commissioned in 1783 by Clotworthy Upton, the first Lord Templeton, and his son, later the first Viscount, to remodel the house "with a castle air." Adam never visited Ireland in person, and a number of his proposed works were not carried out. Nevertheless, his contribution is notable: the asymmetrical castellations he introduced were strikingly early examples of the picturesque castellated style, at a time when classical symmetry was still the dominant preference. His work included the raising of two round towers, finished with conical roofs, and the addition of a wing with a further round tower. The stable complex is entirely Adam's work and is rigidly symmetrical, as is the neo-classical mausoleum on the estate, which displays typical Adam detailing. Original drawings for the estate are held at the Soane Museum in London. According to Lady Kinahan, the former owner, the stable yard is an exact replica of the old Fish Market in Edinburgh, which was demolished in 1930.

When the Kinahan family purchased the estate in 1963, the yard was in a state of advanced decay and was being used to house pigsties. The Griffiths Valuation of 1860 valued the estate at £207. The yard was converted to twelve dwellings between 1988 and 2000, with the work involving remodelling and sympathetic renovation. Although the conversion resulted in significant remodelling of the stable interiors, the majority of the roof structure and some original joinery were retained. New timber sash windows were inserted, along with an increase in the number of window and door openings, with concrete sills and historically appropriate fenestration. Overall, the yard retains its original format, with many appropriate replacement features introduced where necessary — including the lead spire to the central arch — ensuring the long-term sustainability of this architecturally significant 18th-century complex.

Architectural Description

The Adam Yard is a detached, symmetrical, quadrangular-plan range of two-storey multi-bay stone former stable buildings. The complex is arranged around two yards and is defined at its corners by six square-plan towers with chamfered corners. The principal arched entrance clock tower is to the south, with a further arched rear entrance block to the north, and a central range running on an east-west axis at the centre, featuring a further arched tower flanked by a pair of square-plan blocks.

The roofs are covered in natural slate with lead ridge rolls. The roofs are pitched over the linear sections — which incorporate several skylights — and hipped over the towers and the north and south arched entrance blocks. The entrance clock tower is surmounted by an octagonal-plan spire with lead ridges, natural slate to the lower half and metal louvres to the upper half, and is topped by a lead globe and weather-vane. A square-plan lead spire was added to the central arched tower around 2008.

The south entrance tower, the central arched tower, and all six corner towers (with the exception of the north-west tower) have crenellated parapet walls with sandstone coping, resting on a red brick corbelled course. This parapet treatment is continued along the front (south) elevation of the two linear ranges, where it is combined with slender arched recesses with red brick heads. The central arched tower features four bartizans at its corners, formed in red brick with sandstone corbelling and replacement sandstone capstones. Replacement cast-iron rainwater goods are fixed on iron drive-through brackets to projecting rubblestone eaves courses, with some lead hoppers. Red brick chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots and lead flashing are also present. The walling throughout is coursed and snecked rubblestone with lime pointing, and there is a projecting rubblestone plinth course.

The south entrance tower is flanked on both elevations by a pair of full-height projecting stone piers with a parapet wall and sandstone coping on a red brick corbelled course. These piers feature blind balistrariae to the upper stage and blind loopholes to the lower stage on both elevations. Balistrariae also adorn the outward-facing chamfered corners of the four outer towers, and the two front corner towers have a double-height round-headed recess to their south-facing elevations. The rear entrance block has a series of balistrariae to the ground floor of its south elevation, some of which are 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, installed around 2000. Between the paired piers flanking the arched entrance tower, there is a slender round-headed window opening at ground floor level with 4-over-4 timber sash windows, and slender 4-over-4 timber sash windows at first floor level. Window openings facing the two yards are 6-over-6 timber sash at ground floor level, with oculi openings at first floor level formed in red brick and fitted with circular timber casement windows. Several large round-headed window openings have been created within former carriage arch openings along the central linear range, featuring voussoired stone arches and multi-pane timber windows with integrated fanlights. The linear east and west ranges each have a lucarne opening at the centre of the range facing into the yards, with timber weatherboard to the gable and timber casement windows. Some tripartite sash windows have been inserted in the outward-facing elevations, with a central 6-over-6 flanked by 4-over-4 timber sash windows. At first floor level on these outward-facing elevations, 3-over-6 and 6-over-3 timber sash windows have been inserted.

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 throughout are generally square-headed, with multi-paned glazed timber doors, some of which are double-leaf. To the corner towers of the front south elevation, within the double-height recesses, there are round-headed door openings formed in voussoired stone with double-leaf multi-paned timber glazed doors featuring Gothick tracery fanlights, and an oculus at the upper stage fitted with circular timber casement windows.

Setting and Grounds

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 of the complex.

The stable range, now known as the Adam Yard, is situated to the east of Castle Upton and is reached by a long tree-lined avenue set perpendicular to the main street of Templepatrick, known as the Belfast Road. To the north of the rear of the complex 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, which abuts the wall of the Upton graveyard.