The Peacock House, No 11 The Adam Yard, Castle Upton, Templepatrick, Co Antrim, BT39 0BE

The Peacock House is a former stable building, now converted to a private dwelling, forming part of the north-west corner of the Adam Yard complex at Castle Upton, Templepatrick, County Antrim. The complex was built in 1790 to the designs of Robert Adam and represents a remarkably intact example of his work in a rural Irish setting. The yard was converted to twelve dwellings between 1988 and 2000, with further works undertaken around 2008.

The Adam Yard as a whole is a detached, symmetrical, quadrangular-plan range of two-storey, multi-bay stone former stable buildings. The layout is organised around two yards, with a main arched entrance clock tower to the south, a further arched rear entrance block to the north, and a central range running on an east-to-west axis, itself featuring an arched tower flanked by a pair of square-plan blocks. Six square-plan towers with chamfered corners define the corners of the two yards.

The roofs are finished in natural slate with lead ridge rolls. The linear sections are pitched, the towers and the north and south arched entrance blocks are hipped. The entrance clock tower carries an octagonal-plan spire with lead ridges, natural slate to the lower half, and metal louvres to the upper half, surmounted by a lead globe and weather-vane. The central arched tower has a square-plan lead spire added around 2008. The south and central arched towers, and five of the six corner towers, have crenellated parapet walls with sandstone coping resting on a red brick corbelled course. This same parapet treatment is carried along the front, south-facing elevation of the two linear ranges, where it is accompanied by slender arched recesses with red brick heads. The central arched tower is further distinguished by four bartizans at its corners, formed in red brick with sandstone corbelling and replacement sandstone capstones.

Rainwater goods are replacement cast iron on iron drive-through brackets fixed to projecting rubblestone eaves courses, with some lead hoppers. Chimneystacks are red brick with octagonal clay pots and lead flashing. The walling throughout is coursed and snecked rubblestone with lime pointing and a projecting rubblestone plinth course.

The south entrance tower is flanked on both elevations by a pair of full-height projecting stone piers, each with a parapet wall and sandstone coping on a red brick corbelled course. These piers carry blind balistrariae to the upper stage and blind loopholes to the lower stage on both elevations. Balistrariae also appear on the outward-facing chamfered corners of the four outer towers, and the two front corner towers each 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 glazed to the interior wall, while the north elevation has loophole openings to the ground floor, also glazed to the interior wall.

Windows are generally square-headed with rendered reveals, concrete sills, and timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes, inserted around 2000. Between the paired piers flanking the arched entrance tower, the ground floor has a slender round-headed window opening with 4/4 timber sash windows, while the first floor has slender 4/4 timber sash windows. The window openings facing into the two yards are 6/6 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 occupy former carriage arch positions in the central linear range, retaining their voussoired stone arches and filled with multi-pane timber windows incorporating integrated fanlights. The east and west linear 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 to the outward-facing elevations, with a central 6/6 sash flanked by 4/4 sashes; the first floor of these outward-facing elevations has 3/6 and 6/3 timber sash windows.

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. 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 small square-headed door openings to either side fitted with replacement timber panelled doors. Door openings generally are square-headed with multi-paned glazed timber doors, some double-leaf. Within the double-height recesses of the two front corner towers, round-headed door openings are formed in voussoired stone and fitted with double-leaf, multi-paned timber glazed doors with Gothick tracery fanlights; above each door is an oculus at the upper stage with a circular timber casement window.

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, at the centre of which stands a carved stone pedestal carrying an iron sundial on a moulded red brick base. Stone flags surround the east, north, and west elevations of the complex.

The stable range stands 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 yard is a lawned area with a stone ha-ha and small stone bridge, with a bitmac driveway providing vehicular access to the north yard. To the north-east, abutting the wall of the Upton graveyard, is a seven-bay single-storey stone-clad garage built around 2000.

Historically, the Adam Yard is part of the Castle Upton estate, a site of considerable depth. The estate 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 survives today, was built by Sir Robert and Humphrey Norton around 1610. The Plantation Commissioners of 1610 recorded their observations of the works in progress, noting materials sufficient to finish a substantial castle already standing two storeys high with two great flanking towers, the work of Humphrey Norton, and reporting plans for a strong bawn of lime and stone, towards which Sir Arthur Chichester was contributing £100 sterling and a long lease of the land at a small rent.

The castle was sold in 1625 to Captain Henry Upton of Cornwall, later Viscount Templeton, and remained in that family until the early 20th century. In 1783, Clotworthy Upton, the first Lord Templeton, and his son, later the first Viscount, commissioned Robert Adam to remodel the house with what Adam described as a castle air. Original drawings for this work are held at the Soane Museum in London, which also holds plans for the stable yard. Adam never visited Ireland in person, and many of his proposed works were not carried out. Nevertheless, the asymmetrical castellations he designed are considered notable; though the picturesque castellated style was only beginning to become fashionable at that time, classical symmetry remained a strong influence. Adam's works at the house included raising the two round towers, which were finished with conical roofs, and adding a wing with an additional round tower. The stable complex, by contrast, is entirely Adam's work and is rigorously symmetrical, as is the neo-classical mausoleum on the estate, which displays characteristic Adam detailing.

According to Lady Kinahan, a former owner of the estate, 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 1860 Griffith's Valuation valued the estate at £207. The conversion of the yard to housing between 1998 and 2000 involved remodelling and sympathetic renovation. While the conversion resulted in significant remodelling of the stable interiors, the majority of the roof structure and some joinery were retained. New timber sash windows were inserted, the number of window and door openings was increased, and concrete sills were introduced alongside historically appropriate fenestration. The overall format of the yard has been preserved, with many appropriate replacement features introduced where necessary, including the lead spire to the central arch added around 2008.