Coach Yard, Helen's Bay Railway Station, Helen's Bay, Bangor, BT19

Coach Yard at Helen's Bay Railway Station

This coach yard dates from the early 1860s and was designed by Benjamin Ferrey for the 1st Marquis of Dufferin & Ava as an adjunct to Helen's Bay Railway Station. It forms an integral part of the station complex, serving as the means of accessing the Dufferin family's private waiting room via a flight of stairs. The yard is an interesting feature of Clandeboye Avenue and has group value with the wider station complex. In the context of Northern Ireland, it is an unusual and rare feature.

The coach yard is situated immediately north-west of Helen's Bay Station on the avenue between Helen's Bay and Clandeboye House. Built in the early 1860s, it is of octagonal plan, elongated along its north-south axis. It enabled horse-drawn vehicles to execute a U-turn in Clandeboye Avenue—here running in a cutting—having dropped off or picked up their passengers at Helen's Bay Station.

The yard is bounded on all sides except north and south by a high wall of quarried random rubble blackstone. A parapet runs along the top of the wall, delineated along its base and top by ashlar sandstone string courses. At ground level on the east wall is a doorway, now infilled with concrete blocks, which formerly gave access to a staircase leading up to the private waiting room in the station building. The doorway arch is of segmental profile with stepped ashlar sandstone jambs and sandstone voussoirs with moulded intrados.

In the wall above the doorway is a recessed panel, now heavily obscured by ivy. Old photographs show it once contained a panel bearing the Dufferin family crest. The panel is trimmed in sandstone ashlar with a two-centred head rising from single imposts. The parapet and its associated sandstone courses rise over the panel. The staircase apparently had a glass roof and was lit by four slit openings in the east wall; only one of these slits now remains unobscured by ivy.

The walls and floor of the yard are now heavily overgrown, making close inspection virtually impossible. The yard is located on Clandeboye Avenue to the north-west of the railway station. To the east are the station platforms, and to the north is the associated road bridge with stone retaining walls. At the south end of the yard, the avenue continues towards Clandeboye under a railway bridge, while at the north end it continues towards Helen's Bay.

The yard was designed as part of Benjamin Ferrey's overall design for Helen's Bay Station, which opened in 1865. Architectural drawings dated 1862 are held in the Clandeboye Estate Archive.