Glenmachan Tower House Nursing Home (Former Glenmachan Tower Hotel), Glenmachan Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT4 2NN

A two-storey ashlar sandstone house in Italianate style dating from 1862 to designs by the Belfast-based architect Thomas Jackson. The building has an irregular plan form with a three-stage tower to the southwest and a two-storey modern extension to the northeast. It is located at the top of Glenmachan Road.

Roof and Chimneys

The front part of the building has a pitched natural slate gabled roof, while the rear is hipped, with lead rolled ridge and hips. Paired brackets support the projecting eaves, and uPVC ogee guttering discharges to circular aluminium downpipes. Rectangular-section ashlar sandstone chimney stacks have corbelled coping and red-clay chimney pots.

Materials and Construction

The walls are constructed of regular-coursed ashlar masonry using locally-quarried Scrabo sandstone, with rustication to the ground floor and set on a moulded plinth. A continuous string course runs between the ground floor and first floor. Ground floor window openings are square-headed with moulded architraves and double-hung 1/1 timber sashes (unless noted otherwise). First floor window openings are round-arched with moulded architraves and projecting keystones, also having double-hung 1/1 timber sash windows (unless noted otherwise).

The Tower

The three-stage tower has a square plan to the first and second stages with rusticated quoins and a projecting cornice on brackets. An aedicule at the first stage features a panelled frieze above the door and a moulded cornice supported on brackets. A round-arched door opening leads to a porch with a replacement glazed timber panelled door with infilled panel above, opening onto three stone steps. The west face of the first stage has paired round-arched windows with a round arch above and projecting keystone. The second stage has round-arched single windows to the north and west faces. A square-plan Renaissance-style balustrade supports the octagonal-plan third stage with overhanging eaves on moulded brackets. Round-arched windows with panelled aprons appear on all eight faces. The tower is topped by octagonal-plan decorative cast-iron railings.

Principal (South) Elevation

The eight-bay wide principal elevation faces south and consists of a bay at the west end, the three-stage tower immediately adjacent, then a recessed bay east of the tower, a projecting gabled bay, and four bays to the east. The bay nearest the west end has no moulding around the ground floor window, unlike the other windows, suggesting it may have been added later.

The recessed bay east of the tower has paired round-arched windows with moulded depressed arched architrave and two plain windows to the first floor with moulded cills on brackets. The projecting gabled bay has a breakfront to the ground floor with panelled frieze and moulded cornice supported on brackets. Paired windows with panelled aprons are separated by an engaged Corinthian column. Paired round-arched windows to the first floor have moulded architrave and keystone, flanked by square pilasters at both ends which extend to the moulded cornice below. A smaller scale engaged column separates the paired first floor windows. A bull's eye window sits above the first floor, centred on the paired windows below, with a moulded stone architrave and foliage detail to either side. The gable has moulded kneelers and projecting eaves on moulded corbels.

The next bay to the east along the south elevation has a shallow projecting doorcase with projecting cornice supported on moulded console brackets, in turn supported by moulded pilasters. A square panelled timber door with a depressed round-arch fanlight sits in a raised and fielded headed door opening with pronounced keystone. The next bay has a depressed arch opening with paired round arch windows having moulded hoods and projecting moulded cill on brackets. Above this door and window sits a round-arch window to each bay at first floor level, with moulded stone architrave, square pilasters, impost, keystone, and cill on brackets.

The last two bays to the east have aedicule window surrounds to the ground floor with panelled frieze and moulded cornice supported on brackets. Paired windows with panelled aprons are separated by a Corinthian column. Paired windows appear at first floor level.

West Elevation

The west elevation consists of a projecting gabled bay to the south abutted by the tower to the south and a recessed bay at the north end. The gabled bay has a three-sided canted bay to the ground floor with pilasters to corners and a bracketed cornice above. A modern glazed door is incorporated in the central bay window opening onto nosed stone steps. A tri-partite round-arched window to the first floor has square pilasters to the outer ends and Corinthian capitals supporting a moulded stone architrave with keystone above. Engaged round columns with varied Corinthian capitals sit between these windows. A small bull's eye window with moulded stone architrave, the same as that used on the south elevation, is centred above the tri-partite window.

The bay nearest the north has a shallow projecting breakfront to the ground floor with panelled frieze and moulded cornice supported on stepped corbels. Paired windows separated by a Corinthian column have panelled aprons below. Paired windows to the first floor are round-arched with the same moulded stone architrave, keystone and pilaster details employed for the tri-partite window adjacent.

North Elevation

The north elevation consists of the original four-bay building to the east abutted by the modern extension to the west, set on a northeast-southwest axis. The third bay from the west has a three-sided canted bay to the ground floor with panelled frieze and stepped brackets to the central bay supporting a moulded cornice. Paired windows with panelled aprons are separated by an engaged Corinthian column and flanked by pilasters to the front (middle) of the canted bay, with single windows to the two splayed ends. The window nearest the new extension has been blocked up. Paired round-arched windows to the first floor have moulded architrave as mentioned previously for first floor windows.

A shallow projecting bay with hipped roof to the west has a modern square-headed window opening to the first floor which appears to have been added in conjunction with the new extension. A single storey modern hipped roof extension to the ground floor has a square-headed window to the ground floor and a modern double-leaf square-headed glazed timber door facing west. A two-storey hipped roof modern block then adjoins and projects some 15-20 metres beyond the face of the original house.

East Elevation

The east elevation has a gabled bay to the south end with paired stone brackets supporting the overhang. It is abutted by the modern two-storey hipped roof extension. Two square-headed traditional sliding sash windows to each floor have plain projecting cills. The stone to this facade is laid in a snecked squared rubble pattern.

Extensions

A two-storey hipped roof modern extension abuts the northeast of the building, dating from 1992 with double-leaf square-headed doors and square-headed timber sash windows.

Setting

The building is located within its own grounds at the top of Glenmachan Road. The elevated site has a lawned garden to the east with views towards Holywood Road and the Belfast Lough. A tarmaced parking area lies to the south and another to the north.

Two flights of stone steps lead to this lawn: the first comprising ten steps with an intermediate landing and curved stone walling terminating in circular stone dwarf pillars at the base; the second comprising six steps with octagonal stone dwarf pillars at the top and stone walling each side. The south elevation also has two flights of stone steps at the entrance. The lower set has six steps and the upper set has three steps, with dwarf circular pillars and curved stone walling to the sides. A disabled access ramp with rectangular stone pillars either side of stone walling also leads to the south entrance and shares the half landing between the two flights of steps.

The site includes a modern two-storey wedge-plan church to the northeast, and two further rectangular-plan pitched roof buildings to the east.