Glenmona Lodge, Piers, Pillars And Gateway, Cushendun, Co.Antrim

Glenmona Lodge is a large two-storey, seven-bay Neo-Georgian house built in white painted render, set within parkland to the north of the village of Cushendun, County Antrim, overlooking the Bay of Cushendun. The building has an irregular plan with a two-storey canted bay to either side of a central arcaded entrance porch on the principal (north-east) elevation and a projecting bay to the south-east side elevation. A collection of white painted rendered outbuildings to the north-west is arranged around a large courtyard accessed from the south and north-west sides.

The site has a long history. The first Ordnance Survey map shows a dwelling here as early as the 1830s — a much smaller T-shaped structure with a single outbuilding, sited to the north-west of an ancient rath. The Townland Valuations of 1834 described this building as a first-class dwelling (meaning a new or nearly new slated building) measuring 30 feet by 30 feet and standing 17 feet in height, valued at £11 and 12 shillings and occupied by Michael Harrison, a local solicitor. According to C. E. B. Brett's Five Big Houses of Cushendun (1997), the lodge was constructed by Edmund McNeill (1821–1915), a prominent local landlord also responsible for Glendun Lodge and Rockport Lodge, who leased the site to Harrison from the 1830s. Harrison was born in 1769 at Magherintemple near Ballycastle, and it was he who enlarged the house in around 1840 and provided land within his estate for the erection of Cushendun Old Church, built between 1837 and 1840. Following his death in 1846, a memorial tablet to Harrison was installed in the north wall of that church.

The broader context of Cushendun's development is relevant to the house's origins. The village, situated along the River Dun, grew as a seaside resort from the early 19th century, when the Napoleonic Wars cut off travel to mainland Europe and Ireland became a popular tourist destination. The construction of the Coastal Road between 1832 and 1842 opened up the previously isolated Glens of Antrim, and a number of summer houses — or "Bathing Lodges" — were built along the coast by city-based professionals and merchants, including Glenmona Lodge and Glendun Lodge at Cushendun.

By the time of the second Ordnance Survey map (1857), the building had been greatly enlarged to a large square-shaped plan with two rear returns and a substantial L-shaped outbuilding range extending to the north. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 valued Glenmona Lodge at £60 and recorded it as leased by Edmund McNeill to John B. Hartwell, a local magistrate. Hartwell was followed around 1865 by John Finlay (c. 1835–1907), a Belfast-based flax and tow merchant who held business premises at No. 7 Donegall Square East and used Glenmona as his summer residence for approximately four decades. Brett described the house at this period as seven bays wide by three deep, with a prominent two-storey canted bay on each side of the porch, a hipped roof, four prominent chimney-stacks symmetrically disposed, walls apparently rendered or stuccoed, and Victorian plate-glass windows. The 1901 Census of Ireland described Glenmona Lodge as a first-class dwelling of 25 rooms with extensive outbuildings including two stables, a coach house, two cow houses, a dairy, boiling house, and a barn.

Following John Finlay's death in 1907 the property reverted to the McNeill family and fell vacant for several years. Around 1910 it was reoccupied by Edmund McNeill's son, Ronald John McNeill (1861–1934), a prominent solicitor and politician who had predominantly resided in London. Ronald McNeill was an outspoken Ulster Unionist who campaigned vigorously against Home Rule. He served as a Unionist Member of Parliament, as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1922–25), and as Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1925–27), and twice served as British Representative to the League of Nations, signing the Kellogg-Briand Pact on behalf of the British Government in August 1928. He was responsible for the most sustained development of Cushendun since the early 19th century, commissioning the construction of The Square (1912) and Maud Cottages (1926).

As a direct consequence of his outspoken opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, Ronald McNeill's residence at Glenmona Lodge was burned by the local IRA on 20th May 1922. McNeill subsequently commissioned Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978) to reconstruct the building, and this work was carried out between 1923 and 1924, reutilising the burnt-out shell of the earlier house. Williams-Ellis, a London-based architect now best known for the Italianate design of Portmeirion in Wales — which he designed in stages between 1925 and 1975 — had also been responsible for The Square and Maud Cottages. Photographs of the house before and after the reconstruction show that Williams-Ellis remodelled the building along a similar layout to the original but incorporated new features, most notably the five-arched arcade entrance. The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society Guide for the Glens of Antrim (1972) described the result as: "The Neo-Georgian house of Lord Cushendun … a seven-bay front with hipped roof, quoins, architraves and glazing bars in the traditional manner; two-storey in front, three-storey at the rear; two canted bays in the façade linked by a five-arched arcade on Tuscan columns surmounted by the date [1923], the initials 'RMcN' and the family coat of arms."

Ronald John McNeill was created the First Baron Cushendun in 1927, though the title became extinct upon his death in 1934. The house was reoccupied by McNeill and his family following the reconstruction and was valued at £155 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57). After McNeill's death, Glenmona Lodge remained with his family until 1954, when the residence — along with the majority of buildings in the village — passed into the care of the National Trust. It was subsequently converted into a retirement home administered by the County Antrim Welfare Authority and further increased in value to £300 under the Second General Revaluation (1956–72). During the 1990s the lodge was leased by the National Trust to the Northern Health Board, who operated a resource centre for health and social services for the Glendun district. At the time of the listing survey the building was vacant but appeared to be in use as a resource centre for meetings and community functions.

Glenmona Lodge was listed in 1980, the same year the property was included in the Cushendun Conservation Area, designated to protect and enhance the special qualities of the village. The Cushendun Conservation Area Guide notes that in the association of such diverse buildings as The Square, Maud Cottages, and Glenmona, it is possible to see a manifestation of the same spirit that created Portmeirion, and that "in that sense, at least, Cushendun may be regarded as a true precursor of the renowned architect's famous architectural fantasy village." In 1982 the building underwent renovation works that included the rebuilding of a chimney stack and the reslating of the rear slope of the roof.

The exterior is finished in white painted render set on a plinth painted in a contrasting colour. The hipped roof to the main house is covered in natural slate and carries four tall, white painted rendered two-stage chimney-stacks with moulded cornices and terracotta clay pots. White painted corner quoins are present throughout, and all window openings have architrave surrounds painted in a contrasting colour. Windows throughout are timber sliding sashes with horns. A deep projecting stepped cornice runs above the first-floor windows of the front elevation, with a rendered parapet above. A rectangular cast-iron hopper discharging to a circular section downpipe is present on the front elevation. Rainwater goods are cast iron (painted) and all external walling is white render.

The principal (north-east) elevation faces towards a caravan park to the north and Cushendun Parish Church to the south-east, and is accessed via a gravel avenue from the Bay Road just off the Glendun Road. At ground-floor level the elevation is nine bays wide. The two-storey canted bays have 9/9 timber sliding sash windows on the ground floor and 6/6 on the first floor. The central five-bay arcaded entrance porch, with its Tuscan columns surmounted by the date 1923, the initials "RMcN", and the family coat of arms, contains three recessed doorways with semicircular arched heads. The central main entrance door is flanked by a doorway to either side, each fitted with a pair of full-height French doors and a glazed fanlight over. The main entrance opening has a panelled painted timber door with a large glazed top pane set within a plain architrave surround, with a plain glazed transom light above and a semicircular arch-headed fanlight over. At first-floor level directly above the entrance porch there is a pair of French doors with glazing bars opening onto a large balcony, with the canted bays to either side. The overall building is set back behind a low stone wall with a white painted rendered section above, containing a set of stone steps leading to the main entrance porch.

The south-east side elevation overlooks a large garden laid to lawns. The walling is white painted rendered finish with painted corner quoins and moulded architrave surrounds to all openings. A projecting two-storey entrance porch is centred on this elevation, accessed via three wide red brick steps leading to a pair of semicircular-headed arches supported by a Tuscan column, with a recessed set of bi-folding doors with glazing bars and transom lights above. The first-floor level of this projecting entrance porch has a 6/6 timber sliding sash window with a deep projecting cornice above and a parapet wall over, partially concealing a slated hipped roof behind. To the right of the entrance porch on the main elevation there are two 9/9 timber sliding sash windows on the ground floor and two 6/6 sliding sashes above, aligned with the bays on the ground floor. To the left of the entrance porch the south-east elevation is three bays wide and three storeys high; the ground floor has a doorway containing a pair of timber panelled and glazed doors with two window bays to the left. The ground-floor bays are aligned with those on the upper storeys including a mezzanine level. Ground and mezzanine level windows have 3/6 timber sliding sashes; first-floor bays have 6/6 timber sliding sashes.

The south-west (rear) elevation is abutted by a two-storey block to both the left and right of the main elevation. The right-side return has a hipped roof with slate cladding to the south-west elevation and two timber sliding sash windows to the north-west elevation. The left-side rear return has a slated pitched roof with a white painted rendered chimney stack; the walling is white painted render with a three-sided canted bay window at first-floor level. Both blocks are connected by a white painted rendered two-storey block having a timber sliding sash window and a doorway at first-floor level on the south-west elevation, accessed via an external metal staircase. The south-west elevation of the main building is largely blank (full access to the rear yard was not permitted at the time of survey). There is a small conservation rooflight to the rear slope of the slated pitched roof. The rear courtyard is enclosed by a high concrete wall to the south-east and south-west sides. The north-west elevation of the left-side rear return is abutted by a white painted rendered outbuilding extending at a right angle to the south-west side of the garden.

The north-west elevation is four bays wide with a small doorway to the left side at first-floor level, accessed via an external metal staircase from the north-east side. To the right of this doorway there are three window bays on the first floor with 6/6 timber sliding sashes, and four window bays on the ground floor aligned with those above, having 9/9 timber sliding sashes. The deep projecting moulded cornice above the first-floor windows on the front elevation returns around the corner onto this side elevation, with painted quoins to both sides.

The stone outbuildings to the north-west and south-west, arranged around the rear garden, are a mixture of white painted roughcast render or stone with slated hipped roofs. The interior has been partially altered, including the removal of original fireplaces.

Glenmona Lodge forms part of a significant group within the village, being contemporary with The Square and Maud Cottages — all three designed by Clough Williams-Ellis — and lying in close proximity to Glendun Lodge to the south-west and Cushendun Parish Church to the south-east.