Semidetached lightkeepers' houses, House 2 (NE), East Light, Ballycarry Td, Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim

Semidetached Lightkeepers' Houses, East Light, Ballycarry, Rathlin Island

This is the north-east half of a pair of semi-detached two-storey houses with a two-storey single-bay annex, built around 1916 to accommodate keepers and their families for the East Light (operational since 1856) and the West Light (which began operations in 1919). The houses are of particular architectural interest for their innovative integrated rainwater collection system, whereby the flat parapeted roof fed water into an external cistern mounted on top of each front porch.

The block is aligned east-west at the southern end of the lighthouse premises. Both houses share an identical but asymmetrically composed elevation, with smooth cement-rendered random rubble walls brought to courses (visible only at ground floor level in one location) and embellished with banded stucco quoins, an advanced base course, a shallow platband at first-floor cill level, and a moulded eaves course. The principal elevation faces north. A flat weatherproofed reinforced-concrete roof with a low parapet crowns the structure, with rendered chimneys to the centre and gables and a raised skylight to each house.

All openings have flat heads and stucco architraves, except on the south elevation where plain surrounds appear. Windows are predominantly 2-over-2 timber sliding sashes with dressed granite cills, though some openings are 1-over-1 sashes. The principal north elevation features a projecting single-storey porch with a tongue-and-groove door and granite threshold to its right cheek and a 1-over-1 sash window to its north elevation, the left check being blank. On top of each porch sits a water cistern with moulded eaves and a low blocking course around a flat lid, with a blank stucco roundel on its north face. The first-floor wall is set slightly back from the tank and has a narrow 1-over-1 sash window. The south elevation mirrors this asymmetric composition, with a projecting single-storey porch having a pitched glazed timber roof over a rendered base, a tongue-and-groove door to its left cheek, original windows, and a smaller top-opening timber casement that appears to be a later insertion. The west elevation has no openings.

The annex at the west end was originally single-storey but was raised to two storeys in the 1970s to accommodate equipment monitoring the West Light and Rue Point installations. Except for the moulded string course between ground and first floors (which marks the original eaves line), it is detailed as the main block. Its north elevation has a tongue-and-groove door at ground floor and a 2-over-2 sash window to the first floor. The east elevation has two 1-over-1 windows at ground level with granite cills and three at first floor with concrete cills. The south elevation follows the north pattern but with a wider doorway of plain surround.

Some rooms have been modernised, but the original interiors remain largely intact. The roof is reinforced concrete with no rainwater goods, as water is discharged into the cisterns. Walls are rendered random rubble, and windows are timber sliding sashes of 1-over-1 and 2-over-2 configurations.

The setting comprises a flagged concrete path running around the block with a shared concrete yard to the rear. A single-storey standby generator house from the 1970s, now converted to a store, stands just west of the block, accompanied by a metal lean-to containing plastic fuel tanks and a bowser. The area in front and to the east is grassed, with a concrete footpath leading north to the lighthouse and another to fog signal buildings to the north-east. A single-storey keeper's house lies to the north-west. The yard behind is bounded by the rubble masonry wall around the premises. Extensive views extend over the North Channel towards Islay and the Mull of Kintyre.

Historically, the East Light began operations in 1856, initially accommodating keepers and families in single-storey houses within the grounds; one such house survives. The present pair of two-storey houses appears first on the 1922 Ordnance Survey map and was built to house families of keepers manning the West Light, though in practice families could occupy any of the available houses. The 1916 Valuation revision book records the increase in the premises' rateable valuation from £21 10s 0d to £46, reflecting the appearance of the new houses with their porches and single-storey annex. The original fabric survives, and the houses retain local historical interest both as former lightkeeper accommodation and as evidence of the changing needs of lighthouse families. The building holds group value with the lighthouse, fog-signal buildings, and other keeper's houses on the site.