Drumalis Retreat Centre, 47 Glenarm Road, Larne, Co Antrim

Drumalis Retreat Centre is a large, rambling two-storey late Victorian and Edwardian mansion built in stages between 1872 and 1910, standing in its own extensive, pleasantly landscaped grounds on an elevated site with distant views to the sea at Larne, County Antrim. It was built firstly for Sir Hugh Smiley and then, following his death in 1909, for his wife Lady Smiley. The house is an impressive and largely intact example of a Victorian country house in a form of Italianate style, notable for its rich exterior detail, fine interior fittings, and its association with the leading designer George Walton of Glasgow.

ARCHITECTURAL OVERVIEW

The building is dominated by a four-storey central tower with a fifth-storey turret stepped back behind it. The main entrance faces west. The west elevation is asymmetrical: to the right of the central tower is a hipped two-storey wing three windows wide, stepping back to reveal a fourth window in an end bay; to the left of the tower is a lower hipped two-storey wing three windows wide before stepping forward with a projecting canted bay, terminating in a single-storey flat-roofed end block. An extensive two-storey service wing returns to the rear on the left-hand side.

The roofs are covered in Westmoreland green slates laid in regular courses, with original decorative wrought iron ridge cresting in a scrolling High Victorian pattern and impressive ball-and-spike ironwork finials at each extremity of the main roofs. The walls are rendered with a dry dash of pebbles, with painted stucco dressings to openings, a modillion cornice, frieze, string courses, vertical strips to the corners of the two-storey wings, and rusticated quoins to the tower. Windows to the first floor of the wings are segmental-headed; those to the ground floor are rectangular. All are timber sliding sash windows, vertically hung, one-over-one, with horns. String courses run between the cills except at the ground floor of the north wing.

TOWER AND TURRET

The west front of the tower rises four storeys, with a smaller fifth-storey turret stepped back behind. Rusticated quoins run to the extremities except at ground floor level, where a porch is attached. A moulded string course marks each floor. The ground floor has two rectangular timber sliding sash windows set in moulded rectangular surrounds with a painted stone continuous cill. To the right of these windows is a square-section cast iron downpipe from the porch with a plain hopper, attached to the wall by decorative cast iron brackets of stylised leafage with radiating acorn motifs, fixed to the wall by new screws.

The first floor of the tower has a pair of similar windows with a string course serving as the cill. The rusticated and moulded quoins rise through the following two stages. At the second floor, the moulded corbelling in unpainted sandstone of a centrally placed oriel window rises from just above the first-floor windows to a string course above. This second-floor oriel is canted, with a timber sliding sash window in each face; the right-hand sandstone mullion shows considerable decay. The sandstone parapet of the oriel rises to the third floor of the tower, with some missing stonework to the heads of the balustrading.

The third floor of the tower contains a pair of coupled semi-circular headed windows with timber sashes, keystones, and impost mouldings. An attached pilaster stands to each side of the windows, supported on moulded brackets and surmounted by curved brackets beneath a dentil cornice, all in unpainted sandstone. Fluted curving brackets, paired, appear at the top of the rusticated quoins at each extremity. Above is a decorative parapet rising to a central rectangular panel ornamented with a cartouche around an open oculus, with short square piers to each extremity, all in unpainted sandstone.

The south face of the tower has painted quoins at the extremities, a small ocular window at second floor level above the abutting roof of the south wing, and coupled semi-circular windows at the third floor as on the west front, surmounted by a similar parapet. The rear turret, of narrower bay width, rises to the rear with rusticated quoins to its corners. It has a single semi-circular arched window at third floor level with a sash as before, and at the fourth floor level one rectangular sash window set in a semi-circular headed surround in each face except the west, which has a flush door. The turret parapet matches the others, with decorative capstones to each corner pier in an acroterion design with ball finials.

The north face of the tower has a small semi-circular headed sash window at second floor level and a pair of larger coupled semi-circular windows at the third floor, matching those on the south face, with rusticated quoins and a parapet as before. To the left at third floor level, beyond the ridge of the north wing, there is a balustraded parapet to the rear adjunct of the tower.

ENTRANCE PORCH

The entrance porch is single-storey, partly set back into the angle of the tower and east wing. A pair of unfluted Doric columns on high pedestals project forward, with a plain frieze and moulded cornice, attached to pilastered piers by short walls with recessed rectangular panels, all in painted sandstone except the parapet which is in unpainted sandstone. The opening is partly filled at high level with glazed panels of leaded lights in an Art Nouveau style, probably a later addition, with a design of stylised leafage. The openings between the columns and piers on each side are filled with large panels of plate glass with bevelled edges, shallow top and bottom panels of Art Nouveau leaded leafage lights, and a main rectangular toplight with an Art Nouveau leaded pattern of a swan in an oval panel of excellent quality. Horizontal iron support bars are fitted to each main toplight, with slight damage to the glass on the north side. Wooden frames are set in painted metal subframes to the stonework. The floor of the exterior porch is laid with sandstone or composition in panels, though the surface is badly stained.

The front doorway has a semi-circular arch with moulded and panelled pilasters, a sandstone step, and a two-leaf door, each leaf six-panel, fielded and panelled, in varnished oak with hexagonal brass door knobs of mid-20th century design. The fanlight is plain glazed and semi-circular. To the right, off the exterior porch, is a door of stained and varnished oak with a large rectangular glass panel over a low rectangular panel, connecting with the veranda.

Above the porch, at first-floor level in the east wing, is a canted bay with a French window flanked by narrow sashed sidelights giving access onto the porch roof. To the right are two further first-floor windows with segmental heads.

EAST WING AND VERANDA

To the right of the porch at ground level is a cast iron downpipe without ornamented brackets, followed by a recessed five-light mullioned and transomed oriel window set in a large rectangular surround with stained glass to the toplights. To the right is a rectangular sash window as before. The ground floor windows are enclosed in a lean-to veranda of ornamental open timberwork with coupled square piers on sandstone bases, connected by fretwork panels at top and bottom and turned balusters to the frieze, which has base pendants in Jacobean style. The veranda floor is paved with white mosaic bordered by garland motifs typical of the Edwardian period, with a continuous sandstone step to the front laid in large slabs. The veranda roof is copper with prominent rolls, a moulded copper gutter, and a bright green verdigris finish throughout. The veranda returns at its right-hand extremity with a quadrant curve of close-set piers, all glazed.

CHIMNEYS AND NORTH WING

One chimney sits on the ridge of the south wing, with others behind the ridge, all in painted stucco with dentil cornices, mouldings, offsets, and original tall pots. The north wing has similar roof and wall treatment with three cast iron downpipes: the right-hand downpipe has acorn and leaf brackets, the other two have trefoil-ended brackets. Two prominent chimneys match those on the south wing, one either side of a projecting canted bay.

SINGLE-STOREY NORTH EXTENSION

At the extreme north end is a single-storey wing extension with coupled Tuscan pilasters on pedestals, painted as before, with an unpainted sandstone balustraded parapet of similar character. The shallow projecting central bay of this extension has coupled Tuscan pilasters on high pedestals flanking a tripartite window with fluted panels to the two mullions. The central light has a pair of timber side-hung escape doors, a later modification described as not too obtrusive; the outer lights are sashed as before.

NORTH ELEVATION

The north elevation comprises a central two-storey hipped wing of five bays, with a long 1960s addition in an inappropriate modern style extending to the left, and the canted end of the single-storey termination of the west entrance front to the extreme right. From the right, the canted end of the original single-storey billiard room, now a chapel, has a circular traceried two-light window in each face with white painted timber, stained glass, and steel mesh grilles. The walls and dressings match the rest of the house, and a pierced parapet runs all around the chapel. Coupled pilasters on a joint pedestal, in painted stucco, stand at the extremities of the canted end, with a cast iron replacement downpipe alongside the pair to the right.

The east side of the chapel has a white glazed brick wall, with a circular cast iron downpipe with an ornamented hopper in the left-hand corner. A lean-to timber-boarded store projects from the wall, closing off a recessed yard with a flush door in a screen and a concrete floor; the store has a corrugated perspex roof. To the left are two windows in the single-storey extension to the kitchen — rectangular timber sashes, vertically hung, one-over-one, with horns — followed by two further windows in the first-floor wall of the north wing's north face.

To the left is the west wall of the east wing, which has three first-floor segmental-headed windows with keystones and sliding sashes as before. Outside the yard are three ground-floor windows — one normal width flanked by two narrow ones, all rectangular — and within the yard one further sliding sash window whose top is cut off by a lean-to over the yard passage, with a doorway to the right fitted with a six-panel door and rectangular fanlight.

The central block of the north elevation, comprising the five-bay two-storey east wing, has a roof as before with two chimneys at intermediate positions. Beyond the ridge line, the top storey of a painted stucco water tower is visible with a semi-circular opening partially glazed and a wavy or scalloped parapet profile. The main wall matches the rest of the house, with a stucco plinth, a moulded main string course, and a subsidiary moulded string course between the cills of the first-floor windows, with rendered and painted vertical strips to the extremities. Six windows to the ground floor are all rectangular sliding sash, with two at the right coupled around a projecting pilaster-pier that extends up to the base of the first-floor oriel. The first-floor windows are in line with those below and all segmental-headed, except the second from the left, which is blind and filled with dry dash render, and the extreme right, which is a canted sandstone oriel with rectangular sliding sash windows in three faces. The oriel roof is canted with lead flashings to its ridges and a lead finial; a sandstone corbel course continues from the string course down to the heads of the ground-floor windows. There are two square-section cast iron downpipes — one with trefoil brackets — plus five circular cast iron downpipes. Prominent wrought iron decorative ridge cresting runs along the roof between the chimneys, with ball and spike finials to the extremities.

The east face of the east wing has a matching sandstone oriel at first-floor level, supported on a projecting breast of wall below in dry dash with painted stucco to the outer edges. To the left of this oriel a two-storey modern extension abuts the building below eaves level, with the former exterior wall of the east wing now rendered and painted within the link block. The 1960s modern extension beyond is in concrete brickwork with flat roofs and aluminium or zinc fascias.

EAST ELEVATION

The main east elevation is two-storey with hipped roofs at different heights, each with a chimney and wrought iron ridge cresting as before, and the central tower of the entrance front visible beyond with a rectangular sliding sash window in an arched surround at its top level. The elevation comprises three windows between two canted two-storey bays, with one window in a recessed bay at the extreme left and three windows to the right.

At the extreme left, the ground floor has a lean-to open veranda enclosing one sliding sash window; above is a segmental-headed sliding sash window, followed by a two-storey canted bay with three windows to each floor at ground and first-floor level. The wall of the bay front is slightly recessed between curved brackets; a dentil cornice runs across the whole elevation. To the right are three central first-floor windows with segmental heads; the ground floor projects forward with three rectangular sliding sash windows between coupled Tuscan pilasters in painted stucco, with square-section downpipes with trefoil brackets, a sandstone balustrade to the projection, and a flat roof behind. The ends of the pilastered section have rectangular strips overlaid on end pilasters, described as clumsily detailed.

To the right, a two-storey canted bay projects. The ground-floor windows are rectangular sliding sash as before but with a blind panel above, all contained within a moulded surround; the central ground-floor window has a chamfered reveal with a torus moulding. The first floor of this canted bay has segmental-headed surrounds again incorporating blind panels, the windows themselves being rectangular; the replacement windows appear to be timber with a fixed light and top-hung vent. To the right of this canted bay are three first-floor windows with segmental heads, with a lean-to conservatory passage below reached by a glazed door in a canted porch abutting the canted bay. The porch roof is in asbestos slates; the walls are timber-framed and glazed with small panes of tinted glass to the toplights. There is a circular cast iron downpipe and moulded cast iron gutter, both replacements; a concrete area outside the porch with concrete plinth blocks; glazing in tinted glass to the porch gable; and a ball finial to the apex. Cast iron gutters and downpipes continue along the conservatory passage, which returns around the ground floor of the east wing.

SOUTH FACE OF EAST WING AND CONSERVATORY

The south face of the east wing has a central gabled projection treated as a pediment, containing one segmental-headed first-floor sliding sash window flanked by one window on each side, with a stucco strip to the right-hand extremity and a moulded string course broken by an adjacent downpipe in an untidy finish. Below this, a lean-to conservatory with an asbestos slate roof in regular courses has a projecting canted front on axis with the pedimented first-floor projection. The conservatory walling is painted stucco with a moulded plinth; lead roll moulding runs to the ridges of the roof with a small painted stone ball finial. The glazing is fixed with a rectilinear pattern of glazing bars. The conservatory terminates to the right with a panelled corner pier and returns to form a concrete-paved recess at the south-facing entrance, with a modern rectangular glazed door and fanlight in the recess and a 1960s modern extension to the right.

SOUTH WING

The south elevation of the south wing is two-storey. The projecting end bay has two first-floor windows flanked by square cast iron downpipes with trefoil brackets, and coupled Tuscan pilasters to the extremities of the ground floor with a further pilaster on each side of the central tripartite window, which has two fluted pilasters within a rectangular stucco surround containing three sliding sash windows with a continuous cill across the front. To the right, the open end of the veranda abuts the recessed blank side wall of the canted bay on the east front. To the left, the recessed wall has a segmental-headed window at first-floor level; the ground floor is enclosed by a lean-to veranda reached through a large opening with an open sidelight to the right and a corresponding glazed one on the left, over a concrete step and mosaic floor matching the other verandas.

GARDEN STRUCTURES

In the garden to the west and south of the house are renaissance style balustraded garden walls of artificial stone, including a bowed section opposite the main entrance, flanked by curved flights of steps down to the front lawn and a large curved stone seat on the front terrace. The walls have square end piers with large ball finials surmounting them, except at the top of the straight flight of steps down from the south side, where the piers are surmounted by large stone vases. There are other short flights of steps along garden paths, though not of the same material or quality.

Other structures within the grounds include plain basalt boundary walls, a plain rear gateway, a plain basalt wall along the rear driveway, two cast iron lamp standards on the main driveway, a small stone garden store on the back driveway, a rear two-storey gate lodge described as undistinguished and much altered with associated outbuildings of no special interest, plain red brick sheds and a modern gabled store within the walled gardens, a modern gabled garage to the north of the main house, and a sunken rock garden constructed of concrete to the south-east of the house. None of these ancillary structures are of special interest.

The house is approached by a tarmac driveway from the main road, terminating in front of the main entrance, with a lawn to the west and to the south and east, a tarmac car park to the north, and wooded areas beyond.

HISTORY OF CONSTRUCTION

The house was built in stages between 1872 and 1910. Building began in 1872, the architect not known, and was presumably completed by 1874 in time for Sir Hugh Smiley's marriage. This original portion still forms the bulk of the house to the south of the tower and can be identified on the west front as the two-storey hipped-roof section three windows wide to the right of the tower, originally without the later overlay of ridge cresting, veranda, and remodelling of some windows, and originally with a fourth bay where the tower now stands. On the east front it can be identified as the northernmost of the two-storey canted bays and the three first-floor windows to the left of it, though a second two-storey canted bay to the south was later rebuilt further forward.

Between 1888 and 1890 the tower and porch were added to designs by Samuel P. Close, architect; probably at the same time the sitting room and dining room canted bay were extended eastwards, and the whole house was extended to the north with a north wing and a service wing built around a lightwell.

In 1893 George Walton of Glasgow was brought in to provide stained glass and leaded windows, including a documented doorway in the north corridor and a signed bay window in the hall. The inlaid doors, panelling, and fireplace in the main stair hall and landing, and the painted ceiling of the hall, are also attributable to Walton and date from around this time.

After 1893, probably during the later 1890s, a single-storey rectangular bay was added to the south side of the drawing room (later enlarged), a large conservatory was added to the east (since demolished), and verandas were added to the entrance front (since replaced), all to designs by S. P. Close. This was followed by the addition of a new billiard room (now the chapel), probably also by Close but with fittings by Walton, including double doors with signed base plates.

In 1910, following Sir Hugh Smiley's death in 1909, a new veranda with a conical roof at the south-west corner (since re-roofed), an enlarged and made two-storey drawing room bay, a kitchen extension to the north, and a bedroom wing terminating in a first-floor oriel window added eastwards from the north end were all carried out by architect Samuel Stevenson for Lady Smiley. The water tower at the east wing, the wrought iron ridge cresting and finials on the roofs, and the garden balustrading and steps also appear to date from this time and are attributable to Stevenson.

In 1930 the house was bought by the Sisters of the Cross and Passion following brief ownership by William Crawford, a local businessman, and became a convent. In 1968 a new wing was added to the east, on the site of the large conservatory, as a retreat and conference centre with chapel, to designs by architect Patrick Haughey.

HISTORICAL NOTE

The house is traditionally believed to occupy the site of a 13th century Premonstratensian Priory, the Friary of Clondumalis, later called Drumalis, which was suppressed in 1591 and has now vanished without trace. Within the grounds of the house, to the east, is a tree-ring which is a scheduled historic monument.