St MacNissi's College, 25 Tower Road, Carnlough, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0JW

St MacNissi's College, formerly known as Garron Tower, is a romantic but austere mid-19th century building in a picturesque castle style, originally built as a country house but now in use as a school. It was constructed in stages between 1848 and 1856 for Frances Anne Vane, Marchioness of Londonderry, with contributions from several prominent architects. The building retains many of its original exterior features and its original general appearance to the front, together with a number of original interior features, and enjoys a largely unspoiled setting. Together with various original associated exterior elements and a later college chapel, it forms part of an important and attractive group.

ARCHITECTURAL OVERVIEW

The building is a towered and crenellated masonry structure in castle style, with parapet roofs. It comprises a long two-storey central range with a conjoined three- and four-storey tower group at one end, and a three-storey towered gatehouse wing returning forward at the other end. The main entrance faces south.

SOUTH ELEVATION

The main two-storey range is built of snecked rough-faced basalt with a projecting plinth and crenellated parapets; part of the parapet oversails on a corbel course. The windows are rectangular metal-framed fixed lights and opening lights with small pane divisions, set in raised rectangular surrounds with splayed reveals and cills, surmounted by rectangular Tudor-style drip mouldings. There are cast iron downpipes throughout.

At the left-hand end of the ground floor is a doorway comprising a later rectangular timber small-paned glazed door surmounted by a similar rectangular fanlight, set in a raised surround of reconstituted stone with a Tudor-style drip moulding, approached by four concrete steps.

At the right-hand side, a tower group projects forward, consisting of a four-storey square tower with a lower three-storey octagonal end tower projecting forward from its right-hand end, and a single-storey main entrance porch projecting from its front face. The walling of the tower group is similar to the main range, with the addition of mock machicolations formed by two courses of shaped corbels carrying small pointed arches. The windows are as elsewhere on the south elevation, with the addition of an ocular opening to the west face of the square tower at the top storey, though this is now blocked up, and a pair of coupled semi-circular headed windows in the south face of the top storey. There are cast iron downpipes, and the square tower carries a flagpole behind its parapet. The octagonal tower has some cills and parts of window jambs replaced in reconstituted stone.

The porch walling is similar to the tower group but without the high projecting plinth, and has a moulded string course at the base of its crenellated parapet with a cast iron downpipe. Each side wall of the porch contains one tall narrow Gothic lancet window in a raised sandstone surround, fitted with a later timber single-pane fixed light. The main entrance is a chamfered Gothic arched surround in sandstone containing a pair of later rectangular ledged timber double doors, surmounted by an arched fanlight of decorative leadwork displaying a coat of arms, with one deep concrete step to the front.

At the left-hand end of the main two-storey range, a short return of that block, two windows wide, leads to a taller three-storey gatehouse. The gatehouse has a central archway bay containing a tall Gothic arched opening framed by projecting weathered buttresses with mock machicolations above, flanked by plain crenellated outer bays, with a projecting square tower attached to the south end. The walling is similar to the rest of the building. Windows are Gothic arched lancets and semi-circular arched lancets, some coupled, with raised surrounds of original basalt, fitted with metal small-paned windows in timber sub-frames and some single-pane fixed lights. Above the archway is a segmental-headed metal-framed window in a segmental arched opening surmounted by a rectangular Tudor-style drip moulding. The western face of the gatehouse is of similar character but without buttresses, and has four rectangular metal-framed windows as before. Within the Gothic archway, the side walls are smooth cement-rendered, lined and blocked, each containing a blocked-up Tudor arched opening dressed in chamfered basalt surrounds. There is also a later rectangular doorway in the south side containing a panelled timber door in plain deep recessed reveals with a modern metal handle. The ceiling within the arch is flat, rendered or concrete, with an exposed transverse metal beam.

WEST ELEVATION

The west elevation of the main two-storey block is of similar character to the south elevation, with similar rectangular windows and a stepped profile to the crenellated parapet. At the left-hand corner are later projecting flat-roofed single-storey blocks forming school additions, built in snecked basalt rubble with plain parapets and reconstituted stone dressings to openings. A recessed Tudor arched opening containing the main pupils' entrance to the school appears to be part of the original building, with shaped basalt voussoirs and a modern glazed stained timber doorscreen.

EAST ELEVATION

To the right of the octagonal end tower is a two-storey range with a projecting central canted bay containing rectangular metal windows as before, and a projecting rectangular end bay containing large rectangular windows with sandstone transoms and mullions fitted with small-paned metal windows. To the left of the rectangular bay, side bays contain rectangular openings with sandstone block surrounds and rendered block surrounds, fitted with later inappropriate metal timber-framed windows with large pane divisions incorporating fixed lights, metal-framed casements and vents. To the right of the rectangular bay, a side bay has similar block surrounds and contains a pair of double doors at high level, with a modern steel duct emerging from one of the reveals. There is a smooth rendered plinth to the base. Extending to the north on the eastern elevation, and set back slightly, is a modern three-storey classroom block that returns across the rear elevation and then returns back along the west side as a two-storey block, joining the single-storey basalt-built school blocks and thus enclosing the original rear elevation.

REAR ELEVATION

The rear elevation of the original building is largely obscured by later extensions, but some parts remain visible, built of snecked basalt with crenellated parapets; some original windows are now blocked up.

INTERIOR

The oak doors that still survive inside were carved by Austrian craftsmen.

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT

The building was designed initially by Charles Campbell, architect of Newtownards, who selected the site in 1847 but died in 1850 before the building was completed. It was ready for occupation by 1850. In 1852 a new hall with a projecting rectangular bay facing east was added to the north of the polygonal tower, attributed to Lewis Vulliamy of London. The front porch was added in 1854.

After Lady Londonderry's death in 1865, the house remained in the hands of the family until it was rented by Henry McNeill of Larne in 1889 and opened as a hotel. It was leased from 1898, and much of the original contents were sold by public auction in 1911. The building was badly damaged by accidental fire in 1914 and bought by McNeill's firm in 1915. It was burnt maliciously in 1922, closed as a hotel in 1939, and occupied by evacuated residents from the Belfast Charitable Society home at Clifton House, Belfast, from 1941 to 1946. It was converted for use as a school for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Down and Connor in 1951 to the design of Padraic Gregory, architect of Belfast, whose firm also designed various school buildings added to the rear from time to time.

The battlemented retaining wall to the terrace walk in the garden, terminating in a circular magazine, was built in 1848 to the design of Campbell. The gate lodge was built in 1854. The stable block was added in 1860 to the design of Lanyon and Lynn, architects of Belfast. The new chapel was built in 1956 to the design of P. Gregory.

SETTING

The building stands in a very rural and scenic area on a headland above the Antrim Coast Road, with distant views over the sea to the east and a steep wooded escarpment rising above it to the west. It stands well back from the main road within its own extensive grounds, approached by a tarmac driveway marked by a main entrance gateway with a gate lodge adjacent. Inside the front gateway, alongside the driveway, is a modern blue brick plinth wall bearing the name of the school in plastic raised letters. The driveway along the south and east sides is lined by a number of shaped shrubs on both sides. An esplanade or terrace along the eastern boundary has a crenellated garden wall, a circular magazine, a number of cannons mounted on it, and an original stone stepped bridge as a garden feature. The driveway leads to parking areas in front of the main building and through the gatehouse to the west side. Various school buildings stand to the rear on the west side, including a chapel of the 1950s and a former Victorian stable block. Beyond to the north lies an Iron Age promontory fort in which is located a mid-19th century ice house, contemporary with the original country house. Towards the northernmost extremity of the grounds there is a rubble basalt gateway built in 1856 to close off the Foaran Path, though it no longer contains a gate.

GATE LODGE

The gate lodge is built of basalt rubble with sandstone dressings to openings, and overhanging smooth cement-rendered eaves to a flat roof, replacing the original crenellated parapet. There are cast iron downpipes. The windows are Gothic lancets, and the doorway to the porch with lancet windows has been walled up. The doorway comprises a rectangular four-panel door with a plain arched fanlight. Windows to the main block are rectangular timber fixed lights with fixed top panels and Tudor-style drip mouldings. Roughcast render is used to dress a rear window and for the walling of a small rear addition roofed with corrugated iron.

FRONT GATEWAY

The front gateway comprises a set of four cast iron octagonal openwork piers with Gothic traceried panels, crenellations, and ornamented finials. The central pair carries large vehicular gates with quatrefoil piercings to the intermediate rail and foliated finials; the outer pair carries smaller pedestrian gates, similarly detailed. The gateway originally comprised two openwork iron piers with a pair of gates, all cast at the Londonderry foundry in Seaham, County Durham. To each extremity are square basalt rubble piers with sandstone caps surmounted by lamps on cylindrical posts. The stone pier to the south is free-standing and has a grey sandstone cap later repaired in cement; the stone pier to the north has a red sandstone cap, which is damaged, and is abutted by a front boundary wall of basalt rubble with sandstone coping. The pavement area to the outside of each side of the driveway entrance is bounded by horizontal iron railings with decoratively treated posts. The driveway inside the gateway is bounded on each side by modern vertical iron railings on plain posts, with similar plain modern cylindrical posts used for securing the open gates.

CIRCULAR MAGAZINE

The circular magazine is a single-storey circular turret-like building terminating the south end of the garden terrace wall. It is built of basalt rubble with a slightly projecting base course and a plain parapet carried on a rounded corbel course, with sandstone coping to the parapet. There is a rectangular doorway facing west containing a sheeted timber door, and narrow rectangular windows in plain reveals facing east overlooking the sea. Some creeper grows over the parapet in places.

TERRACE WALLING

The terrace walling is a stretch of retaining wall along the east boundary of the terrace or esplanade, built of basalt rubble with sandstone coping, crenellated in places. It runs in an unaltered condition from the circular magazine at the south, through a canted bay, to a large semi-circular bay adjacent to the east elevation of the main building. From there it follows a less distinctly shaped course to the stone stepped bridge garden feature north of the main building, then continues through a triangular bay and a canted bay before terminating at the north in a pair of square stone gate piers, which abut a lower curved rubble wall of no special interest. Part of the terrace walling in the northern run has been raised or rebuilt in different quality masonry from the original and has concrete copings.

CANNONS

There are eight cannons in total: four standing on the terrace to the south of the main building and four on the run of terrace to the north, all facing out to sea. Each is mounted on a shaped stone base replacing the original wheeled wooden carriers. All the cannons are inscribed with the royal cypher incorporating the monogram 'GR'. They are reputed to have been used at the Battle of Waterloo and originally stood here on their original wheeled carriers.

STONE STEPPED BRIDGE GARDEN FEATURE

This feature is integral with the terrace wall to the north of the main building and is an original feature, as it appears in an old photograph of the north terrace to the rear of the original house. It comprises a flight of stone steps from a path on the north terrace up to an irregularly canted terrace at a higher level, with a small paved bridge-like platform bounded by a set of four tall cast iron posts with flared finials linked by hanging chains.