Iron Smelter, Craigdunloof Road, Newtown Crommelin, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT43 6RQ

Iron Smelter, Craigdunloof Road, Newtown Crommelin, Ballymena, County Antrim

This is a plain and utilitarian structure of arcuated masonry construction featuring a distinctively proportioned three-tiered design laid out on a centralised plan. The building is characterised by battered lower storeys and a domical top, forming an unusual and distinctive object in its largely unspoiled rural setting. It is of great importance as the most noteworthy surviving structure from the pioneering days of the iron ore mining industry in County Antrim, and stands as a rare and probably unique example of an early 19th century iron smelter in Northern Ireland.

The smelter is a three-stage structure of basalt built on a square ground plan with openings at the base on three sides. The main opening faces east. The east elevation comprises three stages: the lower stage is of square plan with flush sides, constructed of basalt rubble with roughly squared quoins. A three-centre arched opening with roughly shaped voussoirs and splayed reveals contains a recessed opening with a large lintel, now fractured, with some firebrick dressings to the right-hand side. The rubble vault runs beneath this opening. The middle stage is of square plan and set back, with battered faces and similar rubble walling and quoins. The top stage is of circular plan, with a cylindrical base wall surmounted by receding concentric courses of rubble forming a roughly domical top. The south and north faces are similar to the east elevation but with slightly smaller openings and no brickwork to the jambs; these openings are now blocked by loose rubble. The west face is similar to the other three sides but without any opening. Some stones of the base wall of the top storey are missing.

The building is set back into the side of a hill with a roughly flat area around its perimeter. It stands within a stone-walled enclosure in a field alongside the road and on the sloping bank above a river. The boundary wall of the enclosure is of basalt rubble in tumbledown and poor condition, with parts missing and the circuit incomplete. A modern byre with concrete block side walls and corrugated iron and Perspex roofing has been built on the high part of the site just to the rear of the smelter; this structure is now in derelict condition. The gateway to the enclosure is filled by a crude screen of timber posts and corrugated iron, low enough to allow views over it. Immediately in front of the east face is a water-filled ditch running toward the east. To the north-east, just beyond the boundary wall, are the remains of a ruined early 19th century mill comprising an east gable with short returns to each side. The mill is of roughly coursed rubble with long and short quoins and contains a segmental arched opening at ground level with a rectangular window opening above. The locality is very rural with a stream running near the east boundary, agricultural land beyond, and distant views of mountains.

The smelter was built in 1843 by Nicholas Crommelin, proprietor of Carrowdore Castle in County Down and founder of the village of Newtown Crommelin, which he established and named after himself in 1824. His initial attempts to colonise and develop the area were not very successful. In an attempt to improve conditions for local inhabitants, in 1843 Crommelin commissioned J.F. Hodges, M.D., F.C.S., to examine rock specimens found near the village to determine whether a local industry could be established. Hodges found the rock to contain from 18 to 25 per cent of peroxide of iron. The furnace was subsequently built "at considerable expense", in Hodges's words, and prolonged experiments were conducted in smelting the ore on site using coke prepared from the district's peat. Some metallic iron was obtained but it proved impossible to separate the metal properly from the scoriae, and the work was abandoned. The furnace was closed in the belief that the local ore was too poor in metal content for commercial smelting. In 1867, however, an extensive bed of richer ore was identified nearby on land owned by Edward Benn of Glenravel, and the iron mining industry of County Antrim was eventually established, although the ore was exported rather than smelted locally.

The nearby corn mill to the north-east of the iron smelter was also built by Nicholas Crommelin shortly after he established the village. By 1835 the mill was described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as "idle" and by 1859 it was referred to on the Ordnance Survey map as "in ruins".