Former primary school, Castle Street, Glenarm, Co Antrim, BT44 0AT

Former Primary School, Castle Street, Glenarm, County Antrim (1825)

This small, single-storey, L-shaped former schoolhouse — now converted into two dwellings — was built in 1825 by the then Countess of Antrim, possibly to designs by William Vitruvius Morrison, the noted Dublin architect responsible for remodelling Glenarm Castle and building the similarly styled nearby Barbican gate. The building is constructed in a late Medieval style and sits on the south side of Castle Street, close to the matching late Medieval style Barbican bridge entrance to Glenarm Castle demesne. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1835, it cost £500 to build, with cut stone brought from Scotland at considerable expense. William Makepeace Thackeray, visiting in 1843, described it as being in the "early English taste." The building is now owned by Hearth Housing Association and lies within a conservation area.

The asymmetrical north-facing front façade is dominated to the left by a large, full-height gabled bay. To the right, this bay merges with a small lean-to porch whose roof pitch is noticeably shallower than that of the main gable, suggesting it may have been added as a later afterthought rather than being part of the original design. The north face of the porch has a Tudor arch doorway with sandstone dressings and a moulded drip stone with stops; the left-hand edge of this moulding is cut through by the edge of the main gabled bay, reinforcing the impression that the porch is not original. The doorway is fitted with a timber sheeted door and boarded fanlight. The west face of the porch has a small pointed arch window with a three-light metal frame, and to the left-hand edge of this face there extends a low rubble wall.

The gabled bay to the left of the porch has a pair of tall, narrow pointed arch windows with metal lattice panes. To the right of the porch is a casement window with matching lattice panes and the remains of a moulded drip stone; to its right is a buttress, and beyond that a large double casement window in the same style. All of these windows, like the doorway, have in-and-out sandstone dressings.

The shorter east elevation has two casement windows either side of a pair of tall narrow pointed arch windows — similar to those in the front gabled bay but with drip stones — which rise above the eaves line into a gable. The west-facing gable echoes the front gabled bay and also features moulded drip stones to the windows.

To the left of the rear elevation is a small lean-to porch projection with a timber sheeted door, to the west side of which there is a timber lean-to shed. To the right of the rear porch is a casement window similar to the others but without dressings or moulding. Further to the right is a large gabled bay roughly comparable in size to the front gabled bay. This rear gable is asymmetrical: to the left, the roof continues below eaves level to form a small porch that appears fully integrated with the gable and therefore likely original, in contrast to the front porch. The south face of this porch section has a timber sheeted door with irregular grey dressings, possibly sandstone, some of which have been replaced in relatively recent years. The short west face of the porch section has a tiny flat arch window that does not appear to be original. The large rear gable contains a large pointed arch window with Y-tracery; the lower halves of each of the two main lights have lattice panes matching most of the other windows throughout the building. A digital television satellite dish has been attached immediately to the left of this window.

Throughout, the façade is constructed in roughly squared fieldstone with pinkish sandstone quoins to the front elevation and west gable. The steeply pitched gabled roof is slated and has sandstone parapets with pillar-like finials. There are three Velux windows to the rear. Centrally positioned along the ridge is a pair of tall, square sandstone chimneystacks set in a diamond formation on regularly orientated square bases. The rainwater goods are metal. To the rear there is a large tarmac-covered yard with a large garden to the west, adjacent to the Barbican bridge.

The building stands on the site of the original established parish church of Glenarm, which was built some time prior to 1683. From the Tickmacrevan Vestry Minute Book it is known that during at least the 1720s and 1730s this church had a slated roof, roughcast façade, three windows, two doors, and a whitewashed interior. It has also been suggested that the building may have had a spire, as a late 18th century painting of Glenarm held at the Ulster Museum appears to show a spire in the Castle Street vicinity; however, this feature does not appear in any other illustration of the town. When St Patrick's Church was built in the 1760s the old parish church was vacated, though vestry minutes record that various repairs were still being carried out as late as 1806. When the school was constructed in 1825, the old church and the headstones from the surrounding graveyard were cleared away, with the exception of one headstone belonging to the Cooch family, which remained in place to the rear of the present building until 1985.

Originally the school operated under the patronage of the Kildare Street Society, though according to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs this patronage had become neglected and much fallen off by 1830. In 1838 the school came under the National System and was partitioned into separate boys' and girls' classes, with a further smaller building erected to the south as an infant school. The building continued in use as a school until approximately 1965. It became a youth club in 1967 but fell vacant again in 1978. In 1985 it was acquired by Hearth Housing Association, restored, and converted into two dwellings.