South courtyard, Castle Demesne, Glenarm, Co Antrim

South Courtyard, Castle Demesne, Glenarm

This is a U-shaped range of outbuildings forming a small courtyard to the south of the main courtyard complex at Glenarm Castle. Together with the adjoining houses at 4, 5 and 6 Castle Demesne, it encloses a concrete-paved yard on all sides. The buildings are generally plain in character, rendered and slated throughout, but are notable for a Gothic-style entrance bay and a Tudor-arched porch on the workshop. The complex forms an integral part of the wider courtyard group of outbuildings associated with Glenarm Castle and occupies a prominent position along one of the main approaches through the demesne. The buildings lie within the area of a scheduled monument.

The entrance block faces west and is single storey with dormered attics. Its west elevation presents a semi-elliptical arched entrance to the yard, flanked on the right by a rectangular doorway and a large window, and on the left by a small window with a Gothic-style entrance bay beyond it. The walling treatment varies across this front: smooth cement render around the archway and to its right; smooth render, partially whitened, around the smaller window to the left; and render lined and blocked to imitate ashlar around the Gothic doorway, which sits between slightly projecting Tuscan pilasters. A projecting rendered eaves course runs across the entire entrance front. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with terracotta ridge tiles, running continuously northward into the roof of the west side of the larger courtyard and contained to the south by a gable upstand. The pitch changes at the single chimney, becoming steeper to the north with a slightly higher ridge line. The chimney is smooth cement rendered with a plain projecting cornice and carries two earthenware pots. The dormers are gabled, with slated roofs, slated cheeks, and timber sliding sash windows of 2 over 2 panes with horns in the front face of each; the gables are clad with tongued and grooved sheeting. Rainwater goods are cast iron throughout, with two downpipes.

The main entrance archway contains double doors that are segmental headed and timber ledged, set in plain rendered reveals. The doorway to the right, leading to offices, has a pair of rectangular timber ledged double doors with a plain rectangular fanlight, a modern brass handle and letterbox, and painted plain rendered reveals. The large office window at the right-hand end comprises modern replacement rectangular timber coupled sashes, each 4 over 4 panes and without horns, with exposed sash boxes and a projecting stone cill. The smaller window to the left of the archway was originally a rectangular timber sliding sash in exposed sash boxes, but the sashes have been replaced by unglazed 4 over 4 wooden panels; the projecting stone cill remains. The Gothic-style entrance bay at the left-hand end leads to a workshop and is distinguished by angled heads to the doorway and to the flanking sidelights. The doorway contains a Gothic-arched ledged timber door with applied pseudo-medieval timber fretwork hinges, set in a recessed Gothic-arched frame. Each sidelight contains a Gothic-arched fixed window with thin wooden glazing bars comprising two narrow panes surmounted by a small Gothic-headed tracery light and surrounded by margin lights, all above projecting stone cills.

The south exterior elevation consists of the blank south gable of the entrance block with a lower range of walling extending eastward. The gable is smooth cement rendered with a shaped sandstone kneeler to the left-hand side, sandstone copings, and a sandstone block at the apex which appears to be the base of a now-missing finial; there is some crude repair work to the render at the right-hand side where the plane of the wall changes. To the right of the gable is a short cement-rendered screen wall with a broken cast iron soil pipe attached. Beyond that is the smooth cement-rendered south wall of a gabled yard building, formerly a dairy: the roof is of Bangor blue slates in apparently regular courses but in poor condition, incorporating a long roof ventilator below three swept courses of slates. Some render is missing on the right-hand side, exposing walling of basalt field stones and white limestone rubble to the lower portion with some brickwork above. There is one rectangular window of coupled timber casements, each 4-pane and in very poor condition, with a projecting concrete cill and plain rendered reveals. To the right of this gabled building is the wall of a store house, smooth cement rendered, containing a rectangular window opening crudely filled by horizontal wooden boarding below a top-hung 3-light window. A short cement-rendered screen wall with a rendered coping then links with the houses at 4, 5 and 6 Castle Demesne.

The entrance archway leads into a passageway with a plastered and painted ceiling, smooth cement-rendered walls, and a concrete floor, opening through a segmental or semi-elliptical inner archway into the courtyard.

The courtyard-facing elevation of the main entrance block has a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with two small flush original iron rooflights. The walls are smooth cement render with a projecting eaves course of rendered brickwork. The section to the right of the archway has its render lined and blocked and whitened, with a slightly higher ridge and eaves line than the rest, and contains one rectangular 8-pane fixed light. The section to the left of the archway, now used as offices, has one doorway flanked by two windows: the doorway contains a rectangular ledged timber door recessed in a wooden frame, all modern; the windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, 3 over 3 and without horns, with exposed sash boxes and projecting concrete cills; a PVC waste pipe is visible below one window. Cast iron gutters and two cast iron downpipes serve this elevation.

Along the south side of the courtyard, reading from right to left, a smooth cement-rendered screen wall of brickwork connects the entrance block to a range of gabled buildings. The taller gabled building at the west end, formerly a dairy, is single storey with a roof of Bangor blue slates incorporating a shallow ventilator with slates swept over it, one flush original iron rooflight, terracotta ridge tiles, and cast iron rainwater goods including a downpipe with a PVC section. The walls are smooth cement rendered. There is one rectangular timber sliding sash window, vertically hung, 6 over 6 and without horns, with exposed sash boxes, plain reveals, and a projecting stone cill. The west gable is smooth cement rendered with flush verges and is partly spalling at the upper left corner; it contains one essentially rectangular ledged timber door that has settled into a skewed formation. The lower gabled building to the east, used as stores, is single storey with a roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, gutters partly of asbestos and partly of cast iron, and one cast iron downpipe at the left-hand end. The walls are smooth cement rendered. Three rectangular doorways with plain reveals all contain ledged timber doors, the one at the extreme left having a later ventilation grille cut into it. The eastern gable of the stores is plain smooth cement rendered with flush verges; projecting from it is a lower lean-to outside toilet against the yard wall, with smooth rendered walling, an asbestos-slated roof, and a rectangular ledged timber door.

The east side of the courtyard is closed by the rear elevations of nos. 4, 5 and 6 Castle Demesne, which display rendered walls, slated roofs, and sashed windows. A basement or gully passage runs across the courtyard face of these houses, bounded on the courtyard side by large moulded copings, with steps down from the courtyard into the passage.

The north side of the courtyard is occupied mainly by a tall single-storey workshop with a small lower block set back to its east, apparently a rear return of the adjoining houses and linking with them. The workshop has five large windows to the right of a slightly projecting porch. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, swept down over the porch to the left and incorporating a shallow ventilator at the east end with five courses of slates swept over it; the ridge tiles are dark toned. One chimney, smooth cement rendered with a plain projecting cornice, has no visible pots. Metal gutters include what appear to be some PVC sections; there is a cast iron downpipe with a shaped head at the left-hand end and an incomplete cast iron gutter at the right-hand extremity. The walls are smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked to the porch, with a projecting eaves course to the main wall. The porch has a Tudor-arched doorway with plain reveals and a wooden doorframe with a Tudor-arched fanlight, though the door itself is missing. The workshop windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, 3 over 6 panes with horns, and have projecting painted stone cills. A lightweight greenhouse of aluminium framing and corrugated perspex has been erected against the second window from the west. The east gable of the workshop is smooth cement rendered with timber fascia boards and overhanging verges; it contains a rectangular doorway with a 4-panel door and a sandstone doorstep. Projecting from the gable is a lower single-storey rear return of the houses at nos. 4, 5 and 6 Castle Demesne, with a slated roof, terracotta ridge tiles, cast iron rainwater goods, smooth cement-rendered walls, and a large rectangular timber window sashed 3 over 6 as the workshop windows.

The courtyard stands to the south of the main courtyard complex at Glenarm Castle, with its entrance front facing a driveway that leads from the main entrance gateway to the rear of the castle itself. Demesne farmland surrounds the complex on three sides, with trees and shrubs in the immediate vicinity.

The precise construction dates for the main blocks are not fully established, but approximate datings can be inferred from historic mapping. The entrance block is presumed to have been built in essentially its current form by 1832, when the first Ordnance Survey map shows a large trapezoidal configuration of outbuildings of which this smaller courtyard forms the southern part. The workshop on the north side appears to have been added sometime between 1857 and 1903. A cross-range dividing the 1832 configuration into two separate courtyards appears on the 1857 Ordnance Survey map, but on a different alignment from the present south range of the main courtyard or the workshop block of the south courtyard. The dairy block on the south side is of uncertain date but may be a later 19th century replacement for the building shown on the 1832 map. The northern part of the 1832 configuration no longer survives, having been subsequently rebuilt in 1875 to form the present main courtyard. None of the current buildings of the south courtyard appear among the informally arranged outbuildings shown on a map of the demesne surveyed in 1779.