Victorian railings, Coast Road, Blackcave North, Larne, Co Antrim

These are a long, unbroken run of moderately ornamental ironwork railings, likely dating to the 19th century, though their precise date of manufacture is unknown. While not an original feature of the Antrim Coast Road, completed in 1842, they are of a 19th-century design and provide an appropriate element of furnishing on this historic and scenic road.

The railings consist of two tubular horizontal rails fixed to vertical posts. The posts have ornamented bases, neckings, and moulded caps, with square sections housing the rails and having nail-head mouldings on their faces. Curvilinear struts, fixed to the lower rail housings and supported by common base plates, alternate with the posts. The railings run for approximately 140 metres within the townland of Blackcave North in Carncastle Ward, and continue for a further 640 metres into Blackcave Ward, for a total length of roughly 780 metres. A plain concrete upstand forms the base for the railings, with buttressing to the seaward side at alternate posts, coinciding with the supporting struts.

The style suggests a date in the second half of the 19th century, although they could have been erected as late as the early 20th century. A photograph in the Green Collection (WAG 2191) shows the boundary to the road before the railings were erected.

The railings are situated in an exposed coastal location, forming part of the seaward boundary to the Coast Road, set back from it by a tarmac pavement, with an open view to the sea. They terminate at the north end with a smooth cement-rendered wall and at the south end with a square pier also rendered in smooth cement. The railings' construction date is estimated to be between 1880 and 1899.