Outbuildings at Magheramorne House, 59 Shore Road, Magheramorne, Larne, Co Antrim

Outbuildings at Magheramorne House, 59 Shore Road, Magheramorne, Larne, County Antrim

These former stable buildings were designed by the prominent Irish architect Samuel P. Close and built in 1881 for the first Lord Magheramorne. They were constructed immediately to the east of the site of the previous Magheramorne House, on the ground occupied by its earlier outbuildings. A datestone inscribed with the year 1881 survives in a gable within the courtyard. The buildings are of considerable local interest as a key part of an important historic demesne, and form an architecturally cohesive group with the other estate structures with which they are associated.

The complex is arranged as a one- and two-storey range of basalt rubble walls with brick dressings, laid out around a rectangular courtyard. The main entrance faces north.

North Elevation

The north elevation is symmetrical. At its centre is a large gabled vehicular entrance flanked by short single-storey wings, each ending in a two-storey hipped end bay that returns along the side elevations. The basalt rubble walls are built to courses with squared-edge quoins at the extremities. The central entrance has red firebrick jambs with quoins, and the windows have similar brick surrounds. A projecting brick eaves course runs along the elevation, with red sandstone blocks at the corners. The roofs are covered in Bangor Blue slates laid in regular courses, with black ridge tiles and metal coverings to the hips. Cast iron gutters are fitted with four circular downpipes, one to each extremity and one to each wing; all downpipes are PVC except the one to the left-hand wing, which retains its original cast iron.

The entrance gable has overhanging moulded barge boards of varnished pitch pine with shaped ends, a pitch pine finial to the apex with a modern ironwork weathervane, and shaped ends to the exposed purlins. Three collar beam trusses carry the roof over the entrance, closed at each end by vertical boarding with shaped ends. Shaped red sandstone corbels carry each truss. The entrance is fitted with double doors of ledged pine hung on large plain iron strap hinges painted black.

The left-hand end bay has two windows to each floor, slightly smaller at first floor level. All are segmental-headed timber sliding sash windows, vertically hung, two-over-two panes with horns, except the left-hand ground floor window which is one-over-two. The frames are recessed within segmental brick arches with brick dressings to the sides and projecting sandstone sills. The single-storey wing to the left of the central entrance has a similar segmental-headed two-over-two sash window, along with three small high-level vent openings to the right. These vents have deep reveals, segmental brick arched heads with brick dressings to the sides, and projecting sandstone sills. The first two vent openings are closed at the rear; the third is glazed.

The single-storey wing to the right of the main entrance has one segmental-headed two-over-two sash window with an exposed frame to the right, and two small high-level vent openings to the left as described above; the left-hand vent is blocked and the right-hand one is glazed. The right-hand end bay mirrors the left-hand end bay, with two windows to each floor, all sashed two-over-two, though the upper windows have exposed frames to the head.

East Elevation

The east elevation shows the two-storey side of the end block returning from the entrance front, one window wide, with one sash window to each floor and recessed frames, and a single-storey windowless extension to the left. The roofs are hipped and slated as before, with cast iron gutters and two cast iron downpipes. A television aerial is affixed below the eaves of the two-storey bay. The walls are of basalt rubble as elsewhere, with a white limestone base course to the single-storey portion, which runs into the slope of the hill to the left. The two-storey bay has a red firebrick chimney with modern clay pots, and the single-storey portion has two modern boiler flue pipes.

South Elevation

The south or rear elevation is asymmetrical and is described from right to left. At the right is the end of the east return wing, single-storey and partly built into the hillside, with basalt rubble walling, a brick and sandstone eaves course, a partly missing cast iron gutter, a flue pipe, and a hipped slated roof. Moving left, a red brick door screen contains a rectangular timber ledged door reached by winding concrete steps descending from the higher ground at the rear of the building. These steps are enclosed by red brick walls, a curved retaining wall to the east, and to the west a red brick former outside lavatory, now stripped of its fittings and door.

Further left, a low curved basalt rubble wall with rough copings forms a parapet to the flat lead roof of a single-storey block that abuts a two-storey gabled block on the same axis as the main front entrance. This gabled block has a steeply pitched slated roof with overhanging timber barge boards and finial as on the entrance front, and a brick chimney on the ridge. The gable walling is of basalt rubble with some red brick quoins. At ground level there are two windows with red brick flat arch heads, red brick long-and-short dressings to the sides, and sandstone sills flush with the wall; these windows are now blocked with red brick. Above the window openings is a recessed circular panel of red brick in a red brick surround.

To the left of the gable is a single-storey wing of red brick with a brick cornice. This contains two rectangular timber two-over-two sash windows with projecting sandstone sills that appear to have been cut down from longer sills. The roof is slated as before and overhangs the wall without a gutter. Two PVC soil pipes are present. The wing extends left into the end of the west return, which is also of red brick and in the same plane. It has a hipped slated roof overhanging without a gutter. There are two windows here: one rectangular timber two-over-two sash window as described on the rear elevation, and one small one-over-one sash window with translucent glass and a cut-down sandstone sill. A PVC soil pipe is at the left-hand extremity.

West Elevation

The west elevation shows the two-storey side of the west return, which runs into the hillside to the right. The roof is hipped and slated as before, with one chimney across the ridge near the left-hand end. The basalt rubble walling has squared-edge quoins at the left-hand extremity and red brick quoining, newly pointed, at the right-hand extremity. A cast iron gutter with a cast iron downpipe is fitted, though the gutter stops short of the right-hand end without being closed.

The windows and openings, described from left to right, are as follows. At ground floor level to the left is a segmental-headed timber two-over-two sash window as on the entrance front, with an exposed frame to the head, in a brick surround with a projecting sandstone sill. Directly above at first floor is a similar but smaller window with a recessed frame. To the right is a pair of coupled rectangular timber sliding sash windows, two-over-two panes with horns and exposed frames to the heads, set in original segmental brick arches whose intrados have been levelled off with smooth cement render; the jambs and central pier have been rebuilt in new firebrick, and there are projecting sandstone sills. Directly above at first floor level is a very narrow rectangular timber one-over-one sliding sash window with horns and an exposed frame to the head, set in an original brick surround with a projecting sandstone sill. To the right of this are three further similar narrow first-floor sash windows, positioned above four vent openings in deep reveals as described previously; all vents are blocked at the rear of the recess. At the far right-hand end, at first floor level, is a single slit opening dressed in brick with a recessed sill; the reveals splay inwards to the interior, and the opening is fitted with a fixed light of plate glass.

Courtyard

The main entrance on the north elevation leads into the courtyard. The entrance area is roofed over with tongued-and-grooved pine sheeting. The floor surface is cobbled with loose chippings to the margins, granite kerbing to the exterior edges, and a pair of modern concrete tapering hexagonal bollards to the interior line. The inner face of the entrance gable has the end truss faced with vertical boarding as on the outer face.

The courtyard elevation on the north side has a single-storey wing to each side of the entrance opening, with basalt rubble walls and red brick dressings to the openings, some of which are partly rebuilt. The door fanlights are of translucent glass above modern ledged doors with modern brass handles. The main entrance opening on the courtyard side has rounded-edge jambs. Shaped red sandstone shoulders to the original opening carry a deep timber beam; this opening has subsequently been closed in with later basalt walling to contain a rectangular two-over-two sash window and a rectangular ledged pine door with a tongued-and-grooved pine panel above.

The courtyard elevation on the east side has a new doorway in a short angled red brick wall at the corner, with three bays of new tongued-and-grooved pine walling containing rectangular timber two-over-two sash windows and rectangular ledged pine doors with translucent fanlights, inserted between the large timber posts of the original openings. One sill is cut-down sandstone and one is concrete. The courtyard roofs on this side are slated as before, with PVC gutters and downpipes.

The courtyard elevation on the south side has a central three-storey gable on the same axis as the main entrance, flanked to the left by a single-storey high wall of basalt and red brick containing two doorways, and to the right by a two-storey block. The central gable has a segmental arched doorway at ground floor level flanked by two narrow slit openings, a segmental arched two-over-two sash window at first floor level alongside a segmental arched doorway created from a similar window that has been lowered, and an ocular window in recessed red brick surrounds at the apex of the gable. The gable has overhanging barge boards and a finial matching those on the entrance. The two-storey block has a segmental arched doorway at ground floor level with a new ledged pine door flanked by high-level slit openings, and two segmental arched doorways in a red brick gablet at first floor level. All doors are new and of ledged pine. A modern iron stairway on circular iron posts rises from left to right and returns across the west side of the courtyard as a first-floor balcony with a symmetrically arranged double return flight of steps.

The courtyard elevation on the west side is two-storey, of basalt and red brick. At ground floor level there are two segmental-headed one-over-one sash windows with projecting sandstone sills, flanked on each side by new doors, those to the right set within newly created porch recesses. At first floor level there are three doors, each set beneath a small gablet with overhanging barge boards and finials, separated by two segmental-headed two-over-two sash windows with exposed frames. The central gablet has a sandstone shield at its apex bearing the date 1881 in raised letters, though part of this is broken off.

Setting

The building stands on an elevated site within the grounds of Magheramorne House, in a pleasant rural setting with distant views of Larne Lough to the north and no other buildings in close proximity. A public road runs close by to the rear. The building is seen against the backdrop of a well-treed hillside, with sloping grassed areas to each side and a gravel-surfaced car parking area to the front. To the north stands what appears to be a contemporary silage pit — a small rectangular concrete area bounded on three sides by rubble walls, of modest scale and no architectural pretension. The boundary to the rear road is formed by a low basalt rubble wall with a pedestrian gateway immediately to the south of the building and a vehicular gateway to the east. Both gateways have square piers of basalt rubble built to courses with block quoins of red brick and weathered concrete caps. The smaller gateway has plain wrought ironwork; the larger has ornamental cast ironwork in the High Victorian style.