Bay Cottage, Bay Road, Carnlough, BT44 0LH

Bay Cottage is a one-and-a-half-storey formal house of probable mid to late 18th century construction, set within a flat field roughly 100 metres off Bay Road — part of the main Antrim Coast Road — approximately 2 kilometres south of Carnlough, and accessed by a long laneway. The house sits within a well-tended garden and is circled by a concrete flagged path. It is believed to stand close to the site of a mid-17th century castle or fortified dwelling.

The building is rectangular in plan with a large full-height return spanning much of the rear. The walls are finished in light brown dry dash render with a smooth render base, wall edgings, and rendered window and door surrounds. The pitched roof is finished with natural slate, with a plain red fireclay ridge. Chimneystacks are centrally positioned on all three main gables, finished to match the walls and each topped with decorative clay pots. The eaves and verges overhang slightly; fascias and bargeboards are painted timber and rainwater goods appear to be pressed steel.

There are a number of gabled dormer windows: three symmetrically arranged to the front section, and one wider dormer to either side of the return. The sides of all dormers are fully glazed, and the dormer roofs repeat the detailing of the porch roof.

The front elevation faces roughly east and is symmetrical. At its centre is a single-storey gabled porch, with the entrance positioned to its south side, fitted with a modern half-glazed timber door. The upper sections of the porch walls are glazed, resting on a rendered masonry base. The porch roof is slated with fireclay ridge tiles and an overhang with plain bargeboards and a finial. To either side of the porch, the main house has two flat-headed window openings fitted with replacement painted timber frames of the top-hung variety, made to resemble 6-over-6 Georgian-style sashes.

The south gable of the main block has two small high-level window openings with 9-light side-hung painted timber frames, and a chamfered projecting plinth. The north gable merges with the north face of the rear return and similarly has a chamfered plinth, though this one does not span the full width of the gable. Window openings and frames to both sections are mainly consistent with those elsewhere on the building, with the opening to the return being wider.

The rear return is one-and-a-half storeys and gabled. Its window openings are informally arranged, varying in size and shape, with a number wider than those in the main block. There is an unusual semicircular-headed opening to the right on the ground floor of the rear west gable. A chimney breast projects from the centre of the rear gable. The return, in its present form, appears to date from the early to mid 20th century. The porch, dormers, and overhanging roof are characteristic of the mid to late 19th century. The property has undergone extensive renovation in relatively recent years, including the application of the dry dash render. A collection of outbuildings that once stood to the south and west of the house has been entirely cleared away.

Certain interior details — notably the staircase, glazing to some of the doors, and one of the fireplaces — suggest that work was carried out to the building around 1840, possibly at the same time the original rear return was added.

The history of the house and its site is well documented. A building matching the size and orientation of the present main block appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. The valuation of 1833 describes it as an old slated house in good repair, occupied by William Martin Esquire and carrying the notable rateable value of £12-2-8. The house was recorded as measuring 40¾ feet by 25½ by 12, with a substantial collection of outbuildings to the south recorded as follows: three slated buildings measuring 29½ by 10½ by 5, 26½ by 20 by 8½, and 10½ by 20 by 10; and nine thatched outbuildings measuring 34½ by 18 by 6, 17½ by 14¼ by 6½, 18½ by 18¾ by 7, 35½ by 22 by 6½, 19 by 9 by 4½, and 30 by 18 by 6½.

By the time of the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1857, the house is marked as Bay Cottage, a rear return had been added, and further outbuildings had been constructed to the south and south-east. The 1859 valuation records the main section of the house as measuring 15 yards by 9 by 1½ storeys, with the return at 7 by 5 by 2 storeys, and lists numerous outbuildings both slated and thatched. At that time the property was held by Hugh Martin from the Antrim Estate on a lease of 31 years taken a few years previously, and with the additions, its rateable value had risen to £16.

Hugh Martin died in 1873, and two years later Bay Cottage was sold at public auction to George Acheson for £1,575. According to local historian Felix McKillop, Acheson sold the property in 1903 to an Alexander McKay of Glasgow for £1,400, though McKay does not appear in any of the valuation books for this period. In 1928 Bay Cottage, and apparently its freehold, was acquired by Henry Kane. Kane died in 1935 and his wife Mary continued living there until 1952, when the house and its land were purchased by the Antrim Estates Company Ltd. Part of the farmland subsequently appears to have become a caravan site for a period, and in 1964 the Company sold the property back into private hands.

The age of the main block is difficult to determine precisely, given the extent of alterations over the years. The fact that the 1833 valuers considered it already old suggests a mid to late 18th century date, though no pre-19th century maps of the area or relevant documentation within the Antrim Papers or any other archive have been found to confirm this. According to McKillop, both Daniel Martin (1726–1792) and his son James Martin (1760–1829) — the grandfather and father of the William Martin recorded in 1833 — are said to have lived at Bay, with Daniel serving as agent and receiver for the then landlords, the McNaughten family. This is consistent with a tradition that the house may originally have been built as the agent's dwelling for the former landowners.

Before the McNaughtens, the land at Bay — originally known as Moyglinne — was held by the Donaldsons, a prominent local family believed to have been kinsmen of the Earls of Antrim. In 1633, John Donaldson is believed to have spent £500 building a castle in the immediate vicinity of the present dwelling. This was probably more of a fortified house than a tower house, but was nonetheless a substantial residence for its time. It is recorded as having four hearths in the hearth money rolls of 1669, and is described by Richard Dobbs in his survey of 1683 as a pretty slate house in the middle of the Bay. A barn belonging to the castle is said to have been converted by James Donaldson into a meeting house for Presbyterians ejected from the parish church at Glenarm following the enactment of the Act of Uniformity in 1661. Writing in 1911, archaeologist and historian H.C. Lawlor stated that one of the outbuildings belonging to Bay Cottage occupied the site of the castle; unfortunately all outbuildings on the property — including one that appears to have abutted the north-west gable of the house itself — were cleared away during the mid to late 20th century.

The property does not meet the statutory and policy tests for listing as a building of special architectural or historic interest. Though its probable mid to late 18th century date and its association with the site of the 17th century Donaldson castle are of local note, the character of the building has been seriously compromised by changes carried out in the mid to late 19th century, the apparent rebuilding of the return in the early to mid 20th century, and extensive recent renovations including the application of dry dash render.