White Harbour, Knocknagulliagh, Whitehead, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38

White Harbour is a small industrial harbour of the mid-19th century, constructed around 1850 by David S. Kerr of Red Hall, Ballycarry to service his adjoining limestone quarry and brick manufactory. It is situated on the seaward side of the Belfast-Larne railway line, just north of Cloghan Point and 1 kilometre south-west of Whitehead, accessed by a bridge under the line. The harbour occupies a spectacular setting at the foot of a steep escarpment.

The harbour is carefully constructed with dressed limestone blocks and is of particular architectural interest for its plan form, which offsets the exposure of the coastline by aligning the sea wall parallel with the shore and narrowing the entrance to minimise swell within. The substantial masonry pier is faced with finely dressed limestone blocks, undoubtedly quarried locally, laid to courses with a string course along its outside face. The pier curves around at its south-west end to a rounded terminal pier which marks the entrance to the harbour. A raised walkway runs around the landward side of the sea wall. Towards the south-west end is a gap marking the former position of a timber jetty which projected out to sea. The sides of the harbour are also of dressed limestone blocks laid to courses, with rounded inner corners. Two recesses along the south-east side indicate the former position of cranes. The quayside around the three sides of the harbour is flagged with steps into the harbour at its north-east corner. Many coping stones are now loose and the north-east end of the sea wall has fallen away as a result of wave action.

Just beyond the north-east side of the harbour is a trapezoidal single-bay, single-storey former stable now used as a store, with rubble limestone walls and a replacement curved corrugated metal roof. An infilled window opening and doorway survive on its north-west elevation. A relatively modern corrugated metal lean-to abutting its south-east side is now used as a boat repair workshop.

Refurbishment works in the 1990s include timber mooring pontoons along the north-east and south-east sides, a wire fence around the site, a rubble stone breakwater just beyond the harbour mouth, and a concrete slipway just outside the north-east end of the pier.

The access bridge under the railway is a single segmental masonry span of rock-faced limestone blocks, widened on both sides in reinforced concrete in 1929, a date carried on its north-west parapet. At the same time, a two-span metal girder viaduct leading to the south end of this bridge was replaced by an earth and stone embankment.

A short distance west of the access bridge is a house which was undoubtedly once associated with Kerr's enterprise. When surveyed in 1988, only the foundations survived; a new house has since been built on its footprint incorporating the original rebuilt south-east façade.

In the vicinity of the house are the remains of clay pits and the side wall to the former brick kiln, constructed of brick over a rubble limestone foundation. North of the clay workings is an overgrown limestone quarry which was the focus of the harbour's activity.

The harbour is cited on the 1857 Ordnance Survey map and subsequent editions. It was used by pleasure cruisers to the Copeland Islands in the early 1900s. The harbour and pier are both captioned on the 1964 Ordnance Survey map, but were probably little used by then. By the 1980s, the entrance had silted up making the harbour unusable. In the 1990s, it was restored by its present owner for use as a private mooring. The harbour reflects the fact that transportation by sea was the best means of conveying the quarried limestone and manufactured bricks from this site, and its value is enhanced by the remains of the brick kilns on the landward side of the railway line and the accommodation bridge under the line. It is of local historical interest in signifying the industrial development of this locality in the mid-19th century.