Pump House, Garron Road, Carnlough, Ballymena, Co Antrim

Pump House, Garron Road, Carnlough

This mid-19th century pump house stands alongside the River Foaran on the Carnlough coast, built in 1854 to supply water to Garron Tower (now St MacNissi's College), a residence of the Londonderry family. The architect is not recorded, though Lewis Vulliamy of London, who designed enlargements to Garron Tower in 1852, may have been responsible. The building later also pumped water to a concrete reservoir constructed in 1863 on top of Dunmaul fort to provide pressure for the tower's fire-fighting water supply. Originally operated by direct drive, it was converted to electrically powered chain drive in the 1960s and has since been superseded by a newer pump house erected upstream by the Department of the Environment.

The building is a small rubble blackstone structure of square plan with dressed quoins and a moulded cornice. The east wall to the front features a blank mullioned and transomed sandstone window surmounted by a square label moulding of Tudor Revival type. A sheeted door in a block surround is positioned on the south side. Stone parapets run to the roofline, now finished roughly flat with a steel beam resting on top; these are the result of original crenellations that have been lost. At the building's base is a small semi-circular arched outlet into the river, and a piped connection at the rear connects to the cliff from where the river flows. A crack runs through the front wall, passing through the badly fractured window head; an iron tie bar binding the sides of the building high up has been installed to counteract this damage.

A circular concrete pipe enters the west wall above ground level and connects to a system of concrete-walled receptacles upstream that collect and direct water from below the mountain to the west, though the pipe's open end now carries no volume of water. The building is visible from the coast road, set in a field against a steeply rising rocky mountainous background, with the sea beyond the road to the east and a stream flowing alongside. Its original setting has been spoiled by the construction of a modern post-Second World War single-storey pumping station standing to the south of the stream uphill from the historic pump house. This modern station, with flat asphalt roof and dry dash render walls finished with white limestone chippings, is utilitarian in appearance and of no architectural merit.

The pump house remains in partially derelict condition and is considered of industrial archaeological interest. The River Fooran that it served is reputedly the shortest river in Ireland.