Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB05/01/012

Address :
Kilmore House 10 Glassmullan Road Glenariff Ballymena Co. Antrim BT44 0QZ

Townland:
Kilmore

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
23/10/1980 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
35/1SW

IG Ref:
D2263 2323

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey with attic rendered former country house, built c.1908, abutting the gabled north side elevation of an earlier four-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1830 facing east with two-storey rear return. Irregular on plan and set on a sloping mature site on the east side of Glasmullen Road. The later north block has hipped natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and uPVC clad flat-roofed dormers. Three tall rough-cast rendered chimneystacks with terracotta pots and terracotta capping with classical stucco mouldings. Moulded cast-iron guttering supported on overhanging eaves cornice in turn supported on a series of modillions with cast-iron downpipes. Painted rough-cast cement rendered walling with rusticated render quoins, moulded render plinth course and continuous plain sill bands at both levels. Camber-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and replacement timber sliding sash windows (largely 4/1, 6/1 and 8/1) with ogee horns (replacement mulit-pane timber casement windows to dormers). Symmetrical three-bay (9 openings) two-storey front elevation has a central entrance bay flanked by full-height three-sided canted bay windows having lead-lined roofs, cornice between floors and tripartite windows. The entrance comprises a central square-headed door opening with replacement double-leaf timber panelled doors, flanked by plain pilasters surmounted by large scrolled console brackets supporting an open-bed segmental pediment. Flanking the doorcase are slender sidelights with replacement 4/1 timber sliding sash windows, all framed by rusticated quoined pilasters with cornice spanning entire entrance. The door opens onto a later concrete paved platform. Stepped four-bay east side elevation with stucco dressings as per front elevation, all 8/1 timber sliding sash windows. The rear south elevation is abutted by the earlier two-storey house to the east side and a two-storey connecting section to the west side (see below *). Stepped three-bay west side elevation with a single-storey lean-to structure to the re-entrant angle. Detailed as per front elevation with a large camber-headed stairlight to the right above lean-to having tripartite fixed-pane timber window housing leaded coloured glazing. *Four-bay two-storey rendered earlier house to the south has pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, three rendered chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots and cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to rendered eaves course and cast-iron downpipes. Painted rough-cast rendered walling with painted masonry channel-rusticated quoins. Camber-headed window openings with painted masonry sills (continuous sill course to first floor) and replacement sliding timber sash windows (4/8 to first floor, 8/4 to ground floor and some single-pane to the rear and return) with ogee horns. Four-bay two-storey front elevation (E) with elliptical-headed door opening off-centre to the right having an original timber doorcase. Replacement timber panelled door flanked by engaged Doric columns and slender sidelights having rusticated sill aprons with stepped lintel cornice and elliptically glazed fanlight. The archivolt moulding rises from a pair of ribbed pilasters with simulated panelling to the reveals. Door opens onto original stepped sandstone platform. The south side elevation has a single off-centre window opening at each level with overhanging eaves finished with a stepped bargeboard and sheeted eaves with brackets. The west rear elevation has a two-bay two-storey return set at an angle to the centre and a shallow two-storey accretion to either side. Square-headed window openings to the return, camber-headed to both accretions with painted masonry sills and replacement single-pane timber sliding sash windows throughout. Roof Natural slate RWG Cast-iron Walling Painted rough-cast render / stucco Windows Replacement timber sliding sash Setting: Located on an extensive mature sloping site to the east of Glasmullen Road with bitmac forecourts and driveways to the north and east, paved sports areas to the east, a parking area to the west and south enclosed by rendered walling and steel railings. Bitmac avenue runs along a stream opening onto the road via decorative wrought-iron gates hung on rendered piers with matching curved walls and further piers.

Architects

Historical Information

Kilmore House is an extensive former country house which consists of a large two-and-a-half-storey Edwardian block with earlier Georgian-era wings to its south side. The house was constructed in stages and parts of the building may date from as early as the 18th century, however the current façade of the house was built in 1907-08. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland (1879) notes that the townland of Kilmore was occupied by the landowning McDonnell family from at least the early-18th century. The first recorded occupant of the site was Coll McDonnell, a gentleman who leased 10 acres of land in Kilmore from the Earl of Antrim and established a dwelling there in 1706. The site passed to Coll’s son Alexander in 1742 and then to his grandson John in 1803 before being occupied by his great-grandson Randal in 1815. The McDonnell family initially resided in an early-Georgian dwelling which had been constructed in the townland in c. 1706 (PRONI - Earl of Antrim Leases). The two-storey four-bay farmhouse (located to the south side of the two-and-a-half-storey Edwardian block) had been constructed by 1832 when it was depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map along its current layout; the map also depicted the two-storey extension which extends from the west of the structure. The contemporary Townland Valuations (c. 1834) described the new farmhouse as a 1A class dwelling (that is a new or nearly new slated building) that was valued at £9 and 9 shillings and measured 40ft in length by 24.6ft in breadth and 19ft in height. The return which was depicted on the ordnance survey maps extending from the west elevation of the building was described as a 2C+ structure (a thatched building that was old but in good repair). It is possible that this thatched building (which predated the rest of the farmhouse) was the McDonnell family’s previous dwelling on the site, however it cannot be confirmed with certainty whether any trace of this structure survives at the site. The Townland Valuations also noted that the site possessed a barn, a stable and a byre to the west side of the farmhouse. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs (1830-38) recorded that the farmhouse at Kilmore was originally known as Ballinlig and described the site in the following terms: ‘[It] is a very neat and commodious two-storey house … it’s situation is exceedingly romantic and picturesque, seated at the base of the lofty and precipitous mountain which forms the north west side of the beautiful valley of Glenariff’ (OSM, p. 48). By the mid-19th century Ballinlig had passed to Randal McDonnell’s eldest son Alexander. Griffith’s Valuation (1859) increased the value of the house to £10 and noted that a gate lodge (valued at 10 shillings) had been erected at the main entrance to the site (now demolished). The contemporary second edition Ordnance Survey map (1857) recorded that no significant change had been made to the layout of the site since the 1830s. Following Alexander McDonnell’s death in 1862, Ballinlig was occupied by his younger brother, Col. John McDonnell, a local magistrate who remained at the site until his own death in 1905. McDonnell’s residence became known as Kilmore House by at least the turn of the 20th century as it was recorded under this name by the third edition Ordnance Survey map (1903). Following the death of Col. John McDonnell Kilmore House passed to his nephew Capt. William A. Silvertop of Northumberland in 1905. The Silvertop family were responsible for the extension of the house in 1907-08. The Edwardian extension was designed by Nicholas Fitzsimmons (1869-c. 1940), a Belfast-based architect who entered into partnership with Robert Graeme Watt and Frederick Tulloch in 1909. Fitzsimons’s original plans show that the extension consisted of the two-and-a-half-storey Edwardian block to the north side of the Georgian farmhouse. The plans of Kilmore House record that the interior floorplan of the original farmhouse was changed to incorporate the kitchen, dining room, a study and private chapel whilst the new block consisted of a drawing room and billiards room (at ground floor), bedrooms and bathrooms (at first floor) and servants quarters (in the attic storey). The construction of the Edwardian extension resulted in an increase in the value of Kilmore House and its outbuildings to £60 (DIA). William Silvertop served in France during the First World War but, following his death in 1917, the house was sold and passed out of the McDonnell family. Kilmore House had been purchased outright by James McGuire by at least the 1930s and was decreased in value to £40 and 15 shillings under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57). The Maguire family continued to reside at Kilmore House until c. 1950 when the property was occupied by the Most Rev. Dr. D. Mageean, the Roman Catholic Lord Bishop of Down and Connor (1882-1962). The Bishop retained Kilmore House until c. 1960 when the building was converted into a holiday home for visitors to the North Coast, administered by the Trustees of Kilmore Holiday House. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) Kilmore House and its outbuildings had been increased in value to £112. Kilmore House was listed in 1980 and continues to be utilised as holiday accommodation, however at the time of the Second Survey the building was advertised for sale. References Primary Sources 1. PRONI D2977/3A/4/1/37 – Lease from Earl of Antrim to Coll McDonnell, Kilmore (1706) 2. PRONI D2977/3A/4/75/1 – Lease from Earl of Antrim to Alexander McDonnell, Kilmore (1742) 3. PRONI D2977/3A/4/75/7 – Lease from Earl of Antrim to Randal McDonnell, Kilmore (1815) 4. PRONI OS/6/1/20/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832) 5. PRONI OS/6/1/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1857) 6. PRONI OS/6/1/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1903) 7. PRONI OS/6/1/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1921) 8. PRONI VAL/1/A/1/20 – Townland Valuation Map (c. 1830) 9. PRONI VAL/1/B/148A-D – Townland Valuations (c. 1834) 10. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/40A-B – Griffith’s Valuation (c. 1859) 11. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/19A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1923) 12. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/13A – Annual Revisions (1923-29) 13. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/4 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) 14. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/10 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72) 15. PRONI D2977/37/14/8 – Specifications for additions and alterations to Kilmore House (1907) 16. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Antrim IV, Vol. 13 (1830-38) 17. A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland (1879) 18. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918) 19. First Survey Record – HB05/01/012 (1971) 20. NIEA HB Record – HB05/01/012 Online Resources 1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http:// www.dia.ie/

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form H+. Alterations enhancing the building I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

T. Historic Importance V. Authorship Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance X. Local Interest R. Age S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey with attic rendered former house, built c.1910, abutting the gabled north side elevation of an earlier four-bay two-storey rendered house, built c.1830 facing east with two-storey rear return. The two distinct building periods displayed on this building offer a very readable development of the site. The façade composition and details have been retained and add architectural interest to the structure whilst occupying an idyllic mature setting in the Glens of Antrim. Its interest is enhanced by the fine internal detailing.

General Comments

Date of Survey

27 January 2015