Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB06/02/001 I

Address :
Gate at town lodge Altmore Street Glenarm Ballymena Co Antrim

Townland:
Glenarm Town Parks

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Survey 2:
B1

Date of Listing:
23/10/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Gates/ Screens/ Lodges

Former Use
Gates/ Screens/ Lodges

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
45/12

IG Ref:
D3107 1493

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Castellated gate screen and walling of c.1840 fronting the ‘town’ entrance to the Glenarm Castle estate in squared basalt with red sandstone dressings with a Tudor arched gate and square outer piers. The gate screen is located at the S end of Altmore Street, on a slight slope next to the intersection of The Town Brae (Road). The gate screen is in squared (snecked) basalt with raised pointing, with dressings etc in dressed red [?Dumfriesshire] sandstone. To the ‘centre’ is a relatively tall portion with Tudor arched carriage entrance. The carriage entrance has a moulded sandstone dressed archivolt and decorative but relatively simple iron gates. Each ‘half’ of the gate has a small central roundel plaque displaying elements of the Antrim coat of arms thereon. To either side of the entrance on the front (N) face of this central portion of the screen there are sandstone dressed cross ‘arrow loop’ recesses. This portion is topped with a stepped parapet (in the Irish castellation fashion) with a small sandstone shield panel thereon. The parapet over sails slightly to N E and W and is supported to these sides on a dentil-like course of sandstone brackets. The parapet also has [?]sandstone coping. This central portion of the screen has in-out sandstone quoins. The walling to the immediate E and W of the central portion of the screen descends in stepped fashion to each side, with both sections of walling culminating in a square pier. The piers each have a pointed arch recess in sandstone to their face and an over sailing square cap with bracketed course and coping as aforementioned parapet. Beyond the pier to the E side the wall is much cruder, being constructed in random basalt rubble with rough coping. To the immediate W of the W pier the walling abuts an outbuilding belonging to no.29 Altmore Street. This outbuilding matches the gate screen in terms of materials and its Tudor arch.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Glenarm Castle estate was originally accessed from the village itself via what is now the Barbican Bridge. In fact, prior to the building of the Glenarm Bridge in 1823 this was the only means of crossing the river itself and the only physical link between the main eastern portion of the village and another row of houses which stood on the west side of the river, just south of the castle itself. In the 1750s, in keeping with the prevailing taste for keeping estate villages separate from the estate itself, Alexander McDonnell, the 5th Earl of Antrim, cleared away much of the housing on the west bank of the river and ‘formalised’ the grounds immediately surrounding the newly ‘rebuilt’ Glenarm Castle; however, the fact that the (now barbican) bridge was still the only means for travellers to cross the river meant that the castle grounds could not yet achieve splendid isolation. Documentary evidence shows that during the later 1770s the 6th Earl had plans to complete the separation of castle and village by building a new bridge to the north (on the site of the present Glenarm Bridge), thus allowing traffic to by pass the grounds completely, but this was not followed through and, as stated above, it was left to his daughter, Anne Katherine, Countess of Antrim, to build the present bridge in 1823 and finally close off the estate. With this completed Countess and her second husband, Edmund (Phelps) McDonnell, were free to make the old bridge to the south a private entrance to the castle grounds, which they duly did in 1825, commissioning Richard and William (Vitruvius) Morrison, (who were in the process of remodelling the castle itself), to construct the ‘Barbican’ lodge. This edifice, whilst striking in its own way, could not fulfil the role of a grand main entrance, however, for it immediately brought the visitor to within a few yards of the service wing of the castle, an experience far removed from the grand romantic vistas which the main drives to other contemporary country houses afforded. There was another entrance to the north, off the present Straidkilly Road, but this appears to have been little better, passing estate farm buildings along the way. It was probably in order to create such a grand drive that either Anne Katherine or her successors Countess Charlotte, or Hugh, the 7th Earl (or a combination of all three) set about the establishment of a new entrance at the south end of Altmore Street, widening the street itself and erecting the above described Tudoresque gate screen and gate lodge beyond. This lead the visitor to the castle along a tree lined drive southwards, then west over the river via a ‘rustic bridge’ before heading northwards, the castle in its glory picturesquely set in the distance. The OS map of 1903 shows that by that stage a ‘foot bridge’ had replaced the rustic bridge, suggesting that the drive was no longer in use for vehicles. Changing tastes, the advent of the motor car, or simply the need to replace an old bridge with something cheaper may have dictated this. The town gate has remained in use as a means of quickly accessing the forested portions of the estate to the east of the river, but with the repositioning of the (iron) foot bridge a mile and half to the south in c.1991 the entrance it ceased to be used as a ‘drive’ to the castle. References- Primary sources 1 PRONI D.2977 Antrim Papers 2 PRONI OS/6/1/29/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1832-33 3 PRONI OS/6/1/29/2 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1857 4 PRONI OS/6/1/29/3 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1903

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation J. Setting K. Group value

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Castellated gate screen and walling of c.1840 fronting the ‘town’ entrance to the Glenarm Castle estate and forming the ceremonial connection between the estate and the associated settlement. It is in squared basalt with red sandstone dressings. The Tudor arched gate has a square outer pier.

General Comments

Previously recorded as HB06/02/020.

Date of Survey

14 May 2001