Rose Cottage/Bayview

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The property is divided into two dwelling units facing west overlooking Portballintrae Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. It is reached a little short of two miles by the road that travels in a north-westerly direction from Bushmills.

The buildings are set at an angle to the roadway and fronted by small lawns interspersed with pieces of polygonal basalt.

The buildings are single storey with roof spaces lighted by small plain windows in the gables. The finish is roughcast and whitened. The roofs are thatched between cement skews. There are two rows of scollops at the ridge and one at the eaves. Each gable rises to a corbel-topped chimneystack and there are two further stacks on the ridgeline.

Entry to the houses is by means of timber sheeted half doors furnished with decorative hinges, latches, postal flaps and yale locks.
Four 12-pane casement windows light the front elevation one on either side of the entrances. The sills are narrow.

At the rear starting from the north corner there are a pair of vertically sliding windows with plain sashes and then a panelled door glazed in the upper part. Following this a bedroom/bathroom extension is flat roofed with deep timber fascia and lighted by modern timber windows all finished in stain. This is all that may be seen from the rear as the remainder is obscured by a pitched roof garage. Between this feature and the main house a kitchen extension, entered by a timber sheeted half door, is of similar construction to the projection already noted. A window on the wall face between the projections is made up of two lights each 2x3

Historical information

A building matching the present is shown on this site on the OS map of 1832 / 33. The entry concerning the property in the valuation of c.1835 is confusing however, for on the accompanying map the building is given the reference number ‘6’, but this has been stroked out at some point, (probably around 1838 when the rateable threshold was upped to £5), and the number ‘5’ written in its place. The reference ‘5’ in the valuation book is recorded as a ‘watch house and boat house’ (i.e. an early form of coast guard station) measuring 15½ft x 13½ x 6½ with another building [?presumably the boat house] measuring 94 x 14½ x 7½, however, the quality letter given for both buildings is ‘1B’, implying that both were slated. Reference ‘6’, on the other hand, is recorded as a thatched house, with dimensions given as 14 x 24 x 7¾, with a taller section of 25 x 24 x 11, and a stable of 12 x 19 x 5, but none of these dimensions appear to match the building we see today. To make matters worse the map to accompany the second valuation of 1859 is currently missing from PRONI, so it is difficult to determine any details regarding the building at that point.

The building was visited on 21 March 1972 during the First Survey of historic buildings in Northern Ireland, when it noted that the roof was finished with roped (pegged) thatch. A report by Alan Gailey in 1976 confirmed that this technique was used, although apparently in a hybrid form, and that it was a classic example of the type characteristic of North Antrim, and a small part of Co. Galway.

Re-thatching was carried out in 1977. A planning application for the erection of extensions and a garage at the rear was made in 1983, and the scheme completed the following year.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/1/3 OS map, County Antrim sheet 3, with valuation
references (1832 / 33-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/140 First valuation, Dunluce (c.1835)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/1/34A Second valuation, Dunluce (1859) [The referenced OS map to accompany this valuation is currently missing.]

Secondary sources
1 Girvan, W.D., ‘Lists of Historic Buildings…North Antrim’ (Belfast, 1972), p.23

Other references
1 EHS Report by Alan Gailey to Historic Buildings Branch, DOE, 16 April 1976
2 EHS Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, report by Michele McFaul to EHS, 19 April 1994
3 EHS Alterations illustrated on Sketch Plan no.4, by John K. Chivers, June 2000

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This pair of houses face west over Portballantrae Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.The part to the south has been substantially altered to provide suitable living accommodation and it is likely that a similar scheme will be carried out on the other dwelling in the future. In a manner similar to the majority of thatched vernacular buildings concentration has been on preservation of the appearance of the front elevation. The casement windows with narrow sills are not offensive and in this case may be treated as variants.
The pegged thatch was superseded some time ago.