Rock Castle

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The building has been demolished and a large two-storey modern building built on the site adjacent to the location of the original building.

First survey card has the following description: "A two-storey rendered building with plain parapets. The three bay central block with segmental ended porch is flanked either side by circular drum towers. Unrecessed four pane wide windows are Georgian-glazed, the entrance is segmental pointed. Additions have [been] made at various periods; there is a modern bungalow immediately to north".

Historical information

Rock Castle, demolished in 2001, dated from c1820 and was built by Henry O’Hara who later constructed the dwelling known as ‘O’Hara’s Castle’ on a promontory further to the north. ‘Rock Castle’ is shown, captioned, on the first edition OS map of 1830 and is referred to in OS Memoirs of 1835 as a bathing residence that was usually let during the summer. Scathingly, OS Memoirs also describe the house as deriving ‘its name from the style of its architecture, in which little taste is displayed’. This account is usually taken as referring to O’Hara’s castle on the promontory. However, O’Hara’s castle was newly-built in 1835 and is unlikely to be the building described. It is the current building that was known as ‘Rock Castle’ in the 1830s. (OS Memoirs)

The house was rented to J R White of White Hall, Ballymena and his wife during the summer of 1835 and on 6th July she gave birth to her son George at Rock Castle. George White later became a Field Marshall and was awarded the Victoria Cross during the Afghan Wars in 1880. He was acclaimed as the defender of Ladysmith during the Boer War and visited Coleraine in June 1900 to great acclamation . (McDonald and Anderson)

On the second edition of 1856 the building is captioned ‘Low Rock Castle’ and it is valued in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) at £12 but ‘requires some repair’. The building was vacant at the time but was the property of Alexander Shuldham Esq. The house was let out for some years and in 1885 was sold to Thomas Mackey, a wine merchant of Coleraine, at which time it comprised 23 rooms including three reception rooms, nine bedrooms, kitchen, pantries and two WCs. Extensive outbuildings comprised a large coachhouse, stable, byre and a house for the coachman, the whole ‘romantically situated on an acre of ground’. (Belfast Newsletter) In 1908 valuer’s notes record that the house was let for the summer season of three months a year and was otherwise vacant.

The house passed to James Leslie c1920 and then to the Wilsons in the 1930s. The house was run as a boarding house in the summer but was closed in the winter. Valuer’s notes of this period show the house with bays and porch, a rear return with dining room, pantry and scullery and a stable block to the south which had been converted into rooms for boarders and staff. The house accommodated about 30 guests.

In 1945 the property was purchased for £3000 by Robina Young and the interior was completely modernised, part of the building accommodating an overflow of visitors from the Strand Hotel. Rock Castle was demolished in 2001 without permission during the construction of a block of apartments that now occupy the site.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/3/1 First Edition OS Map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/3/2 Second Edition OS map 1856
3. PRONI OS/6/5/3/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/3/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1922-39
5. PRONI OS/6/5/3/5 Fifth Edition OS Map 1939-50
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/539A-B Townland Valuation (1828-40)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/10 Griffiths Valuation (1861)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/17A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/18 First General Revaluation 1933-57
10. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/8/A/1 First General Revaluation 1933-57
11. Belfast Newsletter 13th February 1885
12. HB file – 03/08/005

Secondary Sources

1. Day, A., P. McWilliams, English L., eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Londonderry XII, 1829-30, 1832, 1834-6, Vol. 33.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1995.
2. McDonald, T and Anderson, R “Memories in Focus: NE Ulster from old photographs 1850-1950 Volumes 1 to 4” 1981-83

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Rock Castle was a two-storey rendered late Georgian house comprised of a three bay central block with a segmental ended porch flanked either side by circular drum towers. It had a pitched roof with plain parapets The house was demolished in 2001 and a modern apartment block built on the site.