'House'

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Very small, low, two storey basalt rubble constructed building of with slated gabled roof, believed to have originally been built (pre 1830s) as a house but latterly used as a store. The property is set right on the shore front at ‘The Berrins’, to the south of Portstewart town centre, backing on to a rocky outcrop and looking out over a narrow public footpath (the ‘Port Path’) to a rocky shoreline.

The front elevation faces W and is asymmetrical. To the right of centre is a doorway with recent plain sheeted timber door. The doorway has a recent concrete lintel with the rerst of the opening patched with cement render. To the left of the doorway is a small window opening, now boarded up; its reveal is also patched in cement. To the right of the doorway is a similar opening. A cement rendered ‘platform’ extends from the base of the elevation. A small hexagonal plaque has recently been placed to the left of the left hand ‘window’, this plaque reads ‘Berne Salmon Fishery Fisherman’s Cottage circa 1600’.

Only the upper half of the N gable is visible as the ground level is higher to this side. This higher ground is retained by a battered rubble wall which abuts the very right-hand edge of the gable. An outline to the gable suggests that there was originally an earlier single storey building to the north of this (and which map evidence suggests had been removed some time prior to c.1830).

The S gable has a doorway with timber sheeted door to the right on the upper level, which is reached via a stone ramp. The doorway has timber jambs and a timber lintel, with a course of [?]concrete bricks above the lintel. To the left of the doorway much of the flue area has been patched in brick. The bricks used are quite flat and appear to be early to mid 1800s at the latest. Out of the S gable rises a brick chimneystack with projecting slate course. The stack has been extended (in a much narrower form) in rendered brick and is topped with a recent clay pot.

The rear elevation is only visible at upper floor level (because of the higher ground to this side). There are no openings to this side.

The façade is in random basalt rubble with part of the S gable patched in brick. Significant areas of the façade (especially the front elevation) have been re-pointed using cement and some of this re-pointing has been overdone.

The gabled roof is slated and has ‘flat’ rendered parapets. No rw goods.

Historical information

A building matching the size and plan form of the present structure is shown on the OS map of 1830. The contemporary valuation supplies no record of the building in its own right but does show that it belonged to the near by ‘Rock Castle’, a large residence just to the northeast built by Henry O’Hara but not believed to have been finally completed until 1834.

The revised OS map of 1857 shows things much as 1830, but with the surrounding coastal area marked as ‘The Berrins’. The valuation of c.1862-63 tells us that by this point the building and a small portion of the rocky coastline around it was in the hands of Robert and Henry O’Neill rent free ‘for attending to fishing’. Once again the valuers make no specific detailed reference to the structure itself, but label it as an ‘office’ (i.e. an outbuilding) rather than a dwelling.

The O’Neills held the lease on the property until 1872 when it reverted to Alexander Shuldham, the then owner of Rock Castle. In 1878 it was leased to a Daniel Christie, then a Mrs Dunne in 1887, Matthew Black in 1889 and William Casement in 1894. By 1909, (by which point it was in the ownership Henry O’Hara O’Neill and leased to a Mrs Agnes Gilmore), the valuation notebook refers to it as ‘house, yard and grounds’.

The building appears to have remained in O’Neill family possession for much of the rest of the 20th century and appears to been used as a store for fishing equipment for much of the second half of the century at least.

A small plaque placed by the local council on the front façade states that the building dates from c.1600 and was originally a fisherman’s cottage. The writers have found no concrete evidence to support or refute this claim. There appears to little doubt that The Berrins (or ‘The Berne’) salmon fishery has been fished for many centuries and as such was undoubtedly a place of settlement at various periods, and there is little doubt that the building was built some time before 1830 and may once have been part of a short terrace (note the markings to the north gable), however no buildings are indicated in the area on a McDonnell estate map of 1734 and the external physical evidence is inconclusive.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI T.2325/1-2 Antrim estate maps, 1734
2 PRONI OS/6/5/3/1 OS map, Londonderry sheet 6, 1830
3 PRONI VAL/1B/539a-b First valuation, Ballyraghan, 1830
4 ‘OS Memoirs of Ireland’ vol.33 ed Angelique Day, Patrick McWilliams and Lisa English (QUB, 1993) [Descriptions of Rock Castle, c.1835]
5 PRONI OS/6/5/3/2 OS map, Londonderry, 1857
6 PRONI VAL/2B/5/10 Second valuation, Ballyraghan, 1862-63
7 PRONI VAL/12B/30/17a-g Annual valuation revision notebooks, Portstewart, 1864-c.1930

Secondary sources
1 W.D. Girvan, ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in Coleraine and Portstewart’ (Belfast,

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Very small, low, two storey basalt rubble constructed building of with slated gabled roof, believed to have originally been built as a house but latterly used as a store. A small plaque on the front façade claims that the building dates from c.1600.