The Salmon Leap

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey slated, gabled, and rendered house, of plain appearance, with extensive late 20th century additions to the rear. Original main entrance faces north-east.

Entrance elevation: two-storey; gabled roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; oversailing eaves, with flat soffit supported on shaped brackets; pvc gutter, discharging at left-hand extremity into a short similar gutter on left-hand gable. Two chimneys one on each gable, smooth cement rendered with plain block cornice; modern stub pots.
Walling smooth cement rendered and painted with raised vertical strips at extremities, and plain projecting plinth.
Seven windows to first floor, rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, with horns, set in plain reveals, with projecting stone or concrete cills, painted.
Main entrance is in centre of ground floor: two-leaf modern timber doors, panelled, without door handle, surmounted by a rectangular single-pane fanlight recessed in deep plain reveals. Three windows to left of doorway, the end two being rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 1 over 1, with horns, set in plain reveals, with projecting painted concrete or stone cills, painted; hinged iron mesh grilles attached. Window immediately to left of entrance is later replacement, rectangular timber fixed light with top-hung vent, with reveals and cill as previous. Two windows to right of doorway: next to door, a wide 12-pane rectangular timber fixed light incorporating one Crown glass pane, surmounted by a pair of two-pane top-hung vents. To right of that is a 6-pane rectangular timber fixed light with a 2-pane top-hung vent; reveals and cills as previous. Over ground floor openings is the name ‘The Salmon Leap’ in large affixed modern plastic letters. At same level, projecting forward at each extremity, is a modern circular advertising sign.

Right-hand gable: two-storey with attic storey. Walling smooth rendered, lined and blocked; plain projecting plinth; smooth rendered verges. One window to each floor, to front portion of gable. Ground floor window rectangular timber 6-pane fixed light with 2-pane top-hung vent, with reveals and cill as previous; modern steel grille affixed. First floor window and attic window are both rectangular timber sliding sash, 1 over 1 with horns; reveals and cills as previous. Abutting gable just to right of ground floor window is a cement rendered wall forming boundary to adjoining property. Set back slightly to right of main gable is a dash-finished rendered wall of rear extension.

Left-hand gable: two-storeys with attic storey. Walling is rendered with roughcast; smooth rendered plinth and verges. Projecting forward are modern exterior steps in concrete with roughcast rendered walls surmounted by smooth rendered coping, rising as a dog-leg to first floor level; modern steel handrails affixed. Attic contains two window openings, rectangular, with plain reveals and projecting cills, both boarded up. First floor contains a rectangular flush timber fire escape door, without handle, opening onto exterior steps. Ground floor has no openings except for a small modern fixed light with top-hung vent in base of exterior stairway. Original gable extends to left-hand side with a plain wall, roofed to shallower pitch than main gable. Projecting from ground floor of rear return is a shallow single storey block with roof of synthetic slates, pvc gutter, timber fascia, with gablet over a pair of double doors, flush timber, set in plain raised surround; single storey block links with extensive modern additions to rear.

Rear elevation: roof of original front block is of synthetic slates, sweeping onto shallower pitch of rear extension, with similar slates. Only upper portion of rear wall of later extensions visible above flat-roofed single storey later additions: wall rendered with wet dash of small chippings. Three windows, rectangular modern pvc fixed lights with top-hung vents, set in plain reveals with projecting concrete cills. Two modern metal air-extraction units mounted on wall.

SETTING: The building stands in a rural area facing directly onto the main road with a footpath across its front. There are views to the front across the main road to the River Bann, The Cutts (HB05/14/006), and a two-storey house which is the headquarters of the Honourable Irish Society (HB05/14/001). Adjacent to the right-hand side is a two-storey house in its garden; to the left-hand side is the extensive car park of this building. To the rear is an extensive single storey modern pitched roof building forming additions to the restaurant, with a service yard beyond. Front boundary to car park formed by a low modern rendered wall containing a small pedestrian opening and a large vehicular entrance.

Historical information

Precise date of building not known but its front block appears to be shown on the OS map of 1830; a long rear return appears on the west side on the OS map of 1849-50; a small rear extension appears on the OS map of 1967 and a much larger rear extension on the map of 1982.

Reputed to be one of Northern Ireland’s oldest country inns, with a provenance on site going back to a supposed ‘brewhouse at The Cutts’ as early as 1614 according to one source, and ‘a tavern at the Salmon Leap’ in the 1790s, according to another source, but the building as it now stands reveals no evidence to suggest anything other than a mid-19th century origin for this building, at the earliest, as suggested by the only architectural feature of any distinctiveness, that is the shaped eaves brackets or corbels on the front elevation.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1830, Co Londonderry 7.
2. OS Map 1849-50, Co Londonderry 7.
3. OS Map 21-1SE, 1982.

Secondary Sources
1. J.J. Tohill, Pubs of the North (Portaferry, 1990), pp 24-25.
2. Correspondence from C.A. Millar of Coleraine Borough Council to EHS, Belfast, on 19 December 2003.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey slated, gabled, and rendered public house, of plain appearance, with extensive late 20th century additions to the rear. Probably of mid-19th century date,( though on a site associated with the same use in earlier periods) it has lost most of its original exterior features and all of its original internal features in the course of successive alterations. This, together with extensive late 20th century additions have had the cumulative effect of greatly diminishing any original vernacular or other original character. Though in its roadside form it contributes to the general caracter of its surroundings, it is not considered to be a building of special architectural or historic interest.