Boathouse, The Harbour, Harbour Road, Ballintoy, Ballycastle, Co Antrim BT54

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This single-storey / single-bay boat house is aligned NW-SE with its front gable to the sea. It has a pitched replacement artificial slate roof with dressed sandstone verges but no rainwater goods. A modern metal flue projects from the NE pitch. The walls are of quarried limestone rubble brought to courses and have dressed sandstone quoins. Patress plates tie the front eaves of the side walls together. Although the walls are horizontally bedded, they sit on limestone rubble foundations which rise up the slope.
Both side walls have central window openings, each with a voussoired sandstone head of segmental profile, brick jambs, and sandstone cill. The opes are now fitted with modern timber shutters, with casement windows behind. The opes originally had shutters as well, but with metal security bars to the front and no glazing behind.

The NW gable has a large replacement double-leaf t&g door set in a wide segmental-headed opening trimmed with sandstone and with a single course of brick above the head. Behind them is a modern double-leaf, semi-glazed timber door with sidelights.
Old photographs show a slipway from the doorway of the boat house to the water's edge but it was removed in the late 1970s to make way for a concrete landing stage (described in HB/05/10/018A). The water is now reached by two short flights of concrete steps. Of the original slipway, only a line of dressed stone flags survives along the cill of the doorway.
The SE gable of the building is cut into the steep slope and has a brick-trimmed door at its right-hand end.

Setting:
The boat house is situated at the NE end of the inner harbour (HB05/10/018A) and is approached down a later 1900s track from the road. It was originally accessed from further up the road via a steep flight of stone steps down to its back door. This stairway is shown on the 1905 OS map but have long since collapsed, with only vestiges surviving at its top end.

Roof: Artificial slate.
RWG: None.
Walls: Exposed random rubble.
Windows: Shuttered casements.
Doors: Painted timber.

Historical information

This boat house dates from the early 1870s and was originally associated with the nearby coastguard station at the top of the road down to Ballintoy Harbour (HB05/10/010A-C).

A coastguard station was first established by the Board of Customs at Ballintoy in 1822. The 1832 OS map shows a flag staff at the top of the cliff, but there was no staff accommodation as such, the men being billeted in the village. By 1855, a watch house had been built beside the flag staff and also a boat house on the beach above a natural inlet (where a public shelter now stands). The following year, responsibility for the Coastguard was transferred to the Admiralty Board.

In 1872-73 the present terrace of Coastguard houses was built just south of the earlier watch house. By this time the harbour existed (HB05/10/018A), having been privately built in 1860 for the export of limestone, lime and basalt setts. The present boat house is first shown on a plan of 28 March 1871 as 'proposed boathouse' and would doubtless have been completed around the same time as the Coastguard houses. It is captioned 'boat house' on the 1905 OS map and the new station is also shown.

The station was vacated by the Coastguard in 1909 and sold off. The boat house continued in private use and is captioned on the 1922 OS map. In later years it was used by a local fisherman to store creels and it is currently used as a store for Maritime Heritage artefacts and a base for outdoor education and guided sea kayak expeditions.

References - Primary sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/4/1. First edition OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 4 (1832).
2. Lewis, S. A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, vol.1, p.119 (1837).
3. PRONI OS/6/1/4/2. Second edition OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 4 (1855).
4. National Archives, Dublin: Board of Works Letter Books, 31/10/1871 (www.coastguardsofyesteryear.org/articles.php?article_id=230).
5. Plan dated 28 March 1871 (referenced by Mayne - see secondary
references).
6. Coleraine Chronicle, 1/3/1873, p.4.
7. PRONI OS/10/1/4/5/1. First edition OS 1:2500 map, Co Antrim sheet 4-05 (1905).
8. PRONI OS/10/1/4/5/2. Second edition OS 1:2500 map, Co Antrim sheet 4-05 (1922).
9. National Museums N. Ireland: Welsh photographic collection, BELUM.Y.W.91.08.02 and BELUM.Y.W.91.08.03. Early/mid 1900s photographs.

References - Secondary sources:
1. Mayne, D. Nineteenth-Century Coastguard Stations in Ulster: Ballintoy, Co Antrim (unpublished typescript for Northern Ireland Environment Agency).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

An early 1870s Coastguard boat house at the NE end of the inner harbour at Ballintoy (HB05/10/018A). Its utilitarian architectural form is typical of many such buildings. Of its original fabric, only the walls and roof rafters survive intact. Of the replacement fabric, the front doors and window shutters are in keeping with the original. The artificial slating and flue detract somewhat from its appearance, but the replacement casement windows and glazed inner doors are only visible when the shutters are removed and the front doors opened. Several original features survive internally - the mezzanine platform, winch (albeit dismantled), and shelving brackets.
Although the original slipway is long gone, the house's harbour setting remains intact. It is a very prominent feature of the harbour, with which it has group value. It also has a functional association with the nearby Coastguard terrace. It is also of local historical interest as one of a number of Coastguard sites around the coastline of NE Antrim.