Kenmara

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A 2 storey 5 bay wide villa porched on a superb site overlooking Ballycastle bay.

The villa consists of a 2 storey NW block with a double pile thrust against its SW side with various other single storey projections. The SE entrance front has a 1 bay wide projecting gable with 8 pane casement window at ground floor and above a 4 pane casement window, the head of which is above the eaves line. The gable is decorated with kingpost truss with infill panels of plaster and the bottom boom forms the gable overhang. The panelled and fanlight entrance door is tucked into the corner with a 6 pane casement window to the left.

Above each unequal dormer windows, one with a one way pitch roof and the other gabled. At the SW corner is a short projecting 2 bay 1 storey wing with 2 4 and 6 pane casements. A glazed lean-to canopy supported on slender iron columns fills the space between the projection.

Walls are roughcast rendered with plinth and painted white, a medium eaves overhang with exposed rafter feet with box PVC gutter. Roof natural slates with tall chimneystacks on ridge and roof slope with pronounced caps and tall pots.

The NE façade, overlooking Rathlin Sound is 3 bays wide with 2 canted bays and one double pane casement at 1st floor level. Each canted bay has continuous glazing at each floor with slate hung spandrels. The top windows break the eaves line and bays slated, hip fashion.

The NW façade is similar in form and treatment to entrance front with slight variation in window disposition. From the projecting gable a fully glazed conservatory. At the W corner a gabled double garage.

The SW façade presents a series of gables, recessed centre pair expressing the double pile of the core of the house. All the gables are treated in similar manner with a double shaped purlin near the end of the moulded bargeboards. A high wall with single door joins the garage to the single storey wing of the entrance front and forms an enclosed yard.

The house, detached, enjoys a superb site at the top of North Street where it joins Clare Road, with a cliff face of 60 metres at the side of the garden. The garden which practically surrounds the house is well kept.

Historical information

The villa was built c 1890 by a London solicitor named Grier. In 1898 it became an important part of Marconis wireless experiment between Ballycastle and Rathlin island- the ten mile distance being the longest signal sent over water at that time.

Marconi was asked by Loyds of London to set up the equipment to allow better communication between Rathlin and the mainland. Rathlin was the first land fall from leaving America and a semaphore station had been set up at the Tor Head. Frequent foggy wether had impeded this communication and wireless technology seemed a possible solution. During June of 1898 George Kemp, Marconi's assistant arrived in Ballycastle and met the Lloyd's agent John Byrne. They set up a base at the Eastern lighthouse where the Llyods hut was located. Kemp then tried varius sites with only minimal success. After an interlude over July when equipment was removed to Dublin he returned at the end of the month with a student engineer Edward Glanville. Glanville heped him set up again in Rathlin and remained with instructions to transmit every day. Kemp again tried various locations in the town one of the best was on top of the spire of S S Patrick and Brigid's Church (HB03/13/001) but there was no space to record transmissions at this point.

Kemp secured a room in Kenmara soon afterwards and used this in conjuction with a jib borrowed from the Coastguard of a crane in the harbour. With this aparatus he was able receive signals from the island.

Glanville was tragically found dead at the bottom of the cliff at Ballyconaghan on Rathlin soon afterwards on August 22nd. He had fallen while walking along the top no foul play was suspected. On August 24th Kemp's diary records that he:

'erected a new mast in a field 104ft. to the top of the spirit and 104ft. from the window of a childs bedroom which was loaned to me, to the north side of the house'

Some commentators have taken this to indicate a second room in Kenmara from the one used for the earlier experiment however this is not clear from the entry.

On August 25th 1898 Kemp instructed Mr Byrne on the transmitter in Ballycastle and then sailed to Rathlin were he refitted the station and sent and received signals to Ballycastle until 1.00pm. The experiment was repeated on following days and when Marconi arrived on August 29th. On August 30th the 'sensitive tube' broke on Rathlin and the decision was taken to halt work from Kenmara as the owner would be returning to his house. Kemp left Ballycastle on September1st.

The childs bedroom to the north side has been identified as located under the eaves and over the front door. It is now a bathroom. A Blue Plaque has recently been erected on the house front (2000) recording the historical event.

References

Primary Sources
1. O.S. Map 1904 Ballycastle
2. Blue Plaque erected on front wall year 2000.
3. Ulster Museum, Welsh Collection, ill. c 1900 from Golf links.

Secondary Sources

1.' Kenmara Ballycastle Co Antrim'. Ulser History Circle Report by Annesley Malley 2004
2.'Flashes of Lightening- Abstract sculpture will mark Marcon''s historic transmissions from Ballycastle to Rartlin Island'
Ulster Commentary magazine April 1974 pp14
3. 'The Harsh winds of Rathin'- 'Stories of Rathlin Shipwrecks' by T Cecil pp27-33
4. 'Old Ballycastle and Marconi and Ballycastle' two lectures by Hugh Alexander Boyd, Irsh News ltd 1968.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A well maintained late nineteenth century house and gates of special Architectural Interest on a dramatic site overlooking the North Antrim Coast atop a cliff face. Of special historic interest as the villa in which Kemp and Marconi conducted their wireless experiments with Rathlin Island in 1898.