Lightkeeper's house

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A refurbished mid-19th C lighthouse keeper's house and associated outbuildings, water tank and enclosing walls, gates and piers.

1. House

A 1½-storey/ two-bay house with single-storey annexes at both ends, all aligned N-S at the SW end of the lighthouse premises.
The house has been refurbished in the relatively recent past and is periodically occupied by maintenance crews. It has a replacement pitched natural slate roof with advanced granite block verges, rendered and banded gable chimneys, and modern skylights to both pitches. Half-round metal gutters. The walls are of locally-quarried random rubble brought to courses and are embellished with imported granite for a chamfered base course and advanced eaves.

The principal elevation faces E. It is symmetrical with a plain painted timber door to centre (with five-pane rectangular overlight and granite threshold) and flanking 8-over-8 timber sliding sash windows (with granite cills). These openings have flat heads and jambs of granite, all slightly projecting. There is an electric light over the door head, a satellite dish over the right-hand window, and an aerial on the SE quoin.

The S gable is abutted by a single-storey annex. The exposed upper part of the house's gable is cement rendered and has a 6-over-6 timber sash window to its apex. The window head and jambs are rendered and the cill is granite.

The W elevation and N gable are identical to the E and S elevations respectively.

The annex on the S gable is contemporary with the house. In later years, it was used for the storage of detonators for the fog signal (for safety, these were stored separately from the explosives). It is presumed to have had a monopitched roof originally, but this was replaced with a flat concrete one. Half-round metal gutter along S elevation which formerly discharged into a detached water tank to south (described below). Walls detailed as the house in all respects except for absence of an advanced base course along S side.

The E elevation of this annex has a painted t&g door set in an opening with RFC head, dark-brown brick jambs and granite threshold (formed by cutting out part of the granite base course). The door head was undoubtedly modified when the building was reroofed. The S elevation is blank. The N elevation originally had a doorway at left but its surround has been removed and the void infilled with random rubble; the door's former position is marked by a slot cut out of the base course for the threshold.

The annex on the N gable was also built at the same time as the house and has recently been refurbished and internally incorporated within the house. It has a replacement monopitched natural slate roof with granite verges and walls detailed as the house. Half-round metal gutter along N elevation.

The E elevation of this annex has a doorway, the head and jambs of which are of dark-brown brick. It was infilled and rendered over during the internal refurbishment. A plastic soil pipe runs up the wall at right. The N elevation has two 3-over-6 timber sliding sash windows. The W elevation has a doorway detailed as that to E but which is infilled with random rubble.
There is a flagged stone path all around the house (except at N). To the front is a patch of grass with footpath down the middle from a pedestrian entrance gate to front door. This frontage is enclosed by a random rubble wall, part of which is coped with dressed granite blocks. The gate is of painted wrought-iron and hung between square dressed stone blocks embellished with advanced footings and oversailing caps of granite.

Behind the house is an unsurfaced yard delineated by a rubble wall at its N end and outbuildings at W. Immediately south of the house is a water tank.

The yard was accessed through a gateway at the SW corner of the enclosure around the house. The N gate pier abutting the SW corner of the outbuilding but its opposite number and gate are long gone. The pier is of random stone blocks and detailed as the piers on the E wall.

Roof: Natural slate.
Rainwater goods: Metal.
Walls: Random rubble stone.
Windows: Timber sliding sashes (various).

2. Outbuildings

Directly W of the house is a single-storey/ four-bay row of outhouses. This block is largely contemporary with the house and some of the rooms are still used as stores.

Monopitched natural slate roof covered with tarred felt. There are granite verges at each end and between bays 1-2 and 2-3 (numbered from S to N). The roof line to bay 1 is slightly higher than the others. Half-round plastic gutters along E elevation. Unembellished random rubble walls.

The principal elevation faces E towards the house. There was formerly a window opening to bay 1 at left, since infilled with random rubble. Bay 2 has a painted t&g door (with timber head and red-brick jambs); this is an infill wall. Bay 3 has a painted t&g door (with granite head and dark-brown brick jambs) and a 3x2 timber casement window (trimmed in dark-brown brick and concrete cill). Bay 4 has a pair of painted t&g doors.

The S gable has two door openings, each into a separate room in bay 1 (no door frames). Both opes have flat granite heads and dressed stone jambs.

The W elevation has no openings. Quoin stones embedded in the wall indicates that bay 2 was inserted between bays 1 and 3, its W side on top of a pre-existing perimeter wall. A dressed granite coping survives along the top of bay 1 at right. Old maps and photographs show that this elevation continued northwards to enclose a yard at the back of another single-storey house (long demolished) to the immediate north of the existing one.

The outbuilding's N elevation forms part of the boundary to the house enclosure and is devoid of openings. However, the NW quoin has been rebuilt (doubtless when the rest of the wall was demolished) and there is the ghost of a lower building shown on an old photograph but long since removed.

3. Water tank

Just S of the house is an upstanding covered tank which supplied the keepers' houses with water collected off the roofs (it is only recently that there has been mains water). It had two internal cisterns - one for the house just described and another for a second house to S, now demolished.

The tank has a flat concrete roof with two raised square access covers and intakes for rainwater pipes (only the pipe off the S annex of the surviving house survives). The walls are cement-rendered and have no openings except on the W elevation which has two overflow pipes at top and two recessed drain taps at bottom (one per cistern). The dividing boundary wall between the two keepers' house enclosures abuts the structure's E elevation. This wall originally continued to W and terminated in a gate pier shared by the two houses.

The tank is now defunct and water is now pumped up from a nearby lake directly to the houses.

4. Walls

As already noted, the house is enclosed to three sides by a random rubble wall, part of which is coped with granite. There was an almost identical enclosure abutting at south around a second keeper's house. The valuations, maps and an old photograph show this house to have been identical to the surviving one; it is long demolished and now survives only as a surface footprint.
The rubble stone wall to the E frontage of the former house is similar to that on the existing one, although its gateway is slightly wider and the gate is missing. There is also a taller vehicular gateway along its S side, the piers of which are cement rendered; gate also missing. There was also a gateway at the N end of the W wall, only the S pier of which now survives; it is detailed as the N pier of the gateway to the surviving house.

Setting

The house and associated outbuilding and water tank are part of a more extensive complex encompassing the lighthouse with base lantern, rocket house, gun platfrom and explosives store to N (HB05/16/010A), a pair of later semi-detached keepers' houses to S (HB05/16/010C and D), and fog-signal buildings to E. A concrete footpath from the house connects these various buildings and structures. All sit on an exposed rocky headland commanding extensive views across the North Channel to Islay and the Mull of Kintyre.

Historical information

This house and its associated buildings and structures are part of the East Light complex which was designed by George Halpin Senior, Inspector of Works and Lighthouses from 1810 until his death in 1854. Work on the lighthouse began in May 1849, but it was not until November 1856 that its light was first exhibited. Halpin was also responsible for many of Ireland's lighthouses, including Haulbowline and St John's Point, both in Co Down.

Two houses are shown on the 1856 OS map. Their associated outbuildings and enclosing walls are not shown as they were probably still under construction. All had been completed, however, by 1859 as the buildings are cited in the Valuation of that year. Each house comprised three parts: 13yds x 8yds x 1½ storeys (the house proper) and two annexes, each 3yds x 8yds x 1 storey. These dimensions accord with the present situation. The outbuildings belonging to each house are also noted (14yds x 4yds x 1 storey and 7yds x 4yds x 1 storey).

The two houses, outbuildings (including the infill middle section of the outbuilding under review) and enclosing walls are all depicted on the 1904 OS map. By this time there were actually four keepers' houses in use, two having been erected since 1859: the two under review, a third to W of the surviving single-storey house (43ft x 16ft x 10ft 6in), and a fourth along the inside of the wall around the premises (35ft x 21ft 9in x 14ft 6in).

By 1922, a pair of two-storey semi-detached houses had also been built at the SE corner of the premises (HB05/16/010C). These particular houses were built to provide accommodation for the families of the keepers of the West Light which began operations in 1919). In practise, the families were allocated housing as and when it became available, irrespective of whether the keepers had been assigned to the East or West Light.

The annex on the S gable of the single-storey house under review was probably converted to a detonator strong room at the same time as tonite fog signalling was adopted in 1918 (the internal steel doors in this annex and the explosives store are identical).
The single-storey house and associated outbuildings in the S enclosure had disappeared by the 1971 OS map (as had the two other single-storey houses), having succumbed to the Irish Lights' building rationalisation programme in the late 1960s.

With the automation of the East Light in March 1995, the keepers in the remaining two remaining blocks of houses were withdrawn. The one under review was subsequently refurbished by Irish Lights in the mid-2000s to provide temporary accommodation for maintenance crews. It is still in use for this purpose.

References - Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/1/1/2. Second edition OS 1:10,560 map, Co Antrim sheet 1 (1856).
2. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/29. Second valuation book, p.21 (1859).
3. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/18A-D. Valuation revision books, 1868-1929.
4. PRONI OS/10/1/1/4/1. First edition OS 1:2500 map, Co Antrim sheet 1-04 (1904).
5. National Museum Northern Ireland photographic archive BELUM.Y.W.01.83.7. Photograph of lighthouse complex from SW by R.J. Welch. Date unknown but probably c.1900.
6. PRONI OS/10/1/1/4/2. Second edition OS 1:2500 map, Co Antrim sheet 1-04 (1922).
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/1/3/N/1. Valuation revision notebook, Ballycarry td entry 12 (c.1935).
8.PRONI OS/11/3/3/1. First edition OS Irish-Grid 1:10,000 map sheet 3 (1971).

References - Secondary sources:
1. Mr Noel McCurdy, Irish Lights East Light Attendant.
2. Forsythe, W. And McConkey, R. 2012. Rathlin Island: An Archaeological Survey of a Maritime Landscape pp 305-306 and 418. Belfast, NIEA.
3. Irish Lights website, and .
4. On-line Dictionary of Irish Architects, 1720-1940, for details of G Halpin Snr ().

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

S. Authenticity
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
Z. Rarity
V. Authorship
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Although modest in scale, this house is of robust construction to withstand its exposed headland situation. Locally-quarried rubble masonry is used in its construction, enlivened with finely-dressed granite in its basal course, trims, eaves and roof verges. Its symmetrical façade also reflects its internal room configuration. Although the interior has been refurbished, much original character survives, notably the fireplaces, flooring, doors, architraves, and staircase.

The house's original setting also survives - the enclosing walling, rear outbuilding, water tank and enclosing walls. It has group value with the rest of the premises - the lighthouse (HB05/16/010A) and fog signal buildings and the semi-detached keepers' houses (HB05/16/010C and D).

The house and its associated outbuilding and tanks are part of the East Light complex, the earliest of three lights on the island. It was designed by George Halpin Senior, the foremost Irish lighthouse designer of the day. It is of local historical interest and a reminder of pre-automation days.