Rathlin Island, 1B Knockans, Ballycastle, Co Antrim BT54 6RT

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached single-storey two-bay pre-fabricated timber-framed house built c.1904 (Speirs & Co.), on south side of the road running east-west along the southern side of Rathlin Island, 2km west of the Ferry Port on Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim. Irregular-on-plan comprising two-bay main block with projecting L-plan porch to south, with rubblestone outbuilding to southwest.

Pitched corrugated iron roof with painted A-frame timber bargeboards to north gable end; single pebble dash chimneystack with tar-covered base to centre of roof apex; mixture of original cast-iron and replacement uPVC rainwater goods on plain eaves. Corrugated iron clad walling throughout. Square-headed window openings throughout having painted timber casement windows.

Asymmetrical principal (east) elevation has two window openings, each with painted paired timber casement windows with timber surround and single glazing. Mono-pitched felt roof L-plan projecting porch to south with replacement uPVC rainwater goods. Square-headed door opening to north elevation of porch containing timber door frame and timber sheeted door with maker’s sign reading ´SPEIRS & COY, DESIGNERS AND ERECTORS OF IRON & WOOD BUILDINGS, GLASGOW´ fixed to doorframe above.

South elevation composed of main gable end and south elevations of lean-to southern L shaped porch.

Rear (west) elevation has three window openings, two with paired painted timber casement windows, and one with single window to lean to section, all with timber surrounds. Windows of varying degrees of disrepair, some containing original single glazing.

North elevation is gable end with corrugated cladding as other elevations, and A-frame timber barge and tie board.

Steel stabilising pegs and cables to outer ends embedded in ground spanning over roof for protection against wind.

To the immediate south west of the house and within its curtilage, is a rubblestone and brick outbuilding with mono-pitched corrugated fibreglass roofs and contiguous with a bonded rubblestone boundary wall; single square-headed window opening with fixed timber window; single square-headed door opening with timber sheeted door to east elevation. The rubblestone boundary wall to south of the house has a timber pedestrian gateway with steep gorge beyond.

The house is set back from road behind garden with gravel path to entrance, and is bounded by drystone wall to south-east, west, and north. Wall to the southwest is of bonded rubblestone with rough concrete capping. A replacement wrought-iron pedestrian gate provides access to the main entrance from the main road.

House:
Roof: Corrugated iron and bitumen felt
Walling: Corrugated iron
RWG: Original cast iron, replacement uPVC
Windows: Possibly original timber casements

Outbuildings:
Roof: translucent fibreglass
Walling: rubblestone
Windows and door: timber

Historical information

This house first appears in the valuation book in 1905, so it is is likely to have been constructed in the previous year, and indeed a building of similar plan is shown on this site on the 1904 OS map.

It was erected by the Rathlin Limestone Company, a Scottish concern that appears to have been established in or just before 1901 and is noted in the ‘Post-Office Annual Glasgow Directory for 1900-01 until 1911-12’ as having an office a 53 Waterloo street in that city.

Limestone had long been excavated on Rathlin, as the number of quarries marked on the 1832 OS map attests. By the early 1900s attempts were made to quarry the stone commercially, for shipping to steel smelters in Scotland. A stone pier constructed at Killeany, just south of this site, which was served by a short stretch of narrow gauge railway. The Rathlin Limestone Co. was seemingly at the centre of this venture.

The earliest occupant of the house was David Galloway, a Scot who worked for the company as the quarry master (or quarry manager) on Rathlin until 1907. He was succeeded by John McPhee, a native of Skye, who in the 1911 census is recorded as occupying the house with his wife, Mary, their four children, and a young nephew, Hector McDonald, with the building itself noted as a ‘2nd class’ house with two rooms in use by the family. According to the valuations, John was still living here 1929 and the property is stated to be in the ownership of the Rathlin Limestone Company up until at least that date also. There appears to be no record of the firm beyond c.1911, however, and it is probable that John, (who would have been close to 70 in 1929), was no longer managing the quarry operations, which appear to have declined (ceased?) by this stage anyhow. Whatever the case, at some point the house appears to have become a private residence with seemingly no connection to the quarries.

A plaque fixed to the eastern porch tells us that the dwelling was manufactured by ´SPEIRS & COY, DESIGNERS AND ERECTORS OF IRON & WOOD BUILDINGS, GLASGOW´. This company was founded by brothers John and James Speirs in the 1880s and by the early 1900s specialised in the design of partly prefabricated timber framed buildings, some clad in corrugated iron, most notably churches, halls, schools, club houses, hospital structures, and bungalows. This house may be one of the few - and quite possibly the only - example of their work in Northern Ireland.

Maps indicate that a well is located immediately west of house.

Primary sources:
1 PRONI OS/6/1/1/1-4 OS map, 6in County series, County Antrim sh.1 1832, 1857, 1904, 1922
2 PRONI VAL12B/2/18A-D Valuation books, 1868-1929
3 ‘Post-Office Annual Glasgow Directory for 1900-01’, (William McKenzie, 1901)
4 Census of Ireland, 1911 [online http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Rathlin/Knockans/113367/ [accessed 10/06/2021]
5 ‘Post-Office Annual Glasgow Directory for 1911-12’, (Aird & Coghill, 1912)
6 PRONI OS/27/3/1 OSNI 1:10 000 Metric Scale Irish Grid (1971) – Sheet 3

Secondary sources
7 McCurdy, Augustine, ‘Rathlin’s rugged story from an islander’s perspective’ (2000)
8 Forsythe, Wes, and McConkey, Rosemary, 'Rathlin Island: an archaeological survey of a maritime landscape', (TSO, 2012)
9 http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/architect_full.php?id=203716 [accessed 10/06/21]
10 https://www.culturenorthernireland.org/article/1250/faultlines [accessed 10/06/2021]
11 https://www.creafpapaca.fr/limestone_quarry_lifting_31306.html [accessed 10/06/2021]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
F. Structural System
G. Innovatory Qualities
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
T. Historic Importance
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
V. Authorship

Evaluation

1B, Knockans, is a modest single-storey two-bay dwelling built c.1904, located on the south side of the road running east-west along the south side of Rathlin Island, 2km west of the Ferry Port on Rathlin Island, Co. Antrim. Built to the designs of Glasgow-based firm Speirs & Co, designers and erectors of iron and wood buildings, most notably known for their provision of prefabricated timber-framed and corrugated iron clad structures for the Episcopal Church throughout Scotland. The house is a fine example of turn-of-the-century timber-framed and corrugated iron domestic architecture which was established in Britain in the 1840s and grew more popular in the latter half of the nineteenth century with the increase of industrialisation. Supposedly built to accommodate the manager of a nearby quarry, it is an important attestation of the industrial and economic history of quarrying on Rathlin Island. It is one of a few, if not the sole example of a Speirs product in Northern Ireland, and is evidence of the increase in improved transport links and importation of materials between Scotland and Ireland in the late nineteenth century. The house retains much of its original fabric including original iron cladding, timber casement windows, maker’s plaque, and some of the original cast-iron rainwater goods. The building is of further interest having a relatively intact setting with earlier rubblestone boundary features. Much of the significance of 1B Knockans is derived from its construction, materilaity, and its historic interest.

General comments

Speirs & Co (later Speirs Ltd) is sometimes misspelt as Spiers).
The recommendation for listing as B1 is based on an external survey of the structure only. A survey of the interior, and exploration of PRONI achives when Covid-19 restrictions are lifted may provide evidence that the building meets further criteria and has the potential for a higher grade of listing.)