Lemnalary House,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey five-bay house with attics and basement, with rendered walls and slated roof. Main entrance faces east.

East elevation: Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with a later metal flashing folded down over the verge to the south gable. Two chimneys, rendered as main walls, with modern red pots.
Walls rendered with a wet dash of crushed stones, with a projecting plinth similarly rendered but with sandstone weatherings; moulded sandstone cornice. Rendering is now new and uniform, over previous harled finish which had spalled to reveal some rubble stonework in patches as well as brickwork of lintels and chimneys.
Plinth has rectangular openings to the basement, the one to the left of the steps filled with new timber louvres, the one to the right blocked with tongued and grooved sheeting.
Cast iron gutter and downpipes.
Windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 6 without horns, in exposed frames, set in plain reveals; projecting sandstone cills.
Main entrance is a rectangular timber four-panel door surmounted by a rectangular fanlight with looped glazing bars, all set in a moulded timber frame recessed in plain reveals; doorway approached by a flight of eight cement rendered steps laid over a rubble stone core exposed at the sides.

South gable: Rendered as front, new, replacing previous slate hanging which had fallen into a state of disrepair; one window to ground floor, sashed as previous but with horns; projecting concrete cill. Later metal flashing turned down over both roof verges. Two small windows to attic storey, rectangular timber fixed lights to the right; fixed light with bottom-hung vent above, to the left.
Satellite disk affixed to wall.

Rear elevation: Roof as previous to front; walling as previous, except with render and slate corbel courses to eaves.
Windows are rectangular timber sashes as previous to front, but with horns; semi-circular headed stair-window, 12-pane fixed light with radial panes to head, above doorway.
Doorway contains a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door in a moulded timber frame.
Modern concrete flagged area at rear doorway. Stone steps to left of patio, down to basement; basement doorway closed with timber louvres.

North gable is similar to south gable, but rectangular opening to basement in plinth, containing new timber louvres; two attic windows, as previous.

SETTING: The house stands in a very rural area on an elevated site, with distant views to the sea; surrounded by agricultural land, it faces the main road but is set well back from it within its own grounds. Approached from the main road by a pair of circular rubble stone gate piers with conical caps on a slate course, but piers and wing walls are in disrepair and there are no gates. Driveway of concrete surface, leads to a plain side gateway to front grassed garden, and on past it to a rear yard, formerly of hard surface but now grassed over that surface. To each side of the house at the rear are wing walls of rubble, with gateways which connect on the south side with plain outbuildings of no special interest, and on the north side with the ruinous rubble and fieldstone walls of the reputedly original 17th century house. Standing to the west of the ruined house is a small old rubble stone wash house with rectangular sheeted door and corrugated sheet roof.

Historical information

Precise date of building not known but it is reputed to be an early to mid-18th century house built some time after 1737 by a John McCollum in front of the ruins or site of an earlier house of the 1630s; Hugh McCollum is shown as owner on the Lendrick's map of 1782; occupied in the early 1800s by Peter Mathewson, Captain of the Glenarm Yeomanry, until 1830 after which it rapidly fell into disrepair; described by the Ordnance Survey memoirs in 1835 as "unoccupied and almost in ruins".

Its predecessor was one of only three substantial stone dwellings in the Carnlough area noted by Richard Dobbs in 1683; it is reputed to be the ruinous building which stands to the rear of this house.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1832, Co Antrim 25 (appears but not named).
2. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 25 (named).
3. J. Lendrick, A map of the County of Antrim from Actual Survey (London, 1782).

Secondary Sources
1. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 13: Parishes of County Antrim IV, 1830-8 (Belfast, 1992), p 7.
2. UAHS, Glens of Antrim(Belfast, 1971), pp 20 and 24.
3. DOE (NI), Carnlough Conservation Area (1981).
4. C.E.B. Brett, Buildings of County Antrim (UAHS, Belfast, 1996), p 152.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a house of probably mid-18th century date, of handsome proportions in a plain style, which retains most of its exterior and interior features and enjoys a pleasant rural setting.