Bay Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

One and a half-storey formal house of probably mid to later 18th century construction, but with a largely glazed porch, dormers and overhanging roof of the mid to later 19th century, and a large full-height return which in its present form appears to be of the early to mid 1900s. The property has witnessed extensive renovation in relatively recent years which, among other things, has seen the application of dry dash render. The house is set within a flat field roughly 100m off the Bay Road (part of the main Antrim Coast Road) about 2km south of Carnlough, and is accessed by a long laneway. The house is believed to be located close to the site of a mid 17th century ‘castle’ or fortified dwelling.

The house is rectangular in plan, with the return spanning much of the rear. The walls are finished in light brown dry dash with a smooth render base, wall edgings, and window / door surrounds. The roof is pitched and finished with natural slate; the ridge is a plain red fireclay. There are chimneystacks centrally positioned on all three main gables, finished as the main walls. Each stack has decorative clay pots. Eaves and verges overhang slightly, fascias and bargeboards are painted timber and rainwater goods appear to be pressed steel. There a number of gabled dormer windows, three symmetrically arranged to the front section and one wide one to either side of the return. Window frames, roof and eaves treatment are all as before. The sides of the dormers are all glazed. The dormer roofs repeat the detailing seen on that of the porch

The front elevation faces roughly east and is symmetrical. To the centre is a single-storey gabled porch. The entrance is to the south side of this and has a modern half-glazed timber door. The upper sections of the walls of the rest of the porch are glazed and rest on a rendered masonry base. The porch roof is slated and has fireclay ridge tiles and an overhang with plain barges and a finial. To either side of the porch on the main house there are two flat-headed window openings. These have replacement painted timber frames of the top-hung variety, made to resemble 6/6 Georgian style sashes.

The south gable of the main block of the house has two small high-level window openings with 9-light side hung painted timber frames. There is a chamfered projecting plinth.

The rear return is one and a half-storey and gabled. Window openings are informally arranged and of varying size and shape, a number wider than those to the main block, with an odd semicircular headed opening to the right on the ground floor of the rear (west) gable. Frames are much as before. A chimney breast projects from the centre of the rear gable.

The north gable of the main house merges with the north face of the rear return. Window openings and frames to both sections are mainly as before (with that to the return wider). There is a chamfered plinth to the north gable, much as the south gable, although this one does not span the full width of the gable.

Setting

The house is set within a well tended garden. Circling the house there is a concrete flagged path. A collection of outbuildings once stood to the south and west of the house, all of which have been cleared away.

Historical information

A building matching the size and orientation of the main block of the present dwelling is shown on the OS map of 1832. In the valuation of the following year this is noted as an old slated house in good repair occupied by William Martin Esq, and possessing the not inconsiderable rateable value of £12-2-8. The house itself is noted as measuring 40¾ft x 25½ x 12 (roughly the same as today), whilst a substantial collection of outbuildings, located mainly to the south of the dwelling, are recorded as amounting to, 29½ x 10½ x 5, 26½ x 20 x 8½, 10½ x 20 x 10 (all slated), and 34½ x 18 x 6, 17½ x 14¼ x 6½, 18½ x 18¾ x 7, 35½ x 22 x 6½, 19 x 9 x 4½, 30 x 18 x 6½ (all thatched).

On the revised OS map of 1857 the house is marked as ‘Bay Cottage’. By this point a return had been constructed to the rear and more outbuildings to the south and south-east. The valuation of 1859 notes the dimensions of the main section of the house as 15yds x 9 x 1½(storeys), with the return measuring 7 x 5 x 2, and the outbuildings 4 x 3½ x 1, 6 x 5 x 1, 6 x 4½ x 1 (‘car house’), 16 x 6 x 1, 13 x 4 x 1, 5 x 4 x 1, 13 x 2 x 2, 11 x 5 x 1 (all slated) and 9 x 6 x 1 1/3 2B, 12 x 6½ x 1 9 x 6 x 1 (all thatched). By this time the property was in the hands of Hugh Martin, who held it from the Antrim Estate on a lease of '31 years taken a few years’, and, with the addition of the return and new outbuildings, the rateable value of the property had risen to an even more respectable £16.

Hugh Martin died in 1873 and two years later Bay Cottage was at public auction sold to George Acheson for £1,575. According to local historian, Felix McKillop, Mr Acheson sold the whole concern in 1903 to an Alexander McKay of Glasgow for £1,400, however, strangely, Mr. McKay is not listed in any of the valuation books for this period. In 1928 Bay Cottage, (and seemingly its freehold), was acquired by Henry Kane. Mr. Kane died in 1935 and his wife, Mary, continued living there up until 1952, when house and its land were purchased from her by the Antrim Estates Company Ltd. Following this, part of the farmland appears to have become a caravan site; however, this appears to have been relatively short-lived, and in 1964 the Company sold the property back into private hands.

The age of Bay Cottage itself is difficult to discern, the house having been subject to various alterations over the years. The fact that the valuers of 1833 believed it to be ‘old’, suggests that the main block may be mid to later 18th century, but unfortunately, there appear to be no surviving pre 19th century maps of the area or other documentation within the Antrim Papers (or any other archive), to help substantiate this claim. However, both Daniel Martin (1726-92) and his son James Martin (1760-1829), the grandfather and father of the William Martin noted in 1833, are said by McKillop to have lived at Bay, the former acting as ‘agent and receiver’ for the then landlords, the McNaughten family.

Certain elements of detailing within the house, notably the staircase, glazing to some of the doors and one of the fireplaces, suggest that work was carried out to the building c.1840, perhaps at the same time was the original return was added. The dormers, porch and roof overhang may also date from around this time, although their appearance indicates a later 19th century date. The return appears to have been largely (if not wholly) rebuilt in more recent times, although map evidence indicates it may have assumed its present size before 1920.

Prior to the aforementioned MacNaughtens, Bay, originally known as ‘Moyglinne’, was held by the Donaldsons, a prominent local family who may have been kinsmen of the Earls of Antrim. In 1633, John Donaldson is believed to have spent £500 in building a ‘castle’ within the immediate vicinity of the present dwelling. Probably more of a fortified house than a tower house, this was nonetheless a substantial residence for the time. It is noted as having four hearths in the hearth money rolls of 1669, and is described by Richard Dobbs in his survey of 1683 as a 'pretty slate house in the middle of the Bay'; a barn belonging to it is said to have been converted by James Donaldson to a meeting house for those Presbyterians ejected from worshipping at the parish church at Glenarm following the enactment of the Act of Uniformity in 1661. Writing in 1911, archaeologist and historian, HC Lawlor, stated that one of the outbuildings belonging to Bay Cottage occupied the site of the castle; unfortunately all of the outbuildings belonging to the property (including one which appears to have abutted the north-west gable of the house itself) were cleared away in the course of the mid to later 20th century.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/1/25 OS map, Co. Antrim, sheet 25, with valuation
references, 1832(-33)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/149 First valuation, Tickmacrevan parish, 1832
3 PRONI VAL/2A/1/25 OS map, Co. Antrim, sheet 25, with valuation references, 1856(-59)
4 PRONI VAL/2B/1/41A Second valuation, Tickmacrevan parish, 1859
5 PRONI VAL/12B/7/10A Annual valuation revision book, Glencloy Electoral District, 1860-64
6 PRONI VAL/12B/7/10B Annual valuation revision book, Glencloy Electoral District, 1865-79
7 PRONI VAL/12B/7/10C Annual valuation revision book, Glencloy Electoral District, 1879-93
8 PRONI VAL/12B/7/10D Annual valuation revision book, Glencloy Electoral District, 1893-1907
9 PRONI OS/6/1/25/3 OS map, Co. Antrim, sheet 25, 1903
10 PRONI VAL/12B/7/10E Annual valuation revision book, Glencloy Electoral District, 1908-29
11 PRONI OS/6/1/25/4 OS map, Co. Antrim, sheet 25, 1920
12 PRONI VAL/3C/1/22 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Rural district of Larne, Glencloy electoral district, 1936-56
13 PRONI VAL/4B/5/10 Second general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Rural district of Larne, Glencloy electoral district, 1956-72

Secondary sources
1 Hill, George, ‘MacDonnells of Antrim’, (Belfast, 1873)
2 Lawlor, HC, “The Donaldsons of Glenarm”, in ‘Larne Reporter’, 20 Sept. 1884 [Transcribed by Robert Pillow, see PRONI T636 Raeburn MS]
3 Lawlor, HC, [?The Donaldsons of Glenarm], in ‘Larne Times’ (?), 1911
4 McKillop, Felix, ‘Glencloy, a local history’, (Belfast, 1996)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

One and a half-storey formal house of probably mid to later 18th century construction, but with extensive renovation work. This house is of probable mid to later 18th century date, and this makes it of note. It is also a building of some local interest, as it is believed to have been built near or on the site of a mid 17th century 'castle', and may have been originally the agent's dwelling for the former landowners. However, the changes of the mid to later 19th century and considerable recent renovations have seriously compromised its historic and architectural character and, as a result, does not meet the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest.