Greenhouse and Store at Glenarm Castle

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A long single storey lean-to greenhouse, with a long unbroken row of rubble-built stores / sheds to its rear. The stores may be mid 19th century, but though a green house existed on this site in the 1830s, the present greenhouse structure is the result of a major 1990's restoration. The buildings are set on the N side of the walled garden at Glenarm Castle, to the NW of the Castle itself.

The greenhouse and associated stores are long (approximately 50m long) ‘back to back’ lean-tos built on either side of the N wall of the walled garden. They are built along the slope of the ground resulting in a distinctive sloping ridge and ‘rhomboid’ window openings. The greenhouse is slightly longer than the stores.

STORES The single storey lean-to stores from an unbroken row on the N side of the N garden wall (just to the E of the gardener’s house). The whole row is constructed of random limestone rubble with a slated roof and is divided internally into small ‘cells’. Most of the cells have a wide timber sheeted door and an 8/8 sash window (set in ‘rhomboid’ openings), with some larger doors to those to the E end. Some of the cells (but not all) open directly into the greenhouse. There are two small rendered (ridge) chimneystacks to the row, one roughly to the centre and the other to the E end.

GREENHOUSE The lean-to greenhouse has a timber frame and a low brick base. The gables, the sloping roof and the vertical S wall are all glazed. To the base of the vertical glazed section and to the top of the sloped glazing are a line of opening windows. These are operated by a geared mechanism. The interior has a series of internal gables which subdivide the interior into a series of bays.

Historical information

The garden is shown on the OS map of 1832, with a long building to the north side. The 1833 valuation tells us that this building was a greenhouse (or ‘glass house’ as the valuers call it), roughly the same length as the present structure, but broken into three sections of differing heights (all lower than present). The OS map of 1858 shows a long structure similar to today, suggesting that the row of stores had been built by this stage. The gardener’s house is shown on the 1903 map. It may have been built c.1875, following the destruction of the stable yard and estate workers’ dwellings in a fire the previous year.

The greenhouse in its present form appears to be post 1858 and underwent major rebuilding in the 1990's.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.2977 Antrim Papers
2 PRONI OS/6/1/29/1 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1832-33
3 PRONI VAL/1B/149 First valuation, Tickmacrevan parish, 1833
4 PRONI OS/6/1/29/2 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1857
5 PRONI VAL/2B/1/41B Second valuation [notebook], village of Glenarm etc, 1859
6 PRONI OS/6/1/29/3 OS map, Co Antrim sh 29, 1903

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A long single storey lean-to greenhouse, with a long unbroken row of rubble-built stores / sheds to its rear. The stores may be mid 19th century, but though a greenhouse existed on this site in the 1830s, the present structure is mainly a rebuild carried out in the 1990's. The restoration has been done in a sympathetic manner. Both the greenhouse and stores are built along the slope of the ground which has resulted in the latter having a distinctive sloping ridge and ‘rhomboid’ window openings.

General comments

In the second Survey the Gardener's House was part of this record - see now HB06/02/001Q