Turnpike House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey, three-bay rendered and gabled house with a single storey basalt rubble wing to one end. Main entrance faces north-west.

Two-storey block has roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; two chimneys, one on each gable, of red brick with corbel courses and modern pots; walls smooth rendered, lined and blocked, with raised vertical strips to each end; projecting eaves course; cast iron gutter and downpipe; PVC soil pipe. Windows to ground floor are rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 6 with horns, in exposed frames, set in plain reveals with projecting stone cills; windows to first floor are similar, but 3 over 6. Entrance contains a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door.

Gable to left-hand end is blank; walling similar to previous; overhanging gables with timber barge boards.

Rear elevation is of similar walling to previous, but without raised end strips; similar slated roof; cast iron rainwater goods. Front windows sashed similar to entrance front, and two later larger modern rectangular windows, metal casements with top-hung vent.

Right-hand gable is similar to previous, with the single storey wing projecting from it.

Wing is of basalt rubble with red brick flat arches to window openings; roof slated as main house; windows sashed as main house; rebuilt red brick chimney; sheeted timber door to entrance front.

SETTING: The house stands in a rural area, within the demesne of Shane's Castle. It faces on to a lane within the estate, set back from it with a small hedge-enclosed front garden; rough grass garden to rear. Well-wooded demesne parkland beyond, all round.

Historical information

Built by the O'Neill family as a house on the Shane's Castle estate; precise date of building not known but it appears for the first time on the OS map of 1858, marked 'Old Turnpike House'; similarly named on the OS map of 1921 but changed to 'Turnpike House' on OS maps of the 1970s.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 49.
2. OS Map 1921, Co Antrim 49.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a building which is of some interest as part of the development of the Shane's Castle estate but is otherwise of little architectural or historic interest.

General comments

This record was originally numbered as HB20/04/061.