Coaching House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Islandreagh Drive is positioned at an angle to the right hand (south) side of the road that travels eastwards from Antrim to Belfast about 2.5 miles from the former town.
The house that faces north occupies a position about 200 yards along the Drive on the right hand (south) side.
At the front a small concrete paved forecourt is enclosed by a curved stone wall on either side. At the right hand (west) side two small pyramidal topped gate pillars support a timber gate. A stone wall extends along the frontage and the remainder of the site is enclosed by walls of similar construction.
At the front the building is single storey, with attics, descending at the rear to include a basement.
The wall finish is of render with a whitened finish throughout and a base has been formed at the front and at the rear.
The roof is thatched between cement skews and each gable rises to a plain rendered chimneystack each with two Victorian pots.
The timber framed and sheeted entrance door, flush at the back, is set centrally and is flanked on either side by two 4x2 metal framed casement windows.
There are five similar windows at the rear. Two openings at basement level are flanked on either side at the ends of the elevation by timber sheeted doors, that on the left having a timber sheeted panel below the lintel.
From the left the fenestration on the upper level starts with a window opening followed by a blind opening of reduced proportions and terminates with two window openings of the usual size.
Each gable has two small metal-framed casements lighting the attics and one window of usual size at low level.

Historical information

A building similar to the present is shown on this site on the OS map of 1832 / 33, but not included in the near contemporary first valuation. The property is recorded in the second valuation of c.1860, however, it is difficult to discern the
references on the accompanying valuation map; it is probable that this house is that recorded as occupied by leased George Henery from Margaret Johnston and rated at £5.

The property is locally said to have been built as a coaching inn, but its size and closeness to Antrim town would appear to suggest otherwise. The details (or rather, lack them) supplied in the abovementioned valuation suggests it was a private dwelling by 1860 at least.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/1/50 OS map, County Antrim sheet 50, with valuation references (1832 / 33-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/1/50C OS map, County Antrim sheet 50, with valuation references (1857-c.60)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/1/9 Second valuation, Grange of Nilteen (c.1860)

Secondary sources
1 McCutcheon, W.A., ‘The Industrial Archaeology of Northern Ireland’ (Belfast, 1980), pp.18, 19, 36, 120-22
2 Mountfield, David, ‘Stage and Mail Coaches’ (Shire Publication, 2003), p.3
3 Information supplied by the owner (April 2001)

Some form of long-distance transport following a regular service existed from the 17th century but did not reach a peak until the early 1830s and within a short time it was in decline superseded by the railways.
The second edition of the OS map dated 1857 shows the line of the Belfast & Ballymena Railway, completed in 1848, passing immediately to the rear of the yard of the coaching inn now standing at 60 Islandreagh Road, Dunadry.
The layout of this building is little altered and the original functions of the various compartments remain clearly defined.
Antrim nearby was an important posting town with two inns offering accommodation and having a total of twelve post horses attached.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Some reminders of coaching days exist. In Banbridge, Co Down, the Downshire Arms is probably the best surviving example in the country of a Georgian coaching inn, the Thatch Inn in Broughshane, Co Antrim retains much of the early character and until recently the gate posts fronting the garage premises at the entrance to Randalstown, Co Antrim displayed the inscription of “Post Horses”.
Unlike Great Britain where the layouts of posting and coaching inns have been retained in considerable numbers the building at Dunadry is our only unaltered example remaining from the era of the coaching services. The building is on the south side of the road that travels eastward from Antrim to Belfast, about 2.5 miles from Antrim. It is of at least early 19th.C origin but could be much earlier.