Muckamore House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey late Victorian country house in Italianate style laid out on an asymmetrical plan. Main entrance faces north.

North elevation is 5 windows wide to first floor with the main plane set back from the third to fifth openings from the left on the first floor; the ground floor has a set back from the third window and incorporates a projecting porch. Roofs of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; overhanging eaves on a bracketed cornice. Walls of smooth cement render, or stucco, with a projecting moulded plinth; channelled rustications to ground floor, and smooth render to first floor; moulded string courses, which form cills to both storeys. Ground floor windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 1 over 1, with horns, set in rusticated reveals. First floor windows are similarly sashed but segmental headed and set within segmental arched openings with chamfered reveals and moulded surrounds with keystones. Moulded cast iron gutters with rectangular cast iron downpipes secured by trefoil brackets; moulded hoppers. Chimneys are smooth cement rendered with moulded cornices and caps.

Porch is single storey with rusticated square piers and pilasters; three-light rectangular timber glazed screen to one side, with moulded mullions and transom. Porch surmounted by an open-work balustrade on three sides, returning to east over the ground floor bay to the left. Four granolithic steps with moulded nosings now cut through by a concrete ramp leading to front entrance at rear of open porch. Ceiling of porch is stuccoed, with moulded cornice. Side wall of porch facing glazed screen is rusticated as previous to exterior.

Main entrance is of rectangular timber construction, stained and varnished, comprising a large 9-panel door set between plain pilasters flanked by glazed sidelights and panels, with plain fanlight over. Modern tubular steel handrails to each side of ramp, fixed to door frame.

Extending to the left of the main block and set back from it is a lower two-storey wing, four windows wide to each floor; walling similar to main block. Windows similar to main block except surrounds to first floor are not moulded.

East elevation is essentially symmetrical, three windows wide to first floor between projecting chimney stacks, but with the lower two-storey wing projecting from it at the right-hand side. Bracketed cornice continuous across elevation; main projecting string course of front and rear elevations returns at each side to meet chimney stacks; channelled rustications from front and rear also return for short length. First floor windows are rectangular timber sashes as previous but set in continuous moulded surrounds. Ground floor (currently only visible from within courtyard): doorway to left and window to right: rectangular doorway with rectangular flush timber door set in deep recess, approached by five concrete steps.
Window large rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 6 over 6, with horns; plain reveals; projecting concrete cill. Crude covered way constructed across ground floor consisting of corrugated iron roof on tubular steel supports.

East gable of service wing: first floor is smooth cement rendered; ground floor is rendered with dry dash of mixed stone chippings. Hipped roof slated as previous, with a later modern fire escape door breaking up through eaves line in a small gable, of crude construction; door is modern glazed two-panel timber. One window to first floor to right-hand side, small rectangular timber sliding sash, 3 over 3, with horns, with recessed cill. Cast iron gutter behind moulded cornice, with rectangular cast iron downpipe to right, fixed with trefoil brackets.
One window to ground floor: modern rectangular timber, two-light casements, with plain fanlight, set in plain reveals with projecting rendered cill partly damaged revealing brickwork carcass. Large metal fire escape stairs from first floor.

South side of service wing is of two storeys laid out on an L-plan with a later single storey lean-to infill block of one storey in front. Walling of smooth cement render except for dry dash finish to ground floor of projecting end bay. Roof slated as previous. Hidden gutter behind moulded cornice; circular cast iron downpipes. First floor windows of main wall of return are sashed, 3 over 3, with horns; first floor window in end bay is 1 over 1, with horns; two ground floor windows of infill block are large, sashed, 6 over 6, with horns. End bay has plain rectangular flush door; infill block has glazed and panelled door with two-pane sidelights and two-pane fanlight.

East side of kitchen yard has a single storey lean-to block with dry dashed walls and two ledged timber doors, projecting from the dry dashed yard wall. A rectangular timber ledged door to left leads to stable yard to east.
South side of kitchen yard has a single storey lean-to covered passage of corrugated asbestos on a timber beam, supported by two cast iron posts, set against a dry dashed yard wall.

Rear elevation of main block is two-storey, of similar detailing and materials to entrance front. Contains central two-storey canted bay with one window to each storey in each face of bay.
Wall to left of bay has two windows to ground floor and one to first floor, sashed and detailed as previous to front.
Wall to right of bay has two windows to ground floor with two above in first floor, in line; ground floor windows are as previous but first floor are rectangular timber sashes, vertically hung, 1 over 1, with horns, but set in segmental arched openings with segmental recessed stuccoed panels above what looks like moulding timber window heads.
Extending to the right is the long screen wall of the yard to the east, linked to the main block by a modern tongued and grooved doorscreen.
Circular section cast iron downpipe and soil pipe, and two other modern soil pipes wrapped in insulating material; cast iron downpipe incomplete, finished in PVC.

West elevation of main block is of similar architectural character to front with similar materials and detailing: four windows to ground floor and four to first floor, asymmetrically arranged; all timber sashed as previous to entrance elevation.

OUTBUILDINGS AND SCREEN WALLS OF STABLE YARD:
Extending to the east from the end of the service wing is a screen wall of rendered rubble, of roughcast finish, containing a pair of smooth cement rendered square piers, now missing gates, leading in to the former stable yard.
To east of gateway is a gabled end of a two-storey block: basalt rubble roughly coursed, with handmade red brick quoins and block dressings to two windows, one in each floor; projecting concrete cills; platband at first floor level. Upper opening contains timber louvres; lower opening is a rectangular timber sliding sash window, vertically hung, 3 over 3, with horns, with iron bars affixed. Oversailing eaves with timber barge boards on shaped brackets.

East elevation of two-storey block is of similar walling. Ground floor window to right is a later insertion, with machine-made red brick dressings, concrete lintel, and contains metal casements; to left of window is a doorway, rectangular ledged timber, set in a segmental brick archway; to left of that is a small window with brick surrounds, rectangular timber sliding sash, 2 over 2, with horns; to left of that is a poor quality lean-to outside toilet; to extreme left is a crude rectangular opening blocked by wood and dressed in cement. Across the upper level are small rectangular openings containing timber louvres; whole elevation difficult to view owing to overgrowth. Roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. Oversailing eaves with timber barge boards. Large heating flue emerging from base of east wall.

End elevation to south is smooth cement rendered with a rendered platband at first floor level; timber barge boards on shaped brackets. Two windows to ground floor, rectangular timber sliding sash, 2 over 2, with horns, with iron bars affixed; one opening to first floor, rectangular, containing timber louvres.

To left of south gable is the smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked, rear wall of a single storey gabled block in the stable yard; roof slated as previous. Gable end to west has oversailing eaves with timber barge boards on shaped brackets. Set back to left of single storey gabled block, is a screen wall to yard, smooth cement rendered, partly coped with black ridge tiles, and partly with concrete coping. Three rows of pipe ducting attached.

Within stable yard: ground surface of loose black stone chippings on hard core. East side occupied by a gabled two-storey block: roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, black ridge tiles; cast iron gutter, with cast iron downpipes in poor condition. Walling of basalt rubble with red brick dressings to openings. Openings are a new doorway to left containing a flush timber door with plain fanlight set in modern pressed bricks; a window to ground floor, rectangular timber sliding sash, 2 over 2, with horns, set in original brick surround; a large rectangular opening with timber boxing to a beam, supported on chamfered timber struts, leading in to a recessed lobby area.
On first floor are small rectangular openings containing timber louvres, with a gabled dormer above the main rectangular opening. Segmental brick arched opening in dormer, now without door; timber barge boards on shaped brackets. Chimney to right-hand extremity, constructed of brickwork smooth cement rendered, in poor condition.
Brick walling within recessed lobby area, containing rectangular ledged timber doors leading into heating chambers. Ceiling of recess is timber boarded.

South side of stable yard occupied by a single storey gabled block and a line of garages; all roofs, Bangor blue slates in regular courses; single storey block has walling of brickwork; ledged timber doors.

West side of stable yard formed by east gable of service wing of house, already described, with a later low-quality lean-to block to the south of it.

SETTING:
The house stands in its own grounds surrounded by grassed areas, with agricultural land to the south and east. There are mature trees and shrubs in the immediate vicinity of the house, with a tarmac area to the front and to the west side. It is approached by a winding driveway from the main road to the west.
There is also an overgrown driveway from the main road to the east, marked by a set of gate piers.

GATE PIERS AT ENTRANCE TO EASTERN DRIVEWAY:
A pair of square gate piers with recessed panels and moulded caps, flanked by curving screen walls terminating in a pair of small and less elaborate piers; all smooth cement rendered; original gates missing now replaced by modern tubular steel gate. Extending to each side of gatescreen are low basalt rubble boundary walls to the estate. Eastern driveway now disused, overgrown, and not passable.
Original gates currently in storage in garage in stable yard: a pair of wrought iron ornamental gates with scrolling designs and ball finials.

Historical information

Built for Samuel Thompson, c 1876, apparently to the designs of W.H. Lynn; unsigned and undated drawings for Muckamore Abbey, in Lynn’s hand, have survived for a proposed larger house in the same style, and in 1876 Thompson made application to the Board of Works to build a mansion. It was built to replace an earlier house on the same site, which itself had been an early to mid-19th century replacement or rebuilding of a much older house. The Thompson family reputedly settled in the district in the 17th century and in the late 18th century were residing at nearby Greenmount. Members of the family recorded as living at the Muckamore property prior to Samuel Thompson in the 1870s included a previous Samuel Thompson J.P. who died in 1838, and his successor, John Thompson who built the nearby Church of Ireland church in 1839-41.
In the 1830s, Muckamore Abbey, as the property was known, was described as “very old fashioned looking, 2 storeys high”, with “high pitched and thatched roof and narrow windows”, of uncertain date of erection but considered to have been from the early 17th century. Its name derived from the remains of a medieval abbey which occupied a site to the north of the present house and part of which, in the form of “two small fragments of walls”, were recorded in the 1830s as being “attached to the garden wall of the present residence of Samuel Thompson Esquire”.
Sometime between 1832 and 1857, the date of the first and second ordnance surveys, this early house was either rebuilt or enlarged, before the site was apparently cleared to make way for the present house. There appears to be no clue in the entries in directories of the 1870s and 1880s as to when the present house was completed.
Contemporary with the present house are the gate piers to the east, at or near the site of a driveway entrance dating from at least the 1830s; and a gate lodge to the west, still standing but no longer connected with the estate. The entrance gateway connected with the lodge is now closed off and is no longer intact, and a new entrance to the driveway on the west has been opened up on Oldstone Road.
The Thompson family remained in occupation until c 1949; by 1952 the house had become Muckamore Abbey Hospital, later a Hospital and Girls Home, and finally it became Muckamore House Special School, recently closed.
The property was not noticed in either the UAHS list of historic buildings in the area in 1969 or in the EHS first survey.
Part of the grounds to the north of the house is occupied by recorded monuments nos. ANT50: 77 and 78, and appears to fall within the area of scheduled monument no. ANT50: 76.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1832, Co Antrim 50 (shows the predecessor on site, marked as Muckamore Abbey).
2. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 50 (shows the predecessor on site, marked as Muckamore Abbey).
3. OS Map 1962-3, Co Antrim 50 (shows the present house, marked as Muckamore House).
4. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 35: Parishes of County Antrim XIII, 1833, 1835, 1838 (Belfast, 1996), pp 56, 62, 70, 75.
5. Original drawing for proposed ‘Muckamore Abbey’ (scheme simplified in execution), in the collection of Patrick Mulvenna, unsigned and undated, but attributable to W.H. Lynn – see ANI/22, 1-11, in Catalogue of Mulvenna Collection, MBR, Hill Street, Belfast.
6. Irish Builder, 1 August 1876, p 218 (reference to Samuel Thompson Esq, applying to the Board of Works for the erection of a mansion).
7. Belfast and Ulster Directory, 1870-1884.
8. Belfast and Northern Ireland Directory, 1949-1955.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a substantial late Victorian country house in a distinct though plain Italianate style which may be attributed to W.H. Lynn. With the loss of some original interior elements, however, and the loss of some original character to its outbuildings and yards, it is not of sufficient architectural quatity to merit listing.