Rockport Lodge, Cushendun

Summary

1813 house with associated gates and railings

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Description

Rockport Lodge stands at the northern end of Cushendun bay, some 730m north-east of the village, and 57.55m south-east of Castle Carra (NTSMR130920) and 24.78m north-west of the high watermark. It is a handsome white-painted house located along the shoreline which can be dated with some accuracy to 1813. It does not appear on William Martin’s conscientiously detailed map of 1811-12 but Ann Plumptre, who was here in the summer of 1814, wrote that Cushendun ‘is an excellent part of the country for game; on which account Lord O'Neill, the proprietor of Shane's Castle’ (in fact, his younger brother) ‘has built a little shooting-box very near the shore, whither in the season he often comes to shoot’. The house stands between Castle Carra and the sea.

The building measures 12.48m by north-west to south-east by 17.90m north-east to south-west. The front south-west facing façade has three canted bays, set in a zigzag under the wide eaves, leaving triangular recesses in between them. The ground level has 6, 16-pane softwood Georgian-style sash windows, while the upper storey has three more, along with two oculi. The north-west façade holds the main entrance to the property, of four bays with 7, 16-pane Georgian-glazed softwood sash windows and a geometrical glazing pattern in the doorcase in the recessed porch. The walls are of stone and brick construction, rendered externally and plastered internally. The building is most unusual for the extension of the hipped roof over the three angled bays of the south-east elevation. The roof is of a traditional purlin and rafter construction with a natural slate covering. The building has four chimney stacks, each topped with three clay pots. The stacks are constructed of brick with a smooth rendered finish and corbelled capping.

A range of single storey, hipped roof outbuildings run along the sea-front from the north-east corner of the main building for a distance of 53.6m. These are constructed of the same material as the main building and have 3 chimney stacks of the same (two with two pots and one single). The range has two sky-lights at the south-west end on the south-east side and ten shuttered softwood 9-pane Georgian-style sash windows on the ground floor, and four shuttered 6-pane above these at the south-west end. The property also has a walled garden to the rear west of the outbuildings range.

In 1860 Nicholas Crommelin Jnr purchased the property from Matilda Cairns and he spent the following summer at the residence. By 1862 Crommelin had retired from the linen industry and had moved his family to Rockport. His father also moved into the house and stayed there until his death the following year. Despite Crommelin’s inheritances and other activities, in 1868 he seems to have been forced to sell up and move to England. Joseph Richardson then took over the property and lived there for four years while his own house at Springfield was being cleaned. In around 1874 Rockport came into the hands of Charles Higginson of Springmount and subsequently became their family home until 1935, although it was rented out occasionally. 1936 saw the arrival of Sidney Parry of London, a rubber planter and his wife, a first cousin of Sir Roger Casement. By now the house was valued at £57. While Mr Parry died in 1937, his wife remained at Rockport until she eventually moved to the Mill Cottages. Around 1940 the house was inhabited by Robert Walshe, who owned a number of cinemas in the surrounding area. Rockport Lodge was then taken over by John Archer, who was the former town clerk of Belfast, and his wife. In 1953 Rockport was acquired by the National Trust from Lord Cushendun’s eldest daughter, Mrs Esther McNeill-Moss. The NT leased the house to Sir Cecil McKee, and is now currently leased to Mrs Margaret McIntyre and has been extensively repaired and restored.

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