Antrim Sessions or Court-House:

1726(keystone dated). A large well positioned block of sturdy early 18th century proportions. Its exposed site, freestanding at the west end of Market Square, requires four elevations. The longer sides are of nine bays, two storeys with the end two bays slightly projecting and an arched arcade filling in the centre on the ground floor. Each end is different: the east facade is similar to the longer sides with arcaded ground floor, the west end is dominated by a large scale segment-headed Doric entrance door, set centrally, and, half-way up the elevation, approached by a flight of double steps; on either side two small Georgian glazed windows with a segmental bump in the centre of each top. The doorway is one of the richest 18th century classical conceptions in the North of Ireland, similar in treatment to those of Gill Hall and Moira Parish Church - obviously a pattern book production. An octagonal cupola with ogee roof surmounts the low pitched roof. It is a pity that the arcades were later filled up, destroying the sense of chiaroscuro that the building once possessed.

[Note: Much of the centre of the centre of Antrim was redeveloped in the 1970s and 1980s, and the setting of the court house is now very different from the illustration above].


Galgorm Castle:

A 17th century house straddling a long fortified enclosure (Bawn); this is about 250 ft. long by 70 ft. wide, with projecting salient angled bastions defending each corner - best preserved at the rear of the house, where they are built into offices. The front - five bay, three-storey with central convex - then concave Dutch gable and a similar feature over the door, blocking out the possibility of a central window over the door; sides two-bay, four-storey, with attics. On the east side of the house was a bowling green, enclosed by more walls with circular corner towers, representing perhaps the earliest enclosure of c.1618. The house and the fortifications it straddles must be later, presumably c.1645, when Rev. Dr. Alexander Colville settled at Galgorm. The house plan is a typically mid-17th century double pile plan with a central spine wall, seven feet wide, between the two sets of rooms. The rooms were still panelled in oak when Mrs. Delaney visited the house (then called Mount Colville) in 1758. Only the oak stair with turned balusters and large round heads to the newels remains of this work. C.1830 when owned by the Lords Mountcashel, the castle was modernised; large sash windows in brick surrounds were disposed regularly about the four facades and the wallhead was given its curious Flemish gables and curved battlements c.1850 (architect unknown). Sir Charles Lanyon was consulted about the stability of the west wall; the present front door, interior doorcases and diningroom fireplace are all to his designs. There are fine mature beeches in the woodland south of the house . In the grounds are ruins of a small 17th century church (17 ft. by 32 ft.) with a circular headed south door, a small mullioned window in one gable and a large arched opening in the other; there is a vaulted chamber under the east end.

Refs: DPJ 1834, II 409; Correspondence of Mrs Delaney.