The Story of Carrickfergus Townscape Heritage Initiative p8
Additional Support and Complementary Projects
One of the aims of the THI scheme was to attract additional resources which were complementary to the delivery of the schemes aims and objectives.
Resources ranged from additional funding to support capital costs, professional assistance, and the development of historical exhibitions.
Heritage in Housing Programme
Administered by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive the programme sought to support the development of new residential spaces in local towns normally over traditional shops working closely with THI schemes throughout Northern Ireland.
A total of £140,000 was allocated to the THI scheme during a 3-year period to support the development of 10 flats contained within traditional buildings, whilst adhering to modern regulations and supporting modern living.
Irish Walled Town Network
The Heritage Council of Ireland supported through its Irish Walled Town Network, a grant of €7,000 to create an interpretive space as an extension of the Carrickfergus Museum based in the newly restored Warrant Officers House and Guard Room.
The funding supported the commissioning of specialists to explore the history of the buildings associated with Carrickfergus Town Hall and Civic Centre seeking to develop an interpretive strategy for the site.
One of the outcomes was the creation of an exhibition space in the Guard Room and Jail which is now open to the public and managed by the Carrickfergus Museum.
The work focused on the military history of the site including exhibitions about the Antrim Artillery founded in 1854 to protect Belfast Lough from French invasion, the Boer War 1900-1901 and the Great War 1914-1918.
Historic Environment Division
Historic Environment Division (HED) were glad to play a part in the Carrickfergus THI, and we took the role of undertaking some, and guiding all, of the survey and excavation work to examine the buildings during their renovations.
The project has significantly advanced our knowledge of the town’s past, knowledge that we could not have gained but for the THI.
Previous to the initiative it was thought that only fragments of Dobbin’s Tower House survived, possibly only the fireplaces and parts of walls, and that no such other early buildings had survived above ground.
However, the THI proved that thinking wrong.
The renovations at Dobbin’s Inn demonstrated that the tower house still survives, largely intact.
The stone walls of Dobbin’s Castle survive to three storeys high on the gable ends and two storeys at the front and rear - the front and rear third storey stone walls having been removed in the past and replaced in brick.
During the works the front elevation was exposed and created much interest with many people coming to have a look.
Unfortunately, the walls had to be rendered to help make the building weatherproof, but the render used was a roughcast harling similar to that which would have covered the walls in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Analysis of the tree rings in a timber above the entrance to the building gave a date of ‘after 1529’.
Samples from the fireplace timbers at ground and first floor gave dates of 1529-1547 and 1533-1551, tying in well with the entrance timber.
This may date the construction of this Dobbin family tower house to the period 1533-1547, which agrees well with the main period of tower house building throughout Ireland generally.
However, it leaves us wondering what type of structure the Dobbin family lived in before that - could these dates relate instead to a 16th century renovation of an older building?
Next door, in No.10 High Street, the THI discovered something even more unexpected, with the renovations uncovering several phases of another ancient building.
That building seems to have begun life as a stone house attached to Dobbin’s Castle.
We cannot be sure of how high it was originally, but it was at least single storey and possibly slightly higher.
One internal timber sample gave a date of ‘after 1542’ and may point to a similar construction date to the tower house next door.
If so, this could give us a date range of 1542-1547 for both buildings.
Tree ring dating, and much survey work, showed that the building was then remodeled in the 1660s when it was heightened to two and a half storeys and had a rear stair tower added to make the building into a fine townhouse.
Many of the roof and floor timbers were marked with roman numerals, which indicates that they were first carved somewhere else and joined together to make sure they fitted each other correctly.
Then the timbers were marked with the numerals, disassembled, and taken to the No.10 building site, where they were fitted together again by matching the numbers.
Amazingly, within the stair tower part of the stairs still survived.
These stairs are the oldest we know of in an urban dwelling in Northern Ireland and the THI project supported their restoration. Indeed, as the renovations created an apartment in No.10, the building seems to be our oldest urban house still in residential use.
No.10 was remodeled again in the period 1676-1689, when the roof was heightened to turn the attic into a full height usable space with several rooms.
The building later saw more phases of remodeling during the 1800s.
But who constructed our Dobbin buildings?
We have the name of a Stephen Dobbin from the town map of c.1560, and it may well be him who first built the towerhouse and adjoining building.
A James Dobbin, possibly Stephen’s great-grandson, was Mayor of Carrickfergus in 1662 and the most senior Alderman in 1681.
It may well have been James that turned No.10 into a fashionable townhouse to fit with the times and his status.
Across the road from No.10, during archaeological excavations in the 1970s, a timber taken from the cellar of No.33 High Street gave a highly accurate tree ring date of 1683.
The archaeologists thought that the cellar may have been the foundations of another tower house.
If so, that tower house would have been the other ancient Dobbin’s Castle that we know sat in that location.
That date sits within the 1676-89 range for the No.10 works and may show that Dobbins family buildings on both sides of High Street were being renovated at the same time in the early 1680s.
This important family, who had been in the town since the medieval period, and provided Carrickfergus with many Mayors and Sheriffs, dwindled into the background of society from the middle 1700s onwards.
Prominent members had moved away and eventually sold their Carrickfergus lands and buildings.
Thanks to the THI, however, we have been able to recover some of their past at a time during the 1500 and 1600s when the Dobbin family was at the height of its powers.
In particular, the discovery of their previously unknown 1660’s townhouse with surviving stairs provides us with an important addition to the historic building stock of both the town, county and indeed entire Island of Ireland.
Dr Paul Logue, Historical Environment Division