The Antrim Arms Hotel was built by the Earl of Antrim about 1840,
and was run by the Antrim family for many years. A house to the
right of the main hotel building was formerly a Royal Irish Constabulary
barracks, but had latterly become part of the hotel. It is somewhat
earlier in date than the main building, and its roof structure
includes some early purlins that are roughly shaped tree trunks.
In the 1950s the hotel was enlarged and modernised to include
'three fine sitting rooms upstairs in which visitors can be sure
of complete quiet'; bed and breakfast was available for 12/6d
per night, and the weekly tariff 'en pension' was 7-8 guineas.
By the early 1970s however the hotel functioned as little more
than a pub, and when a bomb was placed at the rear of the building
in 1973, the owners decided to close down. The building remained
vacant until restoration started to convert the building into
flats in 1984. As one of the largest buildings in the main street
of Glenarm, its restoration was very important to the village.
The bomb had caused relatively little damage to the limestone
rubble structure of the building, and restoration was fairly straightforward,
although the conversion required some ingenuity. The former barracks
was restored as a separate house, and old outbuildings at the
rear were demolished and replaced with a terrace of five pensioners'
cottages designed along traditional lines. The pavement in front
of the Antrim Arms was laid with cobbles as indicated in old photographs.
Client: Hearth Housing
Association
Client: Hearth Housing Association
Architect: John Neill Partnership
Quantity Surveyors: McNeil Rainey & Best
Structural Engineers: Armstrong & Shaw
M & E Engineers: Brian Caldwell Partnership
Main Contractor: Martin & Hamilton, Ballymena
Restored: 1984-85
Funded by Housing Association Grant
Accommodation: One four-bedroom house, one three-bedroom
maisonette, two two-bedroom flats, two one-bedroom and five one-bedroom
cottages.
