Cairncastle Lodge, County Antrim http://lordbelmontinnorthernireland.blogspot.com/2015/04/cairncastle-lodge.html

THE AGNEWS WERE MAJOR LANDOWNERS IN COUNTY ANTRIM, WITH 9,770 ACRES 

CAPTAIN WILLIAM AGNEW (1747-1828), of KILWAUGHTER, County Antrim, said to be a lineal descendant of the Agnews of Lochnaw, Wigtownshire, was succeeded by his son, 

 
JAMES AGNEW (1794-1880), of Kilwaughter, County Antrim, and Fisherwick, Doagh, in the same county, who married, in 1832, Catherine Hamilton, and had issue, with a daughter, Harriett, two sons, William and Charles, who both predeceased him. 
 
Mr Agnew inherited the Kilwaughter estate in 1834, when he proceeded to build Cairncastle Lodge, Carnfunnock, ca 1839. 
 
The coastal road was constructed about this period. 
 
Mr Agnew, High Sheriff of County Antrim, 1839, died at his home in Highbury Grove, London, in 1880. 
 
Owing to impecunious circumstances, Mr Agnew was obliged to sell his estate, in 1865, to 
 
JAMES CHAINE (1841-1885), son of James Chaine, of Ballycraigy, County Antrim, who was born at Muckamore into a prosperous family in the linen industry. 
 
Mr Chaine, MP for Antrim, 1874-85, married, in 1864, Henrietta de Salis Creery, of Newcastle, County Down, and had two sons, 

WILLIAM (1864-1937), of Cairncastle Lodge; 
JAMES (1867-1910). 

For a short time the family lived in the Chaine’s ancestral home, Ballycraigy Manor. 
 
The Chaine family owned 5,110 acres of land in County Antrim during the 19th century.  

 
A year after his marriage, James purchased Cairncastle Lodge, Carnfunnock, (above) and adjacent lands from James Agnew, at a cost of £12,800 (£1.4 million in 2012). 
 
He also bought Larne harbour (including the lands of Curran and Drumalis) for £20,000 from the Agnew family, in 1866. 
 
Chaine bought when the future of Larne Harbour was in doubt and annual income was only £50 (Larne Times, 8 August 1896). 
 
He invested heavily, improving greatly its primitive quays and facilities, promoting Larne as a port and re-establishing the Larne-Stranraer passenger service in 1872. 
 
A mail route was established in 1875 and a trans-Atlantic service between Glasgow, Larne and New York began in 1873. 
 
Using the renowned State Line vessels, this service continued until December, 1889, and many emigrants left for a new life in America. 
 
In 1878, the railway was extended to the harbour and, to provide travellers with accommodation, he opened the Olderfleet Hotel. 

 
During the construction of Larne Harbour, the Chaine family enlarged their summer residence, Cairncastle Lodge, to incorporate eleven bedrooms, a drawing-room, dining-room, morning-room, halls, coach-yard etc. 
 
The house was approached by two avenues on the landward side of the Coast Road. 
 
The current entrance to Carnfunnock Country Park was originally the back entrance for servants and deliveries to Cairncastle Lodge. 
 
The former main entrance, for the owners and guests, is now the sealed-off laneway leading from the Coast Road to the Activity Centre. 
 
There were four small lodges for employees connected to the estate: Two on the Coast Road; one being at the back entrance; the other on the shore side of the road, opposite the front entrance. 
 
These are now in private ownership. 
 
The land steward’s house, together with the farm buildings, was a short distance from the Lodge and was called Home Farm. 
 
The fourth lodge is now gone. 

In 1874, James Chaine was elected as Conservative MP for Antrim, and his last official engagement was to entertain the Prince of Wales (later EDWARD VII) and Princess Alexandra, on their royal visit to Northern Ireland. 
 
Sadly, when bidding the royal couple farewell, he caught a chill which developed into pneumonia and, within a week, he died aged 44 in his own hotel, the Olderfleet. 
 
At the time of his death, his residence was Ballycraigy and his estate amounted to £63,000, part of which stemmed from the sale of the majority of his mills, bleach greens and watercourses in Muckamore to the York Street Flax Spinning Company Ltd. 
 
His dying wish was to be buried in the moat near Waterloo House, in the townland of Curran and Drumalis, with the ground to be consecrated by the Church of Ireland, and for it to be an enclosed family burial ground. This can still be found at Bankheads/Town Park. 

 
As a mark of respect, the townspeople of Larne raised funds by public subscription to build the Chaine Memorial Tower in 1887/88. 
 
The Commissioners of Irish Lights converted the tower into a lighthouse in 1899. 
 
In his will James Chaine left his eldest son, William, the businesses, but requested he first finish his education at Marlborough and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he obtained a Master of Arts. 
 
William was also given the responsibility of looking after his mother in whichever of the Chaine residences they preferred. 
 
They chose Cairncastle Lodge. 
 
William was to give his brother James £20,000 within ten years of his fathers death, and if Larne Harbour proved successful, a further £10,000. 
 
James enjoyed travel and lived a gentleman’s life, never taking any prominent part in the businesses. 
 
At the close of his university career, William returned to Larne to manage the family estate. 
 
Like his father, William became a director of the old Northern Counties Railway Company and, in succession, a member of the Northern Counties Committee. 

Amongst his many business interests, William was a director of the York Street Flax Spinning Company; a member of the Board of Superintendents of the Belfast Bank; a Director of the Shamrock Shipping Company; Larne Harbour; and the owner and chairman of Messrs Frederick King & Company. 

 
As the senior magistrate in the district, he often sat at Larne Petty Sessions and served also as High Sheriff of County Antrim; being afterwards appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for the county. 
 
For some years he represented Larne on Antrim County Council. 
 
In politics he was President of East Antrim Unionist Association. 
 
His modesty however made him refuse any honours in connection with his political work. 
 
A devoted member of the Church of Ireland, he gave valuable service to the parish of Cairncastle as churchwarden and honorary treasurer. 
 
He also supported the parish of Larne and Inver. 
 
In 1913, a militia, known as the Ulster Volunteer Force, was established to oppose Home Rule. 
 
As commandant of the Larne Battalion, Chaine was the driving force behind organisation of the corps and enlistment in Larne. 
 
His interest in ex-servicemen and the dependents of those who had fallen in the 1st World War was unbounded and he sat as Chairman of the British Legion’s Old Pension Committee, dealing with the chaotic conditions during the aftermath of the war. 
 
William Chaine donated a piece of bog ground north of his family’s private burying-place at Waterloo to create a public park. 
 
Chaine Park was offcially opened in 1929 by William Chaine as the first pleasure ground under the control of the Urban Council. 
 
William Chaine died in Smiley Cottage Hospital in 1937, leaving no wife or children, but a personal estate valued at £375,867. 
 
His passing marked the end of a family which had played a large part in County Antrim affairs for nearly 70 years. 
 
He bequeathed to each of his servants two months wages for each year of service. 
 
He also bequeathed monies to the Protestant Orphan Society and the Church of Ireland, with the remaining £200,000 left to his cousin, Augustus Alexander Nickson, who changed his name to Chaine by deed poll in 1938. 
 
Cairncastle Lodge was subsequently sold to Sir Thomas Dixon in January, 1938. 
 
Though William Chaine travelled extensively, he was never so happy as when in residence at Cairncastle Lodge, where he spent nearly the whole of his adult life and amongst his friends and neighbours there and in Larne he quietly and unostentatiously lived a life of well-doing. 
 
Paying close a mention to the affairs of his estate, he yet found time to interest himself in the affairs of others, to their great advantage (Larne Times, 8 May 1937). www.nihgt.org/resources/pdf/Register_of_Parks_Gardens_Demesnes-NOV20.pdf

CARNFUNNOCK COUNTRY PARK, County Antrim (AP MID AND EAST ANTRIM 09) AN/136 
REGISTERED GRADE A 
Mid-Victorian parkland (147.4 acres/56.6ha), created for a house that no longer exists on sloping 
ground that offers magnificent views eastwards over the sea and to Island Magee. It lies above 
the Antrim Coast Road, 0.72 miles (1.16km) south-east of Ballygalley and 2.9 miles (4.6km) north- 
west of Larne. The park was created in the 1850s by James Charles Agnew (1794-1880), whose 
brother had inherited from his father (in 1847), the adjacent demesne to the north, Cairndhu, 
formerly Sea View. Located in the townland of Carnfunnock on land acquired by his father in 
1823, Agnew called his new house Cairncastle Lodge. It was an irregular part two, part one and a 

Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020 
half-storey Tudor/ Jacobean style house with Flemish gables, tall chimneystacks and finials, built 
in a U-plan with castellated entrance arch on the east side. The house was approached by two 
sweeping avenues, one to the north and the other from the south, each with gate lodges along 
the recently opened Coast Road. Both these lodges (Listed HB 06/03/003) reflect something of 
the appearance of the former house as they have similar features, including gables, label 
moulding and tall chimneys, although both are solely Tudor rather than Jacobean in inspiration. 
Dean speculates that both may have been designed by English architect James Sands; if is the 
case then the main house may have been by him also. The parkland is arranged to reflect the 
setting of the demesne in the curve of Carnfunnock Bay. The parkland created for the house in 
the 1850s was bounded on all sides by broad-leafed tree belts, with a woodland block on the west 
perimeter to help shield winds; the latter , containing a high percentage of evergreens, contained 
walks and a summer house in the Victorian era (the site of this is now a look out). The two 
avenues to the house were enclosed within narrow tree belts that served to enclose a large ovoid 
lawn below the house whose eastern tree screen narrowed in the centre to allow views of the 
bay. More open parkland lay west and south-west of the house, partly subdivided by a narrow 
tree screen that sheltered the lane to the farm yard, built 240m south-west of the house. The 
house itself was enclosed by trees as was the walled kitchen garden which was built immediately 
north of the house on sloping ground. It is a large sub-rectangular walled garden (1.65 
acres/0.67ha), enclosed by stone walls with internal brick-lining and brick coping, outside of which 
on the north and west sides are narrow slips. The garden’s east wall still has iron clamps for fruit 
trees and since at least the 1930s, if not from the 1850s, the garden has had at least two 
glasshouses (now gone). In 1865 the house and demesne were sold to James Chaine (1841-85) of 
the Chaine family of Muckamore, where the family owned a series of linen beetling and bleach 
mills on the Six Mile Water. In 1885 it passed to his sons, James and William, and in 1937 was 
bought by Sir Thomas and Lady Edith Dixon who owned the neighbouring ‘Cairndhu.’ The Dixons 
had the dwelling house at Cairncastle Lodge demolished and, in 1947, a one-storey house they 
called ‘Carnfunnock House’ was built on the site, which they used for occasional visits, their main 
home being by this time, Wilmont House, Dunmurry. Sir Thomas died in 1950 and Lady Edith sold 
Carnfunnock to Larne Borough Council in 1957, which subsequently leased the house to the Larne 
Lions Club for use for visitors and as a holiday home for the elderly, and developed the land as a 
public amenity. In late 1980s, the area was landscaped and opened as a public park in 1990— 
Carnfunnock Country Park. Part of the redevelopment in 1990 included the walled garden 
(Ferguson and McIlveen), which saw a ‘Time Garden’ being made wherein is a display of sundials 
showing how time was measured at different eras and by different cultures. The same project 
also saw the creation of a small amphitheatre, pergolas, flower, rose, rock and water gardens. In 
1991 a hornbeam maze arranged in the shape of Northern Ireland was added north-west of the 
walled garden. Today only the northern drive is used and a new reception building has been built 
north-east of the dwelling house. There is a caravan park south of the dwelling house and also a 
golf driving range, promenade, slipway, lookout and trails. The park is in an Area of Outstanding 
Natural Beauty. Public access is at the northern gate lodge and there are car parks on both sides 
of the public road. Public amenity. 
 

CHAINE PARK, County Antrim (AP MID AND EAST ANTRIM 09) AN/029 
REGISTERED GRADE A 
Small public park (3.5 acres/1.4ha) located between the Coast-road and the sea, 0.7 miles (1.1km) 
north-east of Larne Main-street. Described as “a pretty pleasure garden, well equipped with seats 
and shelters in a perfect suntrap on the seashore” in the Borough of Larne Official Guide, the park 
occupies a steep slope down towards the sea, facing east and backed on the north by a wooded 
hill. The site was donated in the 1920s by the Chaine family to the people of Larne and serves as a 
memorial to the family, in particular James Chaine (1841-85) M.P. of Cairncastle Lodge, who 
developed the port of Larne Harbour, revived the Larne-Stranraer route in 1872 and later 

Register of Parks, Gardens and Demesnes of Special Historic Interest (NI) – November 2020 
transatlantic crossings. The park retains its 1920s layout, with paths meandering throughout, 
steps, bedding and seats. There are shelters, grassed areas and streams leading to a pond. There 
are clumps of shrubs and a few flower beds. A few trees grow in the north side; to the south is the 
public park, the ‘Town Park’ with the Glenarm-road forming the western boundary. To the south- 
east of the park is a rath (SMR: ANT 35:19), which has been adapted as a private burial ground, 
enclosed by high wrought iron railings (Listed HB 06/08/006). The entrance, facing north-west, 
has a pair of gates similar to the railings and a metal plaque fixed to the left gate ‘These railings 
enclose the private burial ground of James Chaine…his family and heirs’. A kiln (HB 06/08/007) 
can be accessed from the north of the park. The park is on the route of the promenade from 
which the iconic Chaine Memorial Tower, an 1888 replica of an Irish round tower, at the mouth of 
Larne Harbour, commemorating James Chaine, can be seen. Public amenity.