Paul Larmour describes the creative Odyssey embarked upon by Newton Penprase in the building of Bendhu House, located on the dramatic coastline of Co Antrim.
For generations visitors to the Co Antrim coastal village of Ballintoy have been intrigued by the sight of a house of unusual appearance. It had started innocuously enough in the 1930s, as a normal holiday house, but one which seemed, as the years went by to be taking an overly long time to complete.
In the fullness of time it began to take on such an unusual shape that it eventually became the focus of a family drive to the seaside as much as the pretty harbour and beach itself – an object of public fascination, and speculation as to who was the builder and, as time went by, curiosity as to when it would ever be finished.
