Gateside, 152 Ballyeaston Road, Ballyclare, Co.Antrim, BT39 9SG

Gateside is a detached four-bay two-storey vernacular house built around 1830, located east of Ballyeaston Road in Ballyclare, County Antrim. It is largely intact with most of its historic fabric and detailing surviving, making it of special interest as a representative example of rural vernacular architecture, much of which has been lost.

The building is rectangular on plan with single-storey returns to each gable end. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue and black clay ridge tiles and rendered verges. Brick gable chimneystacks with clay pots support the roof structure. Half-round cast-iron rainwater goods run the length of the walls, which are finished in roughcast render.

The principal elevation faces north and contains an off-centre entrance to the left within a flat-roofed storm porch. Windows are set at each side of this entrance, with a timber-sheeted door to the right bay followed by a further window. Four windows occupy the first floor of this elevation. The entrance comprises a panelled door with six fixed panels and six glazed panes above. Windows throughout are 2/2 vertically-divided timber sliding sashes with painted masonry cills.

The left gable is abutted by a single-storey outbuilding with a pitched corrugated metal roof, its exposed section being blank. The rear elevation contains two windows at ground floor level and four windows at first floor, the second from the right being segmental-headed. The right gable is abutted by a single-storey return with a pitched natural slate roof, its exposed section blank. The left gable return has a timber-sheeted door facing north. The east gable is abutted by a single-storey lean-to extension with a blank rear elevation. The right gable return's north elevation has a central timber-sheeted door with a window to its left. The west gable is abutted by a single-storey lean-to extension with a corrugated metal roof. The rear elevation of this extension displays exposed random rubble walling with two timber casement windows.

The house is preserved within its original farmyard setting with outbuildings to the north. It is accessed by a lane east of Ballyeaston Road. Historical evidence from the First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1832 shows a building on the south side of the road, with the Second Edition map of 1857 showing an additional building parallel to this on the opposite side of the road. Valuation Revisions records identify the property as a 'house, offices and land' occupied by Alex Agnew, valued at £1 10 shillings.