Ben Neagh, 11 Crumlin Road, Crumlin, Co Antrim, BT29 4AD

Ben Neagh is a late Georgian house built around 1810, standing in its own extensive grounds set well back from the Crumlin Road. It is a plain but well-proportioned two-storey house, five windows wide, with a central doorway and a hipped roof. The main entrance faces south-west and the entrance elevation is symmetrical. While the house appears to retain most of its original exterior features, its originally characteristic proportions and appearance have been compromised by later porches added to the front and side elevations.

The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with lead covering to the ridges and cast iron gutters, which are now in poor condition. The walls are wet-dash rendered using small stones, lime-washed and coloured, with a plain projecting stone eaves course (painted), a plain platband at first floor level, and a moulded rendered plinth. There are two lateral chimneys, smooth cement rendered with a plain cornice, each carrying three original octagonal pots.

The windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung and without horns throughout: those on the first floor are six-over-six panes, and those on the ground floor are nine-over-six panes. All have projecting sandstone cills and smooth rendered reveals.

The original entrance is set within a coved recess with an elliptical head. It comprises a six-panel raised-and-fielded rectangular timber door, flanked by narrow fluted timber columns with a moulded cornice, and surmounted by an elliptical fanlight with radial and looped glazing bars. This entrance is now enclosed within a later conservatory of 1930s appearance, constructed of glazed metal windows and French doors on low roughcast rendered plinth walls with projecting concrete cills. The conservatory has a hipped, entirely glazed roof on steel framing members, and its floor is laid with decorative patterned encaustic tiles. The ground floor of the entrance front is largely obscured by overgrowth from the garden on either side of the conservatory.

The north-west end elevation of the main front block is two storeys and one window wide, with the same walling and guttering as the front. The first-floor window on this elevation has been blocked up — its rectangular shape is visible in the tone of the render, with some render missing at the bottom to reveal red brick blocking beneath. The ground-floor window is blocked with corrugated iron.

Returning forward from the rear line of the main block is a lower two-storey gabled outbuilding. Its render matches that of the main house, though in places it has fallen away to reveal a basalt rubble carcass beneath. The gable is attached to the main house by a short link wall of rendered brick rubble, with the eaves area covered by creeper. The outbuilding roof is slated to match the main house and has a tiled ridge. The north-west elevation of this outbuilding has similar walling, with a projecting brick eaves course; almost all of its metal guttering is missing. There are two windows to the first floor and three to the ground floor, all open and unglazed, with brick reveals. A small roofless gabled outbuilding extends further to the left at the end of the two-storey outbuilding.

The rear elevation of the main front block is two storeys and is dominated by two large chimney stacks, with the rear return projecting forward on the left-hand side. The walling is roughcast as on the other elevations, though in poor condition. There are two six-over-six sliding sash windows without horns on the first floor, with exposed sash boxes. The ground floor of the main front block was not accessible at the time of survey, being contained within an enclosed yard. The north-west elevation of the rear return is of similar character to the south-east elevation and contains rectangular timber sashed windows; again, the ground floor was not visible at the time of survey.

Returning to the north-west from the end of the long rear return is a two-storey slated and gabled outbuilding in a partially derelict condition. This outbuilding displays a bell-cote on its north-west gable and partly closes the rear end of the yard.

The south-east elevation shows the two-storey end of the main front block, one window wide, with a long two-storey rear return extending to the north-east in stages. The main block has its slated hipped roof as before, with cast iron guttering returning at the right to the rear elevation, and a cast iron downpipe at the lower level to collect discharge from the rear return. There is one sashed window to each floor matching those on the entrance front; the render of the reveals to the ground-floor window is spalling to reveal brickwork beneath.

The rear return is set back slightly, with lower eaves and ridge lines. Its walling is similar to that of the main block but without the platband or plinth. The first block of the return is three windows wide with a gabled slated roof and two smooth rendered chimneys to the right-hand side, carrying modern terracotta pots with similar cowls, and cast iron gutters and downpipes in poor condition. The first-floor windows of this block are rectangular timber sashes without horns, three-over-six panes with projecting stone cills; the ground-floor windows are six-over-six without horns with similar cills. The first opening on the left at ground floor level is a doorway in the form of a rectangular timber sliding sash vertically hung, six-over-four panes with three wooden panels at the base. This door is enclosed in a later open timber porch on low roughcast plinth walls, lined internally with hardboard and clad externally with half-round fir logs in a herringbone pattern, with a deep stone doorstep bounded by concrete flagging and a slated roof with timber barge boards. The gable of the first return block is of rendered basalt rubble with sandstone copings.

Extending further to the north-east is a lower two-storey block in the same plane. Its slated gabled roof is in poor condition, with cast iron gutters and downpipes. There is one chimney, smooth rendered as before but with a rendered stack extension that is spalling to show a red brick carcass beneath, carrying two plain earthenware pots. On the first floor there are four rectangular timber sash windows: the first two from the left are two-over-two with horns, and the next two are two-over-four without horns. At ground floor level the sashed windows run from left to right as follows: three two-over-four without horns, followed by two two-over-two with horns. Beyond the end of the return gable, extending further to the north-east, is the set-back blank wall of a gabled block with a slated roof that has sagged considerably, its eaves overgrown with creeper.

The house stands within its own extensive grounds, set well back from the main road and overlooking a grazing field. A belt of trees runs along the road boundary. The main approach is by a curving drive branching from the driveway to a newer house in the grounds to the east; the entrance from the main road is marked by a pair of modern rubble stone piers flanked by splayed boundary walls of similarly modern character. Mature trees stand to each side of the house, with an overgrown garden around its perimeter. A secondary approach from a road to the north leads by a driveway to the outbuildings at the rear, which are of generally poor architectural quality.

The house was built around 1810 and is presumed to have been built for James Macauley, who was recorded as living there in the 1830s. He was the son of Robert Macauley, proprietor of the nearby Glen Oak house and mills. In the 1880s Ben Neagh was the residence of Jonathan Peel, whose descendants occupied it until recently. The first survey of the building, carried out in 1972, recorded a datestone of 1822 with a shamrock motif, though its location was not established. The house was the subject of a repair scheme in 1979.