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

Ben Neagh is a two-storey house of five windows width, set well back from Crumlin Road within extensive grounds overlooking a grazing field. The building dates from the 19th century and faces south-west, with its entrance elevation symmetrical to this aspect.

The main house has rendered walls finished in wet dash using small stones, lime washed in colour, with a plain projecting stone eaves course and plain platband at first floor level. The hipped roof is covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses with lead covering to the ridges. Cast iron gutters are in poor condition. Two lateral chimneys are smooth cement rendered with plain cornices and three original octagonal pots to each.

Windows throughout are rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, without horns. The first floor windows are 6 over 6, while ground floor windows are 9 over 6, with projecting sandstone cills and smooth rendered reveals. The north-west end elevation of the main block is one window wide; the first floor window has been blocked up (evident as a rectangular depression in the render with some red brick revealed at the bottom), while the ground floor window is blocked with corrugated iron.

The entrance is set in a coved recess with an elliptical head. It comprises a rectangular timber 6-panel raised and fielded door, flanked by narrow fluted timber columns with moulded cornice, 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 rendered plinth walls with roughcast finish and projecting concrete cills. The conservatory roof is hipped and entirely glazed on steel framing. The floor contains decorative encaustic tiles.

The rear elevation of the main block is dominated by two large chimney stacks. A rear return projects forward to the left, containing rectangular timber sashed windows with exposed sash boxes to the first floor.

Extending from the main house are several outbuildings. A lower two-storey gabled outbuilding returns from the rear, connected by a short link wall of rendered brick rubble. Its walls are rendered as the main house but with missing render revealing a basalt rubble carcass. It has a slated roof with ridge tiles and a projecting brick eaves course. Its north-west elevation has two first floor windows and three ground floor windows, all open and unglazed with brick reveals. A small roofless gabled outbuilding extends from its end.

A further two-storey slated and gabled outbuilding in partially derelict condition stands to the north-west, displaying a bell-cote on its north-west gable and partly closing the rear end of the rear yard.

The south-east elevation comprises the main block end (one window wide) with a long two-storey rear return extending north-east in stages. The main block has a slated hipped roof and cast iron gutters and downpipe, with one sashed window to each floor. The first block of the return is three windows wide with a gabled slated roof. Two smooth rendered chimneys with modern terracotta pots stand to the right. Windows are rectangular timber sashes without horns: 3 over 6 to first floor with projecting stone cills and 6 over 6 to ground floor. The leftmost ground floor opening is a doorway formed as a rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 4 with three wooden panels at the base, now enclosed in a later open porch of timber construction on roughcast plinth walls. The porch has hardboard internal lining and half-round fir logs in herringbone pattern as external cladding, with a stone doorstep and slated roof with timber barge boards.

The gable of this return block is basalt rubble, rendered, with sandstone copings. Extending north-east is a lower two-storey block in the same plane with a slated gabled roof in poor condition. It has one smooth rendered chimney with a rendered stack extension spalling to reveal red-brick carcass, with two plain earthenware pots. Windows to this block are rectangular timber sashes: first floor contains two 2 over 2 with horns and two 2 over 4 without horns; ground floor has three 2 over 4 without horns and two 2 over 2 with horns. Beyond this extends a set-back gabled block with blank wall, slated roof much sagged and overgrown with creeper.

The house stands within its grounds overlooking a grazing field, with a belt of trees along the boundary to the road. Mature trees flank the house, with an overgrown garden around its perimeter. The main approach is by a curving drive branching from a driveway to a new house to the east; entrance from the main road is marked by a pair of modern rubble stone piers flanked by splayed front boundary walls of modern character. A secondary approach from the north accesses outbuildings at the rear, which are of generally poor architectural quality. The property is in poor condition overall, with missing render, blocked windows, corrugated iron infill, and extensive structural deterioration to outbuildings.