61 Clonkeen Road, Randalstown, ANTRIM, BT41 3JJ

A partially derelict, detached three-bay two-storey early nineteenth century vernacular farmhouse, located on the east side of Clonkeen Road in Randalstown. The building is in direct entry plan with a small garden to the front, traditional farmyard to the rear, and attached outbuildings to the north and east sides.

The main house is rectangular in plan, facing west, with a pitched roof of natural slate that overhangs at the gable ends and features a brick corbel-course to the eaves. Red brick chimneys rise from both gables with corbel-courses to the tops. The walling is lime-rendered masonry. Few cast iron downpipes remain, though cast iron gutter brackets survive on the main house and the northern extension.

The principal elevation has a central entrance door of timber with fifteen glazed panels, set within a smooth rendered stepped surround surmounted by a curved moulded canopy. A single window flanks the door on each side of the ground floor. The first floor has 1/2 sliding sash windows with masonry cills to each bay. Windows throughout are timber painted 2/2 sliding sashes, horizontally divided, with exposed boxes and sloping masonry cills.

The left gable is blank and is abutted by two lower pitched and slated outhouses. The rear elevation features two six-panel steel casement windows with a continuous concrete cill to the first floor. This elevation is abutted by a one-and-a-half-storey multi-bay outbuilding to the left and a single-storey lean-to extension to the right. The south gable elevation is blank.

The outbuildings to the east elevation are rendered with roughcast, multi-bay, and feature lucarne windows (mullioned side-hung steel casements) to the north and south sides. The lean-to extension has asbestos tiles and timber eaves boards, with a vertically sheeted timber door to the left and six-panel steel casement windows to the right. The outbuildings to the north are pitched and slated, multi-bay with roughcast render and replacement casement windows.

The site is bounded to the east and south by hedges and is accessed at the west by a cast iron entrance gate on original brick piers. The north is also accessed by a cast iron gate. The rear east side comprises a rectangular concrete yard enclosed by outbuildings and a random rubble wall to the east.

Documentary sources indicate that the building appears as a rural smallholding on the Townland Valuation map derived from the Ordnance Survey first edition map of 1832. However, the building's east-west alignment and plan differ from the 1857 Ordnance Survey map, suggesting the house was remodelled or rebuilt between those dates. The building is not recorded on the Townland Valuation, which did not include information on buildings valued at less than £5. Griffiths Valuation of 1859 records Robert Richardson as the occupier, with Henry McIlroy as the immediate lessor, and values the house at ten shillings. Inappropriate alterations and a much remodelled interior have compromised the building's architectural value.