Marymount, 20 Birch Hill Road, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 2QH

Marymount is an early 19th century two-storey house built in the vernacular Georgian tradition, appearing on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. It retains a number of its original exterior and interior features but has also undergone several inappropriate alterations over the years. The house is privately owned and remains in residential use.

The entrance front faces south and is five windows wide with a symmetrical elevation. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with one chimney on each gable. Both chimneys are smoothly cement rendered with projecting string courses, cornices, and battered caps; the left-hand chimney has been recently re-rendered and its cap now has a less pronounced batter. Each chimney has two modern pots fitted with wire cowls. Cast iron guttering is present, with a cast iron downpipe on the right-hand side.

The walls are finished in cement render with a dry pebble dash of mixed stones including white. The corners have rusticated smooth cement rendered quoins, and there is a projecting smooth cement rendered plinth along the base, with a projecting eaves course and eaves board. All windows on the entrance front are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, six panes over six, with horns, set in exposed sash boxes within raised and stop-chamfered smooth cement rendered surrounds. Stone cills project and are painted. The windows appear to be recent replacements made to the original pattern, with old glass panes re-used.

The central doorway contains a rectangular timber four-panel door flanked by decorated sidelights and topped with a radial-glazed fanlight, all set within an elliptical arched opening dressed with raised rendered rusticated block surrounds. There is a stone flagged doorstep.

The west gable is rendered in the same manner as the entrance front. At ground floor level it has two narrow rectangular timber sliding sash windows, four panes over four, with horns, set in surrounds matching those on the entrance front. At first floor level there is one similar narrow window to the left. At attic level on the left-hand side there is one small rectangular single-pane timber window with similar surrounds. The eaves overhang with a white painted soffit and a black painted barge board.

To the rear, the main block to the right of the rear return is two storeys high. The walling here is cement rendered with a wet and dry dash of black stone chippings. A projecting stone is visible at the base of the corner with the west gable. There is cast iron guttering, and the barge board on the west gable returns as a short fascia to the roof overhang. One ground floor window on this section is a rectangular timber sliding sash, six panes over three, without horns, set in exposed sash boxes; the left-hand side of this window is partially obscured by the wall of the rear return. The stone cill is painted and set flush with the wall.

Extending to the left of this and set back is a lower two-storey rear return with a slated roof matching the rest and cast iron guttering. Its walling is rendered in the same way as the rear wall of the main block. The first floor has two rectangular timber fixed lights with top-hung vents, set in plain rendered reveals with projecting painted concrete cills. The ground floor has two similar but wider windows of the same type. On the right-hand side of the ground floor is a rectangular modern stained wood panelled and glazed door with radial top lights, fitted with a modern handle and letterbox.

Extending westward and northward from the end of the rear return is a two-storey wing. The south elevation of this wing has a hipped roof slated to match the rest, one smoothly cement rendered chimney with a projecting battered cap and two modern pots, and walls rendered in the same way as the adjacent rear return. Cast iron guttering and a cast iron downpipe are present, the downpipe terminating above a plastic barrel. The first floor of this elevation has four rectangular PVC fixed lights with top-hung vents and projecting concrete cills. The ground floor has two similar windows along with a large rectangular doorway fitted with flush double doors hung on old iron hinges in a wooden frame, and to the right a rectangular modern glazed and panelled door with a modern handle.

The west wall of this wing is two storeys high and constructed of roughly coursed basalt rubble with a projecting brick eaves course. The hipped roof is slated to match the rest, with cast iron guttering. There is one large rectangular window that appears to have a PVC frame, set in block surrounds of old brickwork with recessed stone cills.

The north elevation of the wing is also of basalt rubble, with a hipped roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. There is one small original two-pane roof light on the right-hand side. One chimney is smoothly cement rendered with a projecting plain cornice and battered cap and two modern pots with wire cowls. Projecting forward from this elevation is a lean-to open-fronted shed with basalt rubble walls, red brick dressings to the jamb openings, and a corrugated iron roof carried on a steel girder at the front. To the left of this lean-to is another lean-to shelter with corrugated iron and corrugated perspex sheets on a timber-raftered roof structure supported on two circular cast iron posts. Within this left-hand shelter, the rear wall contains a modern rectangular four-panel stained wooden door set in a brick-dressed opening, with a modern rectangular window to its right that appears to be a timber fixed light with top-hung vent, set in an old brick block surround.

The rear wall of the main block to the left of the rear return is two storeys high, rendered and slated to match the entrance front, with cast iron guttering and a cast iron soil pipe. The ground floor has one rectangular timber sliding sash window, one pane over one, with horns, set in exposed sash boxes with plain rendered reveals and a projecting stone cill. The first floor has three windows: two to the left are sliding sashes of the same one-over-one type, while the one to the right is semi-circular headed, with a six-over-six sliding sash, with horns, in exposed sash boxes, with similar reveals and cill. Projecting to the left-hand side of this section is a small lean-to outside toilet, its walls dry-dashed with small grey stone chippings and its roof of corrugated iron on a timber fascia or sole plate. There are no rainwater goods. The door on the east side is a rectangular timber door cut down from a four-panel door, set in a crude timber frame and head. Projecting from the centre of this wall, at eaves level, is a large black painted water tank supported on three steel beams carried on angled steel struts.

The east wall of the rear return is two storeys high, slated to match the rest and rendered in the same way as the rear wall of the main block. There is cast iron guttering with a cast iron downpipe that terminates two thirds of the way down the wall, discharging into a length of PVC downpipe inserted in a plastic barrel. On the ground floor, at the left-hand corner, is a rectangular flush timber glazed door with a moulded frame set in plain rendered reveals. A chimney on the ridge marks the junction of the actual rear return and the wing to the rear return, both of which sit in the same plane with continuous walling and continuous slate courses to the roof. The east wall of the wing to the return has one ground floor window, a rectangular timber fixed light with top-hung vent in plain rendered reveals with a recessed rendered cill. On the first floor to the right-hand side there is a rectangular modern glazed timber door set in a crude timber frame within later crude smooth cement rendered reveals; this door opens onto a modern steel fire escape stairway with tubular handrails and flat iron balustrading. Projecting from the centre of the overall east wall of the return and wing is a small wooden boilerhouse with a cylindrical modern metal flue pipe.

The east gable of the main block is similar to the west gable, with a comparable attic window to the right-hand side, no window at first floor level, and only one window at ground floor level.

The house stands in a rural setting facing the main road, set back within its own grounds with a lawn to the front. The main approach is by a driveway leading to a hard surface in front of the doorway. The main gateway consists of a pair of bulky smooth rendered and painted piers of octagonal form with moulded cornices and weathered caps, hung with later double gates of ledged and slatted timber. The front boundary is formed by a hedge. Projecting from the west gable is a painted concrete blockwork screen wall separating the front garden from the rear yard; it contains a pair of square rendered posts and a flat ironwork gate. To the west of the house stand a number of rendered and slated outbuildings and corrugated iron sheds of no architectural interest, grouped around a yard approached by a driveway to the west off the main road, with no gate piers or gates marking the entrance.

The precise date of construction is unknown, though the house appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. The wing and extension to the rear return were added later and are shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1902. The building is noted in the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's West Antrim survey (Belfast, 1970), pages 14 and 23, plate g.