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

Marymount is a two-storey gabled house dating from the 19th century, located in a rural setting and set back from Birch Hill Road within its own grounds. The building is five windows wide to its south-facing entrance front, which presents a symmetrical composition.

The main block has a roof covered in regular courses of Bangor blue slate, with two chimneys positioned on the gables. These chimneys are smooth cement rendered with projecting string courses and cornices, and have battered caps. The left chimney has been recently re-rendered and now has a less pronounced batter to its cap. Both chimneys have two modern pots fitted with wire cowls. The roof has cast iron guttering, with a cast iron downpipe on the right-hand side.

The walls are finished in cement render with dry pebble dash of mixed stones including white. The corners feature rusticated smooth cement rendered quoins, and there is a projecting smooth cement rendered plinth at the base and a projecting eaves course with eaves board at the top.

The windows throughout the entrance front are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung and 6 over 6 panes, with horns and exposed sash boxes. They are set in raised and stop-chamfered smooth cement rendered surrounds with projecting painted stone cills. These windows appear to be recent replacements made to the original pattern, with old glass panes re-used. The central doorway contains a rectangular timber 4-panel door with decorated sidelights and a radial-glazed fanlight, all set within an elliptical arched opening with raised rendered rusticated block dressings. There is a stone flagged doorstep.

The west gable wall is rendered to match the entrance front. At ground floor level are two narrow windows—rectangular timber sliding sashes, 4 over 4 panes, with horns—set in similar surrounds to those on the entrance front. The first floor has one similar narrow window on the left-hand side, and the attic has one small rectangular timber single-pane window, also on the left, with matching surrounds. The gable features overhanging eaves with white painted soffit and a black painted barge board.

The rear elevation of the main block, to the right of a rear return, is two-storey with walls rendered in cement with wet and dry dash of black stone chippings. There is projecting stone at the base of the corner with the west gable, cast iron guttering, and the barge board on the west gable returns as a short fascia to the roof overhang. One window at ground floor level is a rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 3 panes, without horns, in an exposed sash box, though the left-hand side of the window is covered by the wall of the rear return. It has a painted stone cill set flush with the wall.

Extending to the left and set back from the main block is a lower two-storey rear return with a slated roof matching the main block and cast iron guttering. The walling is rendered to match the rear wall of the main block. The first floor has two windows—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. On the right-hand side of the ground floor is a rectangular timber door, a modern stained wood panelled and glazed example with radial top lights, modern handle and letterbox.

Extending to the west and north 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 of the building and one chimney of smooth cement render with a projecting battered cap and two modern pots. The wall is rendered to match the rear return, with cast iron guttering and a cast iron downpipe terminating above a plastic barrel. The first floor has four rectangular PVC fixed lights with top-hung vents and projecting concrete cills. The ground floor has two similar windows. On the left-hand side of the ground floor is a large rectangular doorway with flush double doors mounted on old iron hinges and set in a wooden frame. On the right-hand side is a rectangular modern glazed and panelled door with a modern handle.

The west wall of the wing is two-storey and built of basalt rubble, roughly coursed, with a projecting brick eaves course. The hipped roof is slated to match the rest of the building and has cast iron guttering. There is one large rectangular fixed light window, apparently in a PVC frame, set in block surrounds of old brickwork with recessed stone cills.

The north elevation of the wing is of basalt rubble with a hipped roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses. There is one small original 2-pane roof light on the right-hand side and one chimney of smooth cement render with a projecting plain cornice and battered cap, fitted with two modern pots with wire cowls. Projecting forward is a lean-to open-fronted shed of basalt rubble walls with red brick dressings to the jambs of the opening and a corrugated iron roof on a steel girder to the front. To the left of this 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. The rear wall within this shelter has, on the left, a modern rectangular 4-panel stained wooden door set in a brick-dressed opening, and to the right of that, a modern rectangular window—apparently timber—with a fixed light and top-hung vent in an old brick block surround.

The rear wall of the main block to the left of the rear return is two-storey, with walls rendered to match the rest of the rear wall and a roof slated to match the entrance front. It has cast iron guttering and a cast iron soil pipe. At ground floor level is one rectangular timber sliding sash window, 1 over 1 pane, with horns, set in an exposed sash box with plain rendered reveals and a projecting stone cill. The first floor has three windows: the two on the left are sliding sashes, 1 over 1 pane, similar to the ground floor; the one on the right is semi-circular headed, 6 over 6 panes, with horns, set in an exposed sash box, with similar reveals and cill. Projecting from the left-hand side is a small lean-to outside toilet with walls rendered in dry dash of small grey stone chippings and a corrugated iron roof on a timber fascia or sole plate. It has no rainwater goods. Its east side has a rectangular timber door, cut down from a 4-panel door, set in a crude timber frame and head. Projecting from the centre of this wall of the main block is a large black painted water tank at eaves level, supported on three steel beams carried on angled steel struts.

The east wall of the rear return is two-storey with a slated roof to match the rest of the building and walling rendered as the rear wall of the main block. It has cast iron guttering and a cast iron downpipe that terminates two-thirds down the wall and discharges into a length of PVC downpipe inserted in a plastic barrel. At ground floor level in 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 are in the same plane with continuous walling and slate courses to the roof.

The east wall of the wing has one ground floor window—a rectangular timber fixed light with top-hung vent in plain rendered reveals and a recessed rendered cill. At first floor level on the right-hand side is a rectangular timber modern glazed door set in a crude timber frame within later crude smooth cement reveals. This door opens onto a modern steel fire escape stairway with tubular hand rails and flat iron balustrading. Projecting from the centre of the overall east wall of the return and wing is a small wooden boiler house with a cylindrical modern metal flue pipe.

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

The house stands in a very rural area, facing the main road and set back from it within its own grounds with a lawn in front. The main approach is by a driveway from the road up to a hard surface in front of the doorway. The main gateway comprises a pair of bulky smooth rendered and painted piers of octagonal form with moulded cornices and weathered caps, 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, which contains a pair of square rendered posts with 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, which is approached by a driveway to the west off the main road but not marked by gate piers or gates.