Ballyhamage House, The Burn Road, Doagh, Co Antrim, BT39 0RD

Ballyhamage House is an unusual five-bay two-storey Georgian house built around 1800, located on the north side of The Burn Road in Doagh, County Antrim. It is a good example of a Georgian country house that incorporates significant ancillary structures, which add to its historic integrity both as a building and as a site.

The house is rectangular on plan with coursed basalt rubble walls and fieldstone quoins. It has a natural slate roof pitched to the main structure. The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrical, consisting of five openings at each floor arranged around a central elliptical-headed entrance opening with a moulded surround. This contains an original raised-and-fielded timber panelled door with a sunburst fanlight and sidelights. The windows are square-headed timber-framed casements with twelve panes and inset moulded architrave frames, giving them the appearance of 6/6 sliding sashes. All windows have painted masonry sills. The gable chimneys are ruled-and-lined rendered on the east side and roughcast on the west.

Attached to the east of the house is a two-storey former chapel, built around 1850. The chapel has a canted elevation on its south side and is topped by a hipped roof with a parapet, finished in natural slate. Its walls are rubble with granite quoins. The chapel is distinguished by round-arched-headed timber-framed casement windows, which diminish in size at the first floor. The chapel was created as a "chapel of ease" by the Reverend George Johnston, the original owner, whose addition explains the recorded increase in property value in the Griffiths Valuation of 1859. A single-storey roughcast pool house abuts the chapel to the west, and a single-storey extension sits at the centre of the north elevation.

To the north-west of the main house stands an attached four-bay two-storey outbuilding with a hipped natural slate roof. Its walls are coursed rubble with granite quoins and voussoirs to the carriage arches. The west elevation contains three carriage arches at ground floor to the left, with square-headed timber-framed windows detailed as the main house above. The east elevation features a carriage arch at centre with 6/6 timber-framed sliding sash windows to the left. Further outbuildings to the north include multi-bay two-storey stables and a multi-bay two-storey pitched outbuilding to the north-east that has been converted to living accommodation.

The simple yet elegant detailing of the main house is characteristic of the Georgian period, and it retains many original features. The entrance gates, formed from square rendered pillars with pyramidal coping, are supported by cast-iron gates said to have been made at James Rowan's Foundry in Doagh.

Historical records confirm the building's development. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows two buildings on the site, with an L-plan structure aligned as the current house but smaller in size. By the Ordnance Survey map of 1857, the building appears in its current form. The Townland Valuation Fieldbook of 1836 records a house belonging to John Heron, measuring 37 by 17 yards and valued at £1 11s 6d. The Griffiths Valuation of 1859 records the house, office and land under Reverend George Johnston as occupier, with the lessor being the Marquis of Donegall. The property was initially valued at £20, revised to £30 and later to £35, with the land valued at £15. The field book notes the property was let out at £75.

The setting is rural, positioned at the edge of Doagh village with a mature garden to the south and an enclosed garden and yard to the north. The boundaries to The Burn Road are marked by hedging, with modern timber fencing to other boundaries. Modern residential development lies to the east and agricultural land to the west. Some alterations have detracted from the historic fabric, including the addition of uPVC profiled gutters and round downpipes, and the replacement of some windows and doors with modern casements and glazed entrances. Nevertheless, the building maintains considerable historic interest through its architectural character and the survival of significant original details.