Rockmount, 12 Carmorn Road, Toomebridge, Co Antrim, BT41 3NX

Rockmount is a well-proportioned rural farmhouse erected around 1880. It is a symmetrical three-bay, two-storey house of squared basalt rubble, roughly coursed, aligned north-south on the east side of Tullaghbeg Road. The house was constructed by McManus of Randalstown, a builder responsible for three similar properties in the area, and shares characteristic construction techniques and detailed brickwork with contemporary work.

The rectangular plan comprises a principal block with a single-storey flat-roofed porch to the west, a two-storey return to the rear, a two-storey sanitary extension with water tank at the angle of the return, and a single-storey lean-to kitchen extension. The pitched roof is covered in artificial slate. Each gable terminates in a large red brick chimneystack with yellow brick trim and corbelled capping, with red brick chimneybreasts exposed internally.

The principal elevation faces west and features a central porch of smooth rendered stone with a dentilled cornice. The door is a replacement four-panelled design with a plain glazed transom light and half-glazed sidelights, accessed by three steps. Windows throughout the main house are 1/1 timber sliding sashes with horns and painted masonry cills. The outer bays on the principal elevation contain paired windows to the ground floor sharing a cill, now densely covered in creeper. The north gable has a single window to the ground floor; the south gable contains single windows to each floor. The rear elevation is largely obscured by the return and extension, with an exposed window to the first floor right only. The return features windows to the left cheek only—paired windows with a shared cill to the ground floor and a single window to the first floor. The extensions are roughcast rendered with side-hung metal-framed casement windows.

The house sits on a secluded elevated site sheltered by mature trees and is accessed by a steep tree-lined driveway bounded by stone walls. A chamfered yellow brick pier with a decorative cap supports a cast-iron gate leading to a small front garden. The rainwater goods are ogee cast-iron.

Behind the house is a farmyard enclosed to two sides by ranges of single and two-storey stables and stores. The east stable range has a stepped pitch that slopes with the gradient of the yard. These structures are roofed in pitched artificial slate and built of squared rubble stone, roughly coursed, with brick quoins. Several sheeted timber stable doors with brick reveals serve the stalls. The store to the north is similarly detailed with a loft door and a segmental brick relieving arch. Circular rubble stone gate piers with conical caps lead to a paddock at the south-east corner of the yard, and sheltered tree-lined lanes connect to the surrounding fields.

Historical records from the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 show a long rectangular building with an outbuilding on the site, though aligned differently and accessed by a lane that remains today. By the second edition of 1857, additional outbuildings and a quarry to the rear are recorded. Griffiths Valuation documents a 'house, offices and land' valued at £1.5s and leased to William Law by Thomas Jones. The Valuation Revision of 1882 notes that occupancy transferred to William Bailie, leased from Kenwick J. Charles Hamilton Jones, with a valuation increase to £1.15s. The substantial increase recorded in the 1909 Revision to £9 confirms that the current house was constructed in the latter part of the nineteenth century, consistent with the circa 1880 date. A note added to the Revision in 1915 records that "the quarry is not used. Too near the house for safety". The house remained in the Bailie family until the last occupant died in early 2008. McManus of Randalstown is confirmed in Slater's Directory of 1894 as 'Hugh McManus & Sons, Main Street, Randalstown—Ironmongers and Hardware Men', and by the Belfast and Ulster Directory of 1902 as engaged in 'Steam sawing, Joinery mills and Builders'. The firm retained commercial premises in Randalstown into the late twentieth century.