Glendaragh, 10 Crumlin Road, Crumlin, Co Antrim, BT29 4AD

Glendaragh, 10 Crumlin Road, Crumlin

Glendaragh is a single-storey, five-bay rendered house built around 1805 by Lieutenant Colonel Langford Heyland. The main entrance faces east. Although the building retains a number of interesting architectural details of historical and comparative value, its original integrity has been severely compromised by the demolition of almost half the structure in 1950 due to dry rot, and by the remodelling of other elements.

The entrance elevation is topped with a hipped roof of asbestos slates in regular courses, fitted with two modern flush rooflights and chimneys of modern rustic brick. Moulded cast iron gutters and downpipes run along the eaves. The walls are rendered in dry dash with black stone chippings and largely obscured by creeper. Windows to the main front are rectangular timber casements, divided by transom and mullion with lattice panes. They feature projecting stone cills with intricate decorative carvings in shallow relief to the front face, and Tudor-style drip moulds. The main entrance comprises rectangular timber double doors, lattice-glazed and panelled, incorporating a moulded timber transom and mullion. These are flanked by lattice-glazed sidelights with trellis panelling to the lower panels, and surmounted by a fanlight.

The surviving original side and rear elevations display similar architectural character to the entrance front, with the addition of a shallow bow to the west incorporating two bowed windows. Original windows on these elevations likewise feature Tudor-style drip moulds, constructed of plaster generally except at the south end of the entrance block where they are wooden. However, modern replacement windows and a modern door and fanlight to the north end of the north wing now detract from the original Tudor Revivalist character. The remodelled rear elevations display mid-to-late 20th-century architectural character.

Originally, the house appears to have been built in four ranges around a central rectangular courtyard. An 1830s description noted it as "quite in the cottage style, but 1-storey. In the exterior of the house there is nothing ornamented or striking, but the interior is admirably constructed. It contains a regular suite of apartments. The vestibule, hall, corridors and doors are of Gothic style and the windows of the dining and sitting rooms beautifully stained, and command an extensive and agreeable view of the lake and intervening scenery." Several details have been attributed elsewhere to Belfast architect John Millar, though no sound or convincing evidence sustains this attribution.

The house stands in extensive and secluded grounds at the end of a long winding driveway from the main road, surrounded by agricultural land and mature trees. A former stable yard stands detached to the north, and an ice house to the north-east of that.

By the 1880s the house was owned by C.E. McClintock, land agent for the Langford Lodge estate. It was purchased by the Aldworth family in 1922.