Kilbegs House, 51 Milltown Road, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 4NW

Kilbegs House is a two-storey, five-bay rendered house situated in a rural setting surrounded by agricultural land near Antrim. The building dates from the 19th century and faces north towards Milltown Road, set back from the road behind a lawn. To the west stands a lower single-bay outbuilding, and a gabled front porch projects from the main elevation.

The roof is finished in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses between smooth rendered gable copings. Three chimneys rise from the building: one on each end gable and one in line with the left-hand side of the porch. All are rendered in smooth cement with plain block cornices and retain original octagonal pots.

The walls are rendered with a dry dash of pebbles, painted over, and sit on a slightly projecting smooth rendered plinth. A plain platband runs at first floor cill level, with a plain projecting eaves course above. Rusticated quoins mark the extremities of the main block. Cast iron gutters and downpipes serve the building, though the downpipe to the left-hand side stops at mid-window height.

The entrance elevation features five first-floor windows and two ground-floor windows flanking the porch. All windows are modern rectangular timber frames, brown stained, with 6-pane fixed lights and 6-pane top-hung vents above. Ground floor windows sit in broad frames with slightly raised smooth rendered surrounds and projecting stone or concrete cills.

The porch is rendered to match the main walls and roofed in Bangor blue slates. A deep recess between projecting side walls forms an open porch with smooth rendered inner walls and ceiling and a modern red tiled floor. The doorway comprises a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door flanked by glazed and sheeted timber sidelights surmounted by rectangular fanlights. All doorscreen glazing displays decorative leading in a restrained Art Nouveau style. Loose concrete flags surface the area in front of the porch. Plain timber barge boards finish the front gable.

The outbuilding to the west is rendered as the main block but with a smooth rendered vertical strip to its right-hand extremity and without platband or eaves course. One large painted base stone protrudes from the plinth. The roof is slated as the main building, though the gutter is missing, and a metal downpipe drains the roof. A single rectangular timber sliding sash window, 6 over 6 without horns, sits in exposed sash boxes with surrounds and cill matching those of the main block.

The east elevation is a blank two-storey gable rendered as the entrance front except for rusticated quoins only to the right-hand extremity and a vertical strip of render to the left extremity. A platband at eaves level divides the attic roof space from the first floor.

The rear elevation is two-storey slated as the main roof, with a central gabled two-storey rear return. The wall is rendered with a painted dash of crushed stones, with a slightly raised smooth rendered plinth and vertical strips to the right-hand and left-hand extremities above the outbuilding. A projecting brick eaves course runs the length of the wall, served by cast iron gutters and downpipes (the latter appearing to be painted PVC). A cast iron soil pipe rises from this elevation. All rear windows are modern rectangular fixed lights or top-hung vents, mostly set in raised surrounds matching those of the entrance front. A ground-floor window to the right of the rear return occupies the position of a former doorway, with plain rendered walling below the cill. Another ground-floor window to the left of the rear return sits within a door-high panel of smooth render containing a modern projecting metal flue or fan outlet below the window opening. A modern rectangular flush timber door with glazed panel and metal handle serves the east side of the rear return, set in a raised smooth rendered surround. Plain wooden barge boards finish the gable.

The rear wall of the outbuilding extends to the left, rendered as the main rear wall in the same plane but without eases course or corner strips. Some modern concrete blockwork, painted over, is visible in the upper portion. The roof is slated as the main building except for a patch of synthetic slating irregularly arranged. A rectangular doorway to the ground floor has a derelict timber frame with wooden lintel and no door.

The west gable of the outbuilding is rendered as its rear, with a smooth rendered strip at the left-hand extremity. Two rectangular windows pierce this gable: a ground-floor window with timber frame only, now fitted with a perspex sheet, and an attic window with a perspex sheet fitted over a modern small-paned timber window, both with surrounds and cills as described for the entrance front.

The west elevation of the main block, above the outbuilding, is rendered as previously described, with rusticated quoins to the left-hand extremity and smooth rendered strips to the right extremity and verges.

The setting comprises a lawn immediately in front of the house. The front boundary is formed by modern horizontal fencing with openings at each end, without gates, leading to tarmac and stony driveways serving the front and rear of the house. The western boundary is formed by the basalt rubble wall of an adjoining graveyard. Rear yards are surfaced in concrete and contain various outbuildings and sheds in basalt rubble, concrete block, and corrugated iron of no special architectural interest.