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

Kilbegs House is a two-storey, five-bay rendered house of reputed late 18th-century date, though its current architectural form suggests construction in the early 19th century, consistent with its appearance on Ordnance Survey maps of 1829 and 1832. The building stands in a rural agricultural setting, facing Milltown Road but set back from it with a lawn in front. It has documented historical significance relating to the 1790s disturbances in County Antrim.

The main house is rendered with a dry dash of pebbles, painted over, and features a slightly projecting smooth rendered plinth, a plain platband at first-floor cill level, plain projecting eaves course, and rusticated quoins to the extremities. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses between smooth rendered gable copings. Three chimneys — one on each end gable and one in line with the left-hand side of the porch — are smooth cement rendered and lined with plain block cornices, each topped with an original octagonal pot.

The entrance elevation faces north and comprises five first-floor windows and a gabled front porch with two windows flanking it on the ground floor. All windows are modern rectangular timber with brown stain finish, comprising 6-pane fixed lights with 6-pane top-hung vents above; ground-floor windows are set in broad frames. Windows have slightly raised smooth rendered surrounds and projecting stone or concrete cills. Cast iron gutters and a downpipe run along the left-hand side, though the downpipe terminates at mid-window height.

The front porch is rendered to match the main block and roofed with slates as before, complete with cast iron gutters and downpipes. Plain timber barge boards finish the front gable. The doorway is set back in a deep recess between projecting side walls forming an open porch, with smooth rendered inner walls and ceiling and a modern red tiled floor. The door comprises a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door flanked by glazed and sheeted timber sidelights surmounted by rectangular fanlights; all doorscreen glazing features decorative leading in a restrained Art Nouveau style. Loose concrete flags surface the area in front of the porch.

A lower single-bay outbuilding extends to the west of the main block, rendered as the main block but with a smooth rendered vertical strip to its right-hand extremity and lacking platband or eaves course. One large painted base stone protrudes from the plinth. The outbuilding is slated as the main roof and contains one rectangular timber sliding sash window of 6 over 6 without horns, set in exposed sash boxes with surround and cill matching the main block. The gutter is missing and a metal downpipe is present.

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

The rear elevation is two-storeys, slated as the front, 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 (the latter above the outbuilding to the west). A projecting brick eaves course runs across; cast iron gutter and downpipe are present. The rear return is similarly rendered but lacks eaves course or corner strips. Windows to the rear elevation are all modern rectangular fixed lights or top-hung vents; all except the top left window are set in similar raised surrounds to the entrance front. The ground-floor window to the right of the rear return occupies a former doorway, with plain rendered walling below the cill. The ground-floor window to the left of the rear return is set in a door-high panel of smooth render containing a modern projecting metal flue or fan outlet below the window opening. A doorway in the east side of the rear return contains a modern rectangular flush timber door with glazed panel and modern metal handle, set in a raised smooth rendered surround. Plain wooden barge boards finish the gable; cast iron gutters are present with what appear to be painted PVC downpipes and a cast iron soil pipe.

The rear wall of the outbuilding to the west extends to the left in the same plane as the main rear wall, rendered similarly but lacking eaves 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 derelict doorway to the ground floor has a timber frame with wooden lintel; the door is missing.

The west gable of the outbuilding is rendered as the rear, but with a smooth rendered strip at the left-hand extremity. Two rectangular windows are present: one at ground-floor level with timber frame only and the window missing, with only a later perspex sheet fitted over the frame (surround and cill as the entrance front), and one at attic level with a perspex sheet fitted over a modern small-paned timber window set in a continuous raised surround. 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-hand extremity and to the verges.

All but one previously sashed window were replaced by modern windows of a different type sometime after 1988, representing a significant alteration to the building's character.

The setting comprises a modern horizontal boundary fence to the front with openings at each end, without gates, leading to tarmac and stony driveways. The western boundary is formed by a 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, none of special interest.

The house has documented historical importance related to the 1790s disturbances. According to correspondence received by the Environment and Heritage Service from a member of the Neely family who owned the house in 1978, the property was formerly owned by Samuel Orr, a purveyor to troops at Shane's Castle circa 1766. His son William, a prominent local rebel in the 1790s, was reputedly born here. In 1796 he was reportedly captured at the house and subsequently taken to Carrickfergus Castle, where he was executed in 1797. The house was then burned by the yeomen in an effort to dislodge the Orr family but was later repaired. More substantial outbuildings are shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1858.