Summerdale, 22 Ballybentragh Road, Templepatrick, Ballyclare, Co Antrim, BT39 0DE

Summerdale is an early to mid-19th century two-storey house, probably built between 1840 and 1859, which has lost a number of its original features over time. It appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857 under the name Ballybentragh, and an earlier house on the same site is shown on the 1832 map. The building stands in a very rural area surrounded by agricultural land, set back from the main road with its courtyard of outbuildings between the house and the road, and with distant countryside views from the entrance front.

The house is three bays wide, two storeys tall, and finished in smooth cement render lined and blocked to imitate stonework, painted white, with rusticated quoins at the corners painted black and a projecting smooth rendered plinth also painted black. To the rear there is a twin-gabled full-width return of two storeys. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with overhanging eaves featuring a timber soffit and fascia board; metal guttering is currently dismantled and on the ground, with a cast iron downpipe to the left-hand side. Each gable carries a chimney rebuilt in red brick with a plain projecting brick cornice and two original octagonal earthenware pots per chimney.

The main entrance faces south. The south elevation is symmetrical, with one window to each side of the central doorway. First-floor windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, one over one with horns, set in stop-chamfered reveals with hood moulds and bracketed cills. Ground-floor windows are sashed six over nine with horns, also in stop-chamfered reveals, with ornamented keystones to similar hood moulds and projecting stone cills. The entrance is recessed within a segmental arched opening with stop-chamfered reveals and moulded and panelled pilasters rising to a moulded archivolt, with an ornamented keystone. The doorway itself is a modern rectangular timber door temporarily sheeted over with a plywood panel, set in a moulded modern timber frame with single-pane sidelights and a plain fanlight, all glazed in translucent glass — a replacement for the original multi-panelled door with patterned sidelights and a looped fanlight. The doorstep has modern red tiles.

The west elevation shows the two-storey west gable with the two-storey return extending to the left. Walling and finishes match the entrance front, except that the left-hand quoins of the main gable are painted white rather than black. Timber barge boards and flush-sheeted soffits to the overhanging verges are painted white and carried on shaped brackets. The first-floor gable window is similar to those on the entrance front but without brackets to the cill. The ground-floor gable window is sashed six over six and has no keystone to the hood mould. The rear return has an overhanging eaves detail matching the main roof, with what appears to be PVC guttering painted white and a cast iron downpipe painted black running down over the quoins. Each floor of the return has one timber sash window, six over six, in similar surrounds to those of the gable.

The north or rear elevation is twin-gabled and almost symmetrical, with walling matching the entrance front. Timber barge boards, tongued-and-grooved soffits, and shaped brackets to the overhanging verges are painted white. Each gable has a pair of shallow buttresses in the centre rising to first-floor window-head height, capped by what appears to be a concrete lintel, aligned with the chimneys above; these rear gable chimneys are of red brick similar to those at the front but have no pots. The chimney breast of the left-hand gable contains a modern unpainted metal circular flue pipe running between the buttresses, supported on a metal bracket at the bottom, breaking through the lintel and passing through the eaves soffit above. There are PVC hoppers and what appear to be PVC downpipes, along with cast iron soil and waste pipes. The central rear entrance is contained in a recessed open porch set within a moulded rectangular opening. The doorway comprises a modern rectangular glazed and panelled door with single-pane sidelights on plinth walls, all glazed in translucent glass. The porch walls and ceiling are smooth cement rendered and painted; the floor is terrazzo; the doorstep has modern tiles. Above the rear entrance, one small window sits in each gable — rectangular timber sliding sashes, four over four with horns, in stop-chamfered reveals with projecting painted concrete cills. The two larger windows to each floor in the main part of each gable are sashed six over six with horns in similar surrounds, though three of the original windows to the left-hand gable have been replaced with rectangular timber fixed lights and top-hung vents arranged to a six over six pattern.

To the left of the rear return, a set-back short single-storey wing projects from the east elevation of the return and itself forms a short return connecting to a long outbuilding range along the east side of the rear yard. The north elevation of this wing has a hipped slated roof; its wall is smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked, painted white, with a black painted flush plinth. PVC guttering and downpipe are both painted white. Two windows are rectangular timber fixed lights with top-hung vents in a six over six pattern, in similar surrounds to those of the rear elevation of the house. The east face of the rear return is mostly covered by the projecting wing; walling is rendered as elsewhere, with a similar slated roof and overhanging eaves, what appears to be PVC guttering painted white, and a PVC soil pipe painted white. The east gable of the house, on the south side of the projecting wing, is two-storey, rendered and painted white, with rusticated quoins to the left-hand extremity painted black, but without a plinth; some rubble stonework is visible at the base where the render stops short of the ground. Overhanging verges are similar to the west gable. Each floor has one rectangular timber sliding sash window, one over one with horns, in stop-chamfered reveals with painted stone cills. The south elevation of the single-storey wing has a hipped slated roof. Its walling is of coursed basalt rubble with a projecting brick eaves course and rock-faced granite quoins to the right-hand corner. There is a small opening in the top course of stonework in a central position, now closed with concrete brickwork. Guttering and downpipe are unpainted PVC. The single window is a rectangular timber fixed light with a top-hung vent, in plain reveals with an iron or steel lintel and a projecting concrete cill.

The outbuildings are arranged in three main blocks around the sides of a large tarmac yard to the rear of the house. The short east wing attached to the house returns northwards at its eastern end to form the long east wing of outbuildings. This wing has a hipped slated roof; its east elevation has PVC and metal guttering, and walling of coursed basalt rubble with a number of small openings now closed with concrete bricks, and granite quoins at the extremities. The north wing of outbuildings has a slated roof and walls partly of coursed basalt rubble and partly rendered. An elliptical brick archway passes through the wing into the yard; this is partly blocked and contains ledged timber doors. A short block of low single-storey stone outbuildings projects to the north and contains stores. The south elevation of the north wing faces into the yard and is of coursed basalt rubble with red brick dressings, partly rendered, containing timber fixed lights and PVC fixed lights with top-hung vents. There is PVC guttering with a cast iron downpipe. The west gable of this wing is rendered and contains rectangular PVC fixed lights with top-hung vents. The west elevation of the east wing facing into the yard is of coursed basalt rubble with red brick dressings and has later timber fixed lights and ledged timber doors, except for one at the south end which has been replaced with a modern glazed small-pane door with sidelights and fanlight. Guttering is a mix of PVC and metal, with cast iron downpipes. The west side of the rear yard is occupied by a two-storey rendered and slated outbuilding with similar timber windows and ledged timber doors, and rendered exterior steps at the south end on the east side; the west elevation is of similar character to the east.

The approach from the main road is by a tarmac driveway ending in a tarmac area in front of the house. The main entrance gateway consists of a pair of recessed square piers of basalt rubble with moulded and chamfered granite dressings and moulded granite caps, holding a pair of ornamented iron gates. Curved screen walls of basalt rubble with granite copings terminate in end piers matching the gate piers. These screen walls are linked to the outbuildings by a coursed basalt rubble wall with basalt rock copings. The front boundary to the road is formed by a hedge on top of a basalt boulder and earth revetment. At the western end of the front boundary, a rear driveway is recessed between curved rendered walls surmounted by hedges; a tarmac rear driveway leads through modern iron gates and piers into the rear yard. A grassed garden lies between the front boundary hedge and the north wing of the outbuildings enclosing the rear yard. Abutting the west gable of the house is a gateway made up of a pair of ornamented Victorian cast iron piers with looped and finialled double gates. Returning southwards from this gateway is a curved screen of similar ironwork railings on a low rendered plinth wall. The garden to the south is bordered by a ranch-style timber fence.