Rantalard House, Rathcoole Drive, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, BT37 9AG

Rantalard House is a detached three-bay two-storey house built around 1840, located on the south side of Rathcoole Drive in Newtownabbey. It is a well-preserved example of early 19th-century domestic architecture and remains a significant historic element within the otherwise modern Rathcoole Estate.

The building is rectangular on plan with three extensions: a three-bay two-storey extension to the north, a two-storey extension at the south-west, and a two-storey return to the north-west. The roofs are hipped and covered with artificial slate, set over corbelled eaves with moulded banding. Three rendered chimneys with replacement clay pots serve the main house.

The walling is smooth rendered over a brick plinth with pilasters to the corners. Windows throughout are square-headed timber-framed 6/6 sliding sash windows with masonry sills, all protected by mesh and steelwork grilles. Cast-iron ogee-profiled gutters with round and square downpipes drain the roof.

The principal elevation faces east and features a central elliptical-headed entrance with cavetto moulded surround. The replacement timber panelled door is surmounted by a fluted frieze and sunburst fanlight, and is flanked by pilasters and sidelights with wainscoting to sill height. Access is by modern steps and ramp enclosed by a blue brick wall with steel railings. Segmental-headed windows flank the entrance at ground floor level, with windows to each bay at first floor.

The extension to the right contains a bowed bay at ground floor right with moulded cornice and three windows divided by pilasters with console brackets, the central window having a lower sill. The first floor has windows to each bay. The left extension contains two uPVC casement windows in 6/6 configuration to each floor. The south elevation comprises four windows to each floor. The west and north elevations are substantially enclosed by extensions, though exposed sections retain square-headed timber sheeted entrance doors with transom lights. Various extensions feature blocked windows and modern interventions.

The house first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and is identified as Rantalard in Griffiths Valuation, which also records a house, office, gate lodge and land. The original occupier was Miss Helen Bell (later Mrs.), with John Thomson Esq. as lessor. The property was valued at £103, later revised to £110. The fieldbook notes the gate lodge as "very neat stone finished" and records the house was built around 1843 at approximately £4 per acre on a 40-year lease. The lessor changed to Edward Smyth in 1883. By 1898, the occupier was Wellington Young with Richard Bell as lessor, and the valuation had reduced to £90. Marguerite Bell occupied the house from 1909.

The building retains original features including nicely detailed sash windows and robustly ornate plasterwork to the exterior. It is elegantly detailed despite its simplicity and is well preserved. The mature gardens and surrounding mature trees and hedging provide an appropriate setting, though the building is now used as offices and bounded by a carpark to the east.