Islandreagh Cottage, 230 Belfast Road, Dunadry, Co Antrim, BT41 2EZ

Islandreagh Cottage is a detached three-bay one and a half-storey rendered house built around 1840, located at the end of a long lane north off the A6 at Dunadry, County Antrim. It is a well-preserved example of late Georgian cottage architecture, retaining much original fabric with sympathetic repairs and replacement elements where necessary.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing south, with a pitched natural slate roof and black clay ridge tiles. Yellow brick chimneystacks rise from both gables with cement cornices, clay pots and lead flashing. The roof has synthetic covering to the verge. Cast-iron half-round gutters on drive-in brackets sit on a smooth render eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes. A solar panel adorns the front pitch and a Velux window sits on the rear pitch. A central wallhead dormer above the front entrance completes the principal elevation.

The walling is painted rough-cast render with a smooth render plinth course and render soldier quoins. Windows are square-headed with chamfered sandstone sills and timber sash windows throughout. The principal elevation is symmetrical. A round-headed window opening to the wallhead dormer has a smooth render surround and keystone, containing a 3/6 timber sash window with fanlight and ogee horns dating to around 1990. To either side of the front entrance are square-headed window openings with smooth render surrounds and keystones, containing 8/8 timber sash windows with angled horns and much cylinder glass.

The central elliptical-headed front entrance features render reveals and a smooth render surround with keystone and plinth blocks. A replacement timber doorcase from around 1990 comprises a square-headed door opening with a replacement flat-panelled timber door and Art Nouveau brass furniture. The door is flanked by slender panelled pilasters with multi-pane sidelights on panels and a further pilaster to either end, with a lintel cornice that steps out to the pilasters. An original iron spoked fanlight spans the doorcase. The door opens onto a tiled concrete stepdown to the front gravel area.

The west gable elevation has an attached timber conservatory erected around 1995, which contains two ground floor window openings. These are square-headed with smooth render surrounds, chamfered sandstone sills and 6/6 timber sash windows with no horns and some cylinder glass, angled horns to the ground floor window, with a further six-pane fixed timber window.

The north rear elevation is now largely obscured by a central single-bay two-storey return extension built around 1940 with a catslide roof, which extends over a single-storey extension to the northwest built around 1970. The east end of the rear elevation is obscured by a two-bay flat-roof single-storey garage, also dating to around 1970. The rear extensions have replacement timber casements. A square-headed door opening has a vertically-sheeted timber door opening onto a concrete step to a rear gravel yard.

The east gable elevation has three square-headed window openings with a further blocked-up former opening, all having smooth render surrounds, chamfered sandstone sills and 6/6 timber sash windows. The first-floor window lacks horns and was taken from Ardnaveigh during the survey and undergoing repair; ground-floor windows have angled horns.

The house first appears on the 1857 Ordnance Survey map along with outbuildings. Griffiths Valuation of 1859 records the occupier as Andrew Ross, leased from Maria Ward, with the house valued at £27 5s 0d. An earlier rectangular building appears on the site on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map, recorded in the Townland Valuation records as belonging to Thomas Griffiths with a value of £2 15s 6d. The significant difference in value suggests the earlier smaller building was replaced by the one recorded in 1857, which stylistically dates to around 1840.

The setting comprises the house set in fields down a long lane from the road with a garden and rear yard. Remnants of rubble stone outbuildings remain to the northwest, with a modern bungalow built to the west. Abutting the north end of the garage is a rendered wall with a decorative carved stone lintel and a pair of octagonal stone gate posts. Several stone architectural artefacts adorn the site, added by current owners over the last thirty years. A double-height corrugated iron hay barn with corrugated iron barrel roof is located to the northeast. The landscaped grounds contain several mature trees, with the gravel drive continuing south enclosed by traditional hedgerow and opening onto the A6.