Invermuir, 53 Bridge Road, Doagh, Co Antrim, BT39 0PS

Invermuir is a detached three-bay two-storey rendered house built around 1840, located on a corner site at the junction of Cogry Road and Bridge Road in Doagh, County Antrim. It is a pleasantly detailed symmetrical composition of considerable architectural merit and historical significance as the former residence of the owner of the nearby Cogry Mills.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing south, with a two-storey hipped return to the north. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with blue and black clay roll-top ridge tiles. Rendered chimneystacks with octagonal chimneypots rise above the eaves, which are overhanging timber with decorative bargeboards. Cast iron downpipes serve the gutters.

The walling is roughcast with continuous cill courses at each floor. Detailing includes smooth render stepped quoins and a chamfered plinth. Windows throughout are square-headed timber 1/1 sliding sash units with smooth rendered architraves, chamfered reveals and masonry cills.

The principal south elevation is the most prominent feature, with a projecting gabled central bay containing the principal entrance. At ground floor there are three windows to the flanking bays, the central one larger than those to either side. The first floor has two windows to the flanking bays, all with moulded architraves. The central gabled bay has a partially glazed pitched roof and contains a recessed entrance set within a square-headed opening with chamfered reveals. The door is painted timber, four-panelled with a transom light, and is flanked by pilasters surmounted by a dentilled entablature. Above the entrance is a ten-pane fixed window with concrete lintel to the first floor, with a glazed apex. The left side is enclosed by ornate cast metal railings.

The west gable has windows at each floor. The left end is abutted by a wall aligned east-west which encloses an orchard to the north-west corner of the site. The north elevation is abutted on its left by the two-storey hipped return, which is detailed as the main house and has two chimneys to its centre. The east gable has a window to the first floor, with a boiler house below abutted by a rendered wall aligned east-west. Pyramidal-capped square rendered pillars and replacement gates enclose a courtyard at this end.

The west elevation is four windows wide and features a catslide extension to the internal angle of the main house. Two dormers, each with paired timber 3/6 sliding sash windows, serve the extension. A single-storey outbuilding abuts the left side. The north gable overlooks Cogry Road and has a central blocked opening to the first floor. The east elevation is seven windows wide, with replacement doors recessed within smooth-rendered round-headed openings with keyblocks at each end. A two-storey outbuilding aligned east-west abuts this elevation to the right.

The setting is highly significant. The house is surrounded by mature trees and sits within a gravel forecourt with extensive front lawn. An enclosed orchard lies to the west, and a courtyard to the east is enclosed on all sides by single-storey multi-bay roughcast outbuildings with hipped roofs. The west range, aligned north-south, has a central archway. The entire site is bound by a two-metre-high random coursed rubble wall. The house is accessed by a curved avenue entered through rendered alcoved plinth walls with cast-iron railings and square pyramidal-capped pillars. A pedestrian bridge to the east of the garden connects Invermuir to Cogry Cottage across the river which separates this house from Cogry Mill.

The building first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857, with an extension to the rear not shown on the current map. The building appears in its current form in the third edition OS map of 1902. Valuation Revisions from the 1880s detail the site as a house, office and land occupied by James Gault with John Wilson as the immediate lessor. The value of the building was £22 10s, rising to £28 by 1897.

Invermuir is of considerable group value as part of the Cogry Mill Estate, with attendant outbuildings and orchard adding to the integrity of the site. The house demonstrates pleasing proportions, good-quality architectural detailing in its rendered finishes and timber joinery, and exemplary ornamental treatment in its entrance composition and railings. Its position within a mature landscaped setting of mature trees and formal boundaries enhances its architectural significance.