144 Ballyrobin Road, Aldergrove, Crumlin, Co Antrim, BT29 4EG

A two-storey, four-bay gabled house with a small hipped roofed entrance porch and a gabled two-storey rear return, located in a rural setting above Ballyrobin Road. The main entrance faces north.

The house is currently an empty and windowless shell undergoing refurbishment. According to the 1972 survey, it was originally described as a two-storey, three-bay harled and whitened house with a slated roof and three brick chimneys. It featured one Georgian-paned window, with two windows retaining Georgian frames in their lower sashes and the remainder having horizontal divisions. The entrance was contained within a hipped roofed porch with a patterned fanlight. A lean-to extension occupied the west end and a corrugated asbestos gable annex stood to the east. All windows were unrecessed.

The north elevation is asymmetrical. The main two-storey block has three window openings to the ground floor. A single-storey lean-to outbuilding extends to the west gable flush with the main façade, while a single-storey pitched roofed block extends from the east gable set well back from the front wall.

The roof of the main block is Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with three chimneys of red brick with projecting brick cornices – one on each gable and one in line with the right-hand side of the porch. Rainwater goods are not yet in position.

Walls are finished in smooth cement render but not flush. Large boulders or corner stones project at the base at the left-hand extremity of the main façade and at the original right-hand extremity, as well as to the right of the entrance porch. Window openings are rectangular with new concrete cills, though windows have not yet been reinstated.

The porch comprises two short projecting nib walls of basalt rubble, roughly squared and partly pointed in cement, with a concrete head over the front entrance opening. No door has been inserted. The porch walls were originally rendered. Hipped roof slates match the main roof, with dark grey and brown ridge tiles.

The single-storey wing to the left has rendered walls matching the main block, with a large projecting boulder at its corners. Its roof is slated as the main block, with a red brick chimney on the gable. One window opening to the right-hand side has been newly created from a partly built-up original doorway. To the left of the window is a rectangular timber-sheeted doorway set in a wooden frame.

A lean-to addition to the right occupies the same plane as the main block, rendered as the main block with flush eaves and containing a rectangular doorway.

The east gable of the main block is rendered as previous, with one window to the first floor on the left-hand side. The east gable of the wing is blank and rendered, with a single pitch and red brick chimney on the apex. Originally it had a double pitch with a rectangular window and no chimney. The rear wall of the wing comprises rubble stonework at the base with modern concrete blockwork above, apparently intended to be enclosed by a modern conservatory with concrete blockwork plinth walls.

The rear elevation of the main block shows basalt rubble and fieldstone walling to the right-hand side of the rear return, partly harled, containing a rectangular doorway newly created from an original window. To the left-hand side of the rear return, modern concrete blockwork with raised patches of cement render to the ground floor contains two windows to the first floor and one to the ground floor. A large rectangular opening to the left of the ground floor window has been newly enlarged from an original smaller opening. A lean-to outbuilding extending to the left-hand side of the main rear wall is also of modern concrete blockwork with raised patches of cement render.

The roof of the main block has synthetic slates in regular courses, replacements for original natural slates. The rear return has a roof of synthetic slates in regular courses, now projecting straight from the main roof at a lower ridge height; originally it had a half-hip where it abutted the main block. The gable of the rear return is of basalt rubble and fieldstones, roughly cement rendered to the ground floor area, with large projecting boulders at each base corner and no chimney at the apex. One doorway to the left-hand side at ground floor and one window to the first floor at the right-hand side are visible.

The east side of the rear return is of basalt rubble and fieldstones, partly whitened and partly harled. A rectangular doorway with concrete lintel stands at the right-hand corner at ground floor level. One former window opening in the ground floor to the left of the door, with a red brick flat arch, has been newly closed with concrete blockwork. The west side of the rear return has been cement rendered and keyed for another finishing coat, with one window opening at ground floor level.

The west gable of the main block is smooth rendered but spalled at the top right-hand corner and at the base of the red brick chimney on the apex, revealing concrete blockwork. Verges are currently open during building work.

The ground floor has a full-width projecting lean-to outbuilding with a roof of synthetic slates, originally with natural slates. The wall is rendered as the main entrance front, with a large boulder near the base at the right-hand corner.

The house stands on rising ground above the main road, which it faces at an angle. A driveway extends to hard standing in front of the house and extensive hard standing to the rear, with a grassy bank sloping up to the front hard standing from the main roadway. Agricultural lands occupy the sides and rear, with mature trees along the western boundary.