The Palantine, 1 Ballypalady Road, Ballyclare, County Antrim, BT39 0QY

The Palantine is a detached three-bay two-storey house built around 1870, located off Ballypalady Road in an attractive rural setting. It displays high-quality Italianate architectural detailing and is situated within extensive grounds containing well-preserved outbuildings of earlier appearance, which add significantly to the historic interest of the site.

The main house is rectangular on plan with a projecting gabled central bay. The roof is pitched natural slate with blue and black clay roll-top ridge tiles. Rendered chimneystacks rise to the gables with moulded caps, and rendered verges complete the roofline. The walls are painted smooth render over a plinth, with a moulded cornice and sill courses to both floors. A torus-moulded stringcourse runs between the floors, and small square turrets rise at the corners. Windows are square-headed timber 1/1 sliding sashes with stop-end-chamfered reveals. On the front elevation, sections contain paired windows. The projecting bay at ground floor level features pendant and scrollwork flanking a segmental arch-headed painted timber bolection-moulded three-panel double-leaf door with an overlight above. The first floor of this bay contains a round-headed window set within a round-headed recess with a splayed apron below the sill course. The left cheek of the house contains one window to each floor.

The house stands in extensive grounds with a paved forecourt surrounded by mature trees. A decorative painted cast-iron vehicular double gate marks the entrance. To the rear, a quadrangular court of single-storey and one-and-a-half-storey outbuildings creates a farmyard arrangement. These outbuildings have pitched natural slate roofs; the single-storey buildings are rendered, while the one-and-a-half-storey buildings have rubble stone walling.

Historical records indicate that the site has a long history of occupation. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows several earlier buildings on the site identified as 'Palantine', comprising structures to the northeast, southwest, and northwest, though these were smaller than the present structure. The 1857 second edition map shows the southwestern building enlarged, which was further extended by 1902, with an additional building constructed at the southeast. By the 1920 sixth edition map, the house appeared in its current form. The Townland Valuation of 1834 records the land as arable, of good quality with strong clay, facing north and having clay subsoil with waste at houses. Griffiths Valuation of 1859 records a house on lands valued at £115, with the house separately valued at £18. Thomas Stephenson is recorded as the occupier, with the Marquis of Donegall noted as the lessor. The Chesney family occupied the property until 1973.

Information from family members indicates that the building comprises two parallel structures. The front section, completed in 1873, contains four rooms including two bedrooms, a drawing room, and a dining room with notably elaborate ceiling decorations. Parallel to this runs an older building which, according to an assessment by architect Denis O'D Hanna in the late 1960s, dates to around 1680 to 1690. This older section comprises, on the ground floor, a kitchen, pantry, and dairy, with three bedrooms and a small maid's room above, accessed via two staircases. The two structures have separate pitched natural slate roof systems with a valley running between them. Beyond the farmyard outbuildings, evidence of a waterwheel, operational as recently as the late 1960s, and a long mill race are believed to remain. Local deeds reference a field behind the house designated as 'The Vine Yard', and local tradition records that it was once planted with grape varieties that had flourished in Germany, centuries ago.