2 Parade Ground, Randalstown, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 3AA

This house forms part of a terrace of seven houses that probably represents a remodeling of a former militia barracks. The terrace occupies what was originally the site of the Antrim Regiment of Militia barracks, built by Lord O'Neill (Colonel of the Antrim Regiment) in 1816 at a cost of £2000 as quarters for the regiment's staff following its disembodiment. Contemporary descriptions from the 1830s recorded that the original barracks consisted of three parallel ranges of buildings, with the front range facing the river comprising four contiguous two-storey houses, 130 feet long and 20 feet deep. The present terrace of seven houses, with its distinctive projecting porches, appears to be a later remodeling of this original block, constructed in the mid-to-late 19th century (shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1903 with its current form, though plain rectangular blocks appeared on maps of 1829 and 1858). The parade ground that once extended in front of the barracks, described in the 1830s as "a very handsome parade ground 36 yards broad" kept well gravelled and later called "the town mall or public promenade," was subsequently shortened by the construction of the railway viaduct in the mid-1850s.

The building is a two-storey, two-bay house with a main entrance in a projecting porch on the east elevation. The east elevation contains two windows—one to each floor—positioned to the right of the single-storey gabled porch. The main block roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with one chimney to the right-hand extremity (common with the adjoining property) constructed of squared sandstone in regular courses with a plain projecting block cornice and four pots, three of them original octagonal stoneware and one modern. The wall is smooth rendered with a projecting eaves course on the frieze, all painted white, with a black painted base to resemble a plinth. A satellite dish is attached high on the wall. Metal gutters and cast iron downpipes are fitted throughout. Windows are rectangular timber, painted white, sliding sash with horns in exposed sash boxes (also painted white), with projecting stone cills painted black. The porch features a roof slated as the main block with overhanging eaves exposing the feet of rafters; decorative timber barge boards to the gable are ornamented with scrolling fretwork. The porch has cast iron guttering and downpipes. Walls are rendered as on the main elevation but with raised quoins to the outer corners, painted black. The porch front wall contains a window (one of a pair with the adjoining house): a rectangular timber sliding sash, 1 over 2 with horns, in a partly recessed frame with a projecting stone cill. The side wall of the porch, facing north, contains the main entrance: a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door set in plain reveals with a painted concrete step.

The rear elevation is two-storey with roof slated and walls rendered as the front, and cast iron guttering. A PVC soil pipe is present. The first floor contains two windows: on the left, a rectangular timber sliding sash, 4 over 8 with horns, in exposed sash boxes painted white, with plain black-painted reveals and a projecting concrete cill painted black; on the right, a narrow timber sashed window, 2 over 4 with horns, in exposed sash boxes, coupled with a window of the adjoining house within a recessed common opening. Two similarly styled windows are positioned on the ground floor. A central ground floor doorway contains a modern rectangular flush timber glazed door in plain reveals. The doorway and window to the left are enclosed within a small single-storey corrugated perspex lean-to roofed porch (now damaged with a boarded timber door). To the left of this porch is a small single-storey outbuilding of concrete blockwork with a lean-to corrugated perspex roof.

The building stands within the built-up area of the town, located in a terrace facing the river Main but set well back from it. An extensive hardstanding in front is surfaced partly in tarmac. The front boundary to the hardstanding is formed by a low rendered retaining wall to the riverbank with a large metal pipe across it on concrete supports, viewed through a screen of mature trees. The front open area is bounded to the north by a basalt retaining wall surmounted by original iron railings, which retains the end of the elevated main street. To the south, the front area is bounded by a tall railway viaduct (now defunct) built of snecked basalt rubble. At the rear is an open yard or compound common to all houses in the terrace, mainly of hard surfacing, with slated single-storey basalt rubble garages or sheds forming the west boundary. The group has strong architectural and historic character and occupies a good setting beside the river Main and the listed bridge and viaduct.