Coaching House, 60 Islandreagh Drive, Dunadry, Antrim, Co Antrim, BT41 2HB

Coaching House, 60 Islandreagh Drive, Dunadry

This thatched house stands on the south side of the road running eastward from Antrim to Belfast, approximately 2.5 miles from Antrim town. Dating from the early 19th century, it is the only unaltered example remaining in Ireland of a building layout from the coaching services era, a distinction that reflects the rarity of such structures in this country compared to Great Britain.

The building occupies a position about 200 yards along Islandreagh Drive on the south side. At the front, a small concrete-paved forecourt is enclosed by curved stone walls on either side. On the west side, two small pyramidal-topped gate pillars support a timber gate. Stone walls enclose the frontage and remainder of the site.

The house is single storey with attics at the front, descending at the rear to include a basement level. The walls are rendered with a whitened finish throughout, with bases formed at front and rear. The roof is thatched between cement skews, and each gable rises to a plain rendered chimneystack topped with two Victorian pots.

The timber-framed and sheeted entrance door, flush at the back, is set centrally and flanked on either side by two 4x2 metal-framed casement windows. Five similar windows are positioned at the rear. Two openings at basement level are flanked at either end by timber-sheeted doors; the left door has a timber-sheeted panel below the lintel. On the upper level, the left elevation begins with a window opening followed by a blind opening of reduced proportions, terminating with two window openings of standard size. Each gable contains two small metal-framed casements lighting the attics and one standard-sized window at low level.

A building similar to the present structure appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832-33, though it does not feature in the contemporary first valuation. The property is recorded in the second valuation of circa 1860, when it was occupied by George Henery on lease from Margaret Johnston and rated at £5. Local tradition holds that it was built as a coaching inn, but its size and proximity to Antrim town suggest otherwise. By 1860 the valuation records indicate it functioned as a private dwelling.

The layout of this building remains little altered, and the original functions of the various compartments remain clearly defined. Long-distance coaching services reached their peak in the early 1830s before declining with the advent of railways. The Belfast and Ballymena Railway, completed in 1848, is shown passing immediately to the rear of the property on the 1857 Ordnance Survey map. Antrim nearby was an important posting town, with two inns offering accommodation and a total of twelve post horses.

The listing extends to the house, walls, wing walls, and gate pillars.