Holestone House, 23 Deerpark, Doagh, Ballyclare, Co Antrim, BT39 0RH

Holestone House is an early 19th century classical country house, built in 1827 for James Owens JP, DL, to replace a smaller earlier house on the same site. It is a particularly good example of the classical tradition of that period, displaying characteristic style, proportions, plan form, and ornamental detail, and enjoys a pleasant and largely unspoiled rural setting.

The house is two storeys, built of ashlar sandstone, with lateral curved full-height end bays and a central single-storey square main entrance porch on the south side. The south elevation is symmetrical, with two windows to each side of the central porch. The walls have a moulded projecting plinth, a plain frieze, a moulded cornice, and a blocking course that rises to form a small parapet at the entrance bay. There is lead dressing to the blocking course and parapet, with a lead spout outlet from a concealed gutter at the right-hand end of the central parapet. Behind the blocking course the hipped roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses, with two chimneys symmetrically placed behind the ridge of the main front block. Windows on the first floor are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, six over six panes without horns; those on the ground floor are one over one with horns. All windows are set in chamfered reveals with projecting sandstone cills. Much of the elevation is covered with creeper.

The entrance porch is also of ashlar sandstone and is pilastered on all three faces. Its south face contains a ground-floor sash window matching those elsewhere on the ground floor, set in square reveals, with a rectangular panel above it. The west side has a rectangular timber six-panel door — a later replacement — with a plain rectangular fanlight above, set in square reveals. The east side is similar but retains the original six-panel door, which is of a slightly different design. Two sandstone steps run all around the porch. The porch roof has lead dressing and a lead spout outlet from a concealed gutter on the east side.

The west elevation is two storeys and four bays, with a hipped slated roof and two chimneys. The walls here are smooth cement-rendered with a moulded cornice; each chimney retains three original octagonal earthenware pots. Near the rear of the building on the left-hand side, an octagonal lantern rises above the roofline, with slated roofs and sides made up of elliptically arched timber fixed lights with small panes. The west elevation itself features a projecting curved two-storey bay to the right-hand side, containing one window at each level, and three windows to the left at first-floor level. First-floor windows are sashed as elsewhere on the entrance front, with curved frames to the window within the bay. The ground-floor window of the bay is of the tripartite type with curved frames and curved panes; to the left are two further tripartite windows and, in the bay between them, a modern rectangular timber glazed doorscreen. Ground-floor windows are all one-over-one sashes with horns, as on the entrance front. Two sandstone steps lead up to the modern doorscreen. There is a later replacement rectangular-section cast iron downpipe in the angle with the curved bay, and most of the elevation is covered with creeper. Projecting from the extreme left-hand end is a later conservatory of rectangular plan, with a monopitch roof of perspex panels, smooth cement-rendered walls, modern rectangular glazed and panelled timber doors and glazing, a floor of encaustic tiles of Victorian appearance, and PVC guttering and downpipe.

The rear elevation is two storeys, with the roof hipped in three sections running back from behind the front block, slated as before. There is one chimney, built of glazed yellow brick with a plain cornice and two original octagonal earthenware pots. The walls are wet-dash rendered, with a smooth rendered platband and a slightly projecting smooth rendered plinth, a projecting rendered eaves course, and ashlar pilaster strips at the extremities with short moulded cornice returns from the west and east elevations. PVC guttering and downpipes are fitted. At first-floor level there are four regularly disposed rectangular openings: the central two contain sash windows matching those elsewhere on the first floor, set in smooth rendered reveals with slightly projecting cills; the outer two are blind recesses. At ground-floor level there are two sets of rectangular coupled windows, each light being a four-over-two sash without horns, with smooth rendered reveals and projecting sandstone cills. To the left of the coupled windows is a narrow rectangular two-pane fixed light with a thin red sandstone cill in smooth rendered reveals, and to the left of that is a projecting rear porch with a hipped slated roof with tiled ridges, rendered walls dashed to match the main walling, and a smooth rendered plinth, with PVC guttering and downpipe. One small unrendered area of the porch wall reveals a greystone rubble core beneath. The west face of the porch contains a rectangular ledged timber door in a wooden frame set in a smooth rendered surround, with ironwork latch and handle; the north face contains a rectangular timber nine-pane fixed light; the east face is blank. To the left of the porch is a rectangular window opening that originally contained a six-over-six sash without horns, but this has been altered to accommodate a boiler flue pipe, with the lower sash raised, a concrete insertion below it, and a concrete block support for the flue built on the cill.

The east elevation is two storeys and of similar general character to the west, with six windows to each floor to the right of a projecting curved two-storey bay at the left-hand end. The projecting bay is similar to its counterpart on the west elevation, with the addition of two PVC soil and waste pipes on its right-hand side. The main run of walling has an original cast iron rectangular-section downpipe next to the bay, an original cast iron soil pipe, and a PVC waste pipe. All windows to the right of the bay are six-over-six sashes without horns, set in square reveals, though two have small side-hung casement insertions with iron bars behind them. There are two chimneys similar to those on the west elevation.

To the rear of the house is a rectangular two-storey outbuilding, the former coach house, with a hipped slated roof. It is linked to the rear wall of the house by rubble stone walls on the east and west sides to form an enclosed rear yard. The yard wall to the west contains an elliptically arched gateway with basalt voussoirs and a pair of flat iron double gates. To the left of the gateway on its outer face is a rectangular timber nine-pane fixed light, partly unglazed. On the inner face is a lean-to block with a slated roof and whitened rubble walls, containing a rectangular timber six-over-three sash window (later shortened) to the left of a rectangular open doorway; the doorway has concrete lintels and concrete blockwork to one jamb. The yard wall to the east contains a rectangular doorway with a concrete lintel and a ledged timber yard door. On the outer face is a rectangular projecting bay with blank end walls and one rectangular opening in the front face that appears to be a former doorway partly built up in brick and tiles at the base, enclosing a small rubble-walled chamber with a concrete floor, now derelict. On the inner face this projection has a recessed single-pitch slated roof with PVC guttering on a timber fascia and a PVC downpipe. A rectangular ledged timber door with a wooden lintel leads into a small rubble stone chamber that was formerly an outside toilet. Projecting into the yard from the east wall is a low-walled concrete block enclosure containing a large oil tank.

The yard-facing elevation of the outbuilding is two storeys with a hipped slated roof and walls of coursed roughly squared basalt rubble. Of five rectangular openings at first-floor level, all but one are blocked with wooden boarding; the window at the extreme left is a rectangular timber sliding six-over-six sash with horns. At ground-floor level there is one former rectangular window opening now closed with concrete blockwork, one rectangular open doorway with a concrete lintel, and one large elliptically arched doorway containing a pair of arched ledged timber double doors. The west end elevation of the outbuilding has one derelict six-over-three sash without horns with a crumbling brick cill, and a later rendered lean-to garage projecting to the west with a corrugated asbestos roof. The north elevation has roughly coursed basalt rubble and fieldstone walling, with rectangular window openings some of which are closed with timber boarding and some of which retain timber sash windows in a derelict state. The east end elevation has two derelict sash windows set in derelict red brick jambs, with PVC guttering and downpipe.

The house stands in a very rural area in the middle of its own extensive farmlands, occupying an elevated site that overlooks the main road and commands distant views over the countryside to the south. It is approached by a tarmac driveway from the west, which ends in a tarmac area to the front and west of the house, with lawns to each side and mature trees beyond. An original driveway to the east of the house, which originally led to the main entrance gateway to the south-east, is now closed and gives access only to fields. The original main entrance gateway to the south-east remains intact, with the original gate lodge alongside it now remodelled. The original side gateway to the west is now marked by four modern concrete piers with modern iron railings and gates, and the original gate lodge there has been replaced by a late 20th century house. An original rear lane to the farm buildings to the west is now marked by a two-storey rendered house of no special distinction built on the site of an original gate lodge. The farm buildings comprise two-storey greystone gabled and slated blocks, some with replacement timber sash windows and ledged timber doors, showing signs of periodic alteration. One block incorporates a white-painted rendered house with modern rectangular timber fixed lights and top-hung vents. Some blocks are now derelict. A cow byre to the north of the rear lane contains timber Belfast roof trusses covered with corrugated iron. An undressed recumbent stone in the grounds to the south of the house is inscribed "2500 forest trees planted by William Owens on this farm from the year 1791 to the year 1802"; it is of no decorative interest.

The property had been in the ownership of the Owens family from at least as early as the 1760s. James Owens, for whom the present house was built in 1827, served as a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant for County Antrim and as High Sheriff in 1838. The Owens family sold the property in 1919, and it was subsequently sold to Captain W.G. Hamilton in 1932. The house takes its name from an unusual antiquity — a standing stone slab with a hole through it, known as the Hole Stone — which stands some distance to the north of the house.