Willowbrook House, 23 Burnside Road, Dunadry, Co Antrim, BT41 2HZ

Willowbrook House is a detached three-bay two-storey Georgian house dating from the early 19th century, located in a secluded rural setting to the north of Burnside Road in Dunadry, County Antrim. The house has been restored in recent years, including being stripped back to bare basalt walling, but retains the appearance of a late Regency dwelling.

The building has a rectangular plan with a single-storey flat-roofed extension to the north. The pitched slate roof has two roof-lights to the north pitch and brick chimneys to the gable ends, each with multiple clay pots. The walls are constructed of basalt coursed rubble with quoins.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically composed. The central bay features an elliptical-headed entrance with granite voussoirs at ground floor level, surmounted by a window at first floor. The flanking bays each contain one window to ground and first floor levels. The windows are replacement timber-framed exposed box sashes with 8/8 glazing, stone voussoirs and masonry sills.

The entrance door is replacement timber panelled with two large panels surmounted by three small square panels below and above the lock rail. It is flanked by slender pilasters and plain glazed sidelights, and surmounted by a Greek key frieze and cornice above which sits an ornamental segmented fanlight. This entrance represents an attractive example of Georgian detailing and survives as an original feature. The south elevation is abutted to the east by a modern lean-to conservatory with gable-end on a rubble plinth.

The west gable has a replacement timber-panelled entrance door with glazed lights at ground floor level, a single 3/6 sliding sash window to first floor, and a diminished 3/6 window to attic level. The north elevation has a single ground-floor window to the west, and at first-floor level a central 6/6 sliding sash window flanked by two small 3/6 sashes. This elevation is abutted by an extension with a single window to the east and a modern door with sidelights to the west. The east elevation has a small 3/6 sliding sash window to attic level and a doorway at the north corner, now enclosed within the conservatory. This elevation is abutted to the north by a single-storey extension with one window.

The building is set within mature gardens in a rural setting. A single-storey outbuilding constructed of random rubble stands to the north-east. The site is bounded to the road to the west by rubble stone walling with circular pillars to the north and south of the house, with roughcast applied to the wall connecting these pillars and to the southern pillars.

The house appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834. A second edition map of 1857 records an outbuilding to the north-west and a small building to the north-east, but by the third edition of 1902 the north-western outbuilding had been demolished and the house is marked as Willowbrook House. The Townland Valuation of 1836 records the property as the house, yard and offices of John Coleman, valued at £4 2s 0d. The Griffiths Valuation of 1859 indicates that John Coleman was the townland and occupier of the land under the Marquis of Donegal as immediate lessor, while the house, yard and offices were occupied by Reverend John Gillespie, with a value of £13 0s 0d. Although modern extensions have been added to the north and east, the overall character of the house and its setting remains largely intact.