Fern Bank, 66 Portglenone Road, Randalstown, BT41 3EG

Fern Bank is a detached three-bay one-and-a-half-storey rendered house built around 1870, located west of Portglenone Road in Randalstown. The house faces east and is rectangular in plan, with a two-storey extension to the west and a single-storey lean-to extension to the north-west.

The main elevation features a wall head dormer above the central entrance at half-storey level. The roof is pitched natural slate with plain angled ridge tiles, uPVC gutters and downpipes. Bargeboards are fixed to exposed purlin ends, and chimneys at the gables are red brick with roll top terracotta pots. The walls are painted, ruled and lined render with rendered chamfered quoins and plinth.

Windows are segmental headed painted timber 1/1 vertical sliding sash windows. The principal east elevation has a double stepped rebated segmental-headed opening to the entrance door, surmounted by a moulded entablature on simple pilasters. The door is a replacement eight-panel design with a glazed segmental fanlight above. Window openings have moulded rendered hood and side mouldings, with painted tooled stone cills with render additions to each end. The first floor window opening encloses two more slender sliding sash windows, and crown glass is still evident in some windows.

The south gable has windows symmetrically positioned at first floor level with painted tooled stone cills. The east elevation is partly abutted by the two-storey addition and single-storey extension, with a replacement glazed panelled double door to the south end. The north gable has two windows at first floor level and one to the west at ground floor level, all with painted tooled stone cills.

The two-storey addition to the west and single-storey extension have natural slate roofs and painted ruled and lined rendered walls. Windows here are painted timber transomed top hung casements with painted pre-cast concrete sills.

The house is accessed by a tarmac driveway to the north-east and pedestrian access to the south. It is bounded by hedges to the north, south and east (roadside). The house is elevated on the centre of the site, accessed by four stone steps with cast iron railings and handrails onto a raised lawn and garden area. Mature gardens occupy the rear (west) of the site. The entrance is defined by smooth rendered ruled and lined convex walls with square smooth rendered piers and saddleback coping. Cast iron gate posts remain, though no gates survive. A pitched roof garage to the north is of no particular interest.

Historical records suggest the house was built between 1879 and 1881. It does not appear on early Ordnance Survey maps but first appears in 1904. A Valuation Revision of 1866 records only an office and land on the site, leased by Reverend William O'Neill to Reverend Henry Stewart and valued at £1 10 shillings. By 1879, the occupant was Reverend K Elliot. The building's substantially increased valuation by 1881—recorded at £7 10 shillings—indicates construction occurred between these dates. By 1910, Hugh Hustin was recorded as the occupant.

The building has been compromised by alterations and does not meet the statutory and policy tests as a building of special architectural or historic interest.