171 Belfast Road, Muckamore, Co Antrim, BT41 2ET

171 Belfast Road, Muckamore

An attached four-bay one-and-a-half storey house built around 1820, located to the south of Belfast Road. The building forms part of a group of six picturesque dwellings along this road that are notable for their style, character and arrangement.

The house has a rectangular plan with a pitched one-and-a-half storey extension to the south-east. The pitched roofs are slated with deep overhanging eaves and incorporate a central polychromatic brick chimney with three clay pots. The gables feature fretted timber bargeboards, finials and dropped circle motifs. The walls are smooth rendered and ruled-and-lined to the north elevation.

The principal elevation faces north. The entrance door is located in the second bay from the left and is contained in a Tudor-arch-headed opening with painted moulded surround. The door itself is an original square-headed timber panelled door with solid Tudor arch top panels. The other bays contain ground floor windows. Windows are square-headed replacement timber casement windows divided 8/8, set within Tudor-arch-headed openings and topped with painted masonry sills. The third window from the left is surmounted by a pitched dormer containing the first floor window. A second dormer to the east is shared with the adjacent property at 173 Belfast Road.

The west elevation contains one replacement uPVC vertically opening casement window at first floor level. The south elevation has an extension abutted to its right, with the exposed wall section containing two square-headed uPVC casement top-hung opening windows divided 8/8 at ground floor. The extension has a modern timber panelled entrance door on the east elevation and square-headed uPVC vertically opening casement windows to each level on the south elevation. The east elevation is abutted by 173 Belfast Road.

Rainwater goods comprise cast iron ogee gutters and round downpipes.

The house appears on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map dated 1834. Subsequent editions of the map through to the 6th edition of 1962 show the plan form remaining unchanged, indicating that the extension was carried out in more recent years. The Griffiths Valuation of 1859 records the immediate lessor as William Chaine, the occupier as John Palmer, and the house valued at £2 5s 0d.

The house is directly accessed from Belfast Road to the north. The main elevation is abutted to the west by rendered square pillars supporting double wrought iron gates. The pillar to the west is abutted by random rubble walling surmounted by a hedge. The site is bounded to the south and west by a hedge, adjacent to Muckamore View.

The building retains considerable interest as part of the group, despite recent rear extension and the significant detracting effect of replacement windows to its appearance.