Breckenhill Road, Doagh, Ballyclare

Breckenhill Road, Doagh, Ballyclare

An attractive Georgian house built around 1820 and substantially renovated in 1989. Originally constructed as a one-and-a-half-storey house over a basement, it was raised to two storeys during the late twentieth-century restoration. The building retains many original internal details and external features of historic significance, including the ground-floor window surrounds and the original panelled entrance door with decorative fanlight. Though reconstructed from a severely deteriorated state, the house preserves much of its historic character and detailing in a historically valid manner.

The building is a detached, symmetrically planned three-bay house on a split-level site, with the basement exposed to the rear. It stands on a rectangular plan with a single-storey pitched roof return to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with three roof lights to the south slope and two to the north. The chimneystack are smooth rendered with clay pots. Rainwater goods are ogee profile cast-metal. The walls are roughcast rendered.

Windows throughout are timber sliding sashes with exposed boxes and masonry cills. The ground floor has 6/6 sashes, the first floor has 3/6 sashes, and the basement windows are also 3/6. The principal elevation faces south, presenting a symmetrical composition: the central entrance is flanked by two windows on each side at ground floor, with five windows at first-floor level. The entrance comprises a four-panelled door with glazed sidelights and fanlight, recessed within a segmental-headed arch with moulded surround and accessed by six masonry steps. The left gable contains a glazed timber double door at basement level and two windows at first floor. A masonry staircase with modern cast-metal handrail abuts the right corner. The rear elevation features a single-storey return with pitched slated roof to the right of centre at basement level, with windows on each floor at left and right, a central window at stair landing level, and a diminished window below serving the stairwell. The right gable contains two windows at basement level, a single window at ground floor (right), and two at first floor. The return wing is accessed from the west and contains a timber four-panelled door to the right, a single 2/4 window to the left, a 3/6 window to the north gable, and a 2/4 window to the east cheek.

The house is set within mature gardens to the east of Breckenhill Road, commanding views over Tildarg dam. Access is via a lane connecting the house with adjacent outbuildings to the west.

Historical Context

The building appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 as 'Breckenhill', shown with formal gardens. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records it as 'house, offices and land', occupied by John Smith Esquire and held in fee, valued at £15. Boyle's Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1835 describe the house as the residence of John Allen Esquire, noting that "the house, though old, is rather spacious and modern, and is prettily situated in the midst of some planting in a retired district".

According to local historical records, the property was owned by James Gilliland of Waterhead or Bracken Hill from 1755. Shortly after 1780, it passed to James Owens of Tildarg, a cousin of the Holestone family. Following James Owens's death in 1820, recorded in the local press, the house came into the possession or tenancy of the Allens. The property was farmed for several generations by Sam Todd and his forebears before falling into severe dereliction.

The house remained a single-storey structure over basement with attic windows in the gables only until its rescue in 1989. The original design featured a good fanlight and doorcase accessed by six fine granite steps. The five-bay composition, roughcast walls painted grey, and reeding in the pilasters inside the front door were characteristic of its late Georgian style. During the comprehensive 1989 renovation, the decision was taken to raise the structure a full storey when re-roofing. This alteration made the house somewhat bulkier than its original form—a long, low house set against the hillside—but the work retained much of its individual character and historic fabric.