2 Coastguard Cottages, Farmhill Road, Marino, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 0AG

Number 2 Coastguard Cottages is a mid-terrace former coastguard cottage built in red brick around 1870, designed by Enoch Trevor Owen of the Board of Works in Dublin. It forms the middle portion of a coherent terrace in the Marino area, set east of Farmhill Road to the north-east of Holywood town centre in the townland of Ballycultra, County Down.

The building is two storeys, single bay, and rectangular on plan, with a single-storey extension to the rear. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with brick chimneystacks finished with sandstone dentilled eaves. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are carried on projecting eaves. The walls are laid in Flemish bond red brick with a yellow brick dog-tooth string-course and ornamental stone dressings to the windows. The windows themselves are pointed-headed, multi-paned timber sliding sashes. The principal elevation faces west and is simply arranged: at ground floor there is a window to the left and an entrance door to the right; at first floor a single window sits to the left. The timber entrance door has three lancet lights to its upper portion and retains its brass door knocker.

The north elevation is abutted by the adjoining cottage to the north, and the south elevation by the adjoining cottage to the south. The east, rear elevation has a window to the centre at first floor and a diminutive replacement window to the left; at ground floor it is abutted by a modern flat-roofed brick extension.

The terrace as a whole retains high-quality architectural detailing in largely intact condition, including the weathervane to the top of the watch tower and carved stone angled gun loops. Number 2 has been extended but its original floor plan is largely intact, though internal finishes are largely modern.

The terrace is set back from the road behind a small lawned front garden enclosed by a mature hedgerow and a cast-iron gate. To the rear is a large mature garden enclosed by a mature hedgerow, separated from the house by a communal pathway.

The station has a well-documented history. On 15 October 1870 the Irish Builder announced: "A Coastguard station has been commenced at Cultra, Co Down under Board of Works. Messrs J and R Thompson, contractors. Quantities prepared by Mr Bermingham." The area north of Holywood had been relatively undeveloped in the early 19th century, with a scattering of mansions and bathing lodges near the coast but open fields beyond. At the time the cottages were built they were surrounded by open fields and the grounds of large villas. The station is first shown and captioned on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901, though it enters valuation records earlier, in 1872, when it was valued at £42. According to the architectural historian C.E.B. Brett, the station was built inland and without a sea view because coastal plots had already been earmarked for development following the opening of the railway line to Bangor in 1865. Government correspondence of 1 June 1870 confirms that the watch tower was not considered vital to the finished design, on the grounds that villas yet to be built closer to the coast would in any case obscure the view from it.

In 1856 the Coastguard — at that time primarily an anti-smuggling force — was transferred to the Admiralty, and some military functions were added to its duties. Responsibility for building and maintaining coastguard stations was given to the Board of Public Works, which designed and built over sixty new stations in the following twenty years. The chief architect at the Board of Works was James Higgins Owen, but after 1863 he delegated responsibility for design to Enoch Trevor Owen, who is considered likely to have been the designer of the Marino station. Marino follows the standard layout for coastguard stations of the period: a terrace of crew houses with a clearly defined officer's house at one end and a watch tower at the other, the latter housing the room where the nightly watch was kept and where the crew's arms were stored. According to D. Mayne, stations were frequently built to a standard design with minor amendments to suit the terrain and the availability of local materials. The standard crew house ground floor comprised a scullery of approximately 8 feet by 10 feet fitted with twenty-four wrought-iron hat and clothes pins, and a living room of approximately 17 feet by 11 feet. Upstairs was a master bedroom of the same dimensions as the living room and two smaller bedrooms. Behind the terrace was a yard with domestic offices for each house including a coal shed and a two-seater privy with yellow pine seats. A communal wash house stood at the centre of the row, with wash days divided by rota among the households, and a pump sometimes stood in the middle of the yard.

Coastguard stations were frequently vulnerable during periods of civil unrest, the coastguard being perceived as representatives of the Crown. Following sectarian riots in 1864, gun loops were inserted into coastguard terraces in much larger numbers, and Marino is particularly well defended in this respect. Oriel windows fitted with gun loops and wrought-iron shutters also formed part of the defensive arrangements. To allow crews to defend any part of the station, interconnecting doors were fitted between the bedrooms on the first floor.

Street directories of the period list a Chief Boatman and four crew at the station. In 1880 the Chief Boatman was John Thompson and the crew were Francis Beggs, James McKeown, William Medden, and Cornelius Cronin. By 1892 the command structure had changed: there was now a Chief Officer, Edward Jeffers, two Commissioned Boatmen, and two Boatmen. The 1901 census records the house as then containing four rooms and classifies it as second class in terms of size and construction, as were the other houses in the terrace. At that date it was occupied by Kentish-born William Allen, his wife, and their six-month-old baby. The cottages are listed as vacant in the 1911 census, and it appears that by 1913 the terrace had ceased to function as a coastguard station and had passed into use as private dwellings. Separate valuations begin to be given for each dwelling from that point, with Number 2 valued at £4 in common with the other two houses in the centre of the terrace. From 1913 the occupier was Thomas Smythe; by 1917 the house had been taken over by James Peacock, and no further changes are recorded up to 1930. The house continues in use as a domestic dwelling.