Malone Golf Club, 240 Upper Malone Road, Belfast, Co. Antrim, BT17 9LB

Malone Golf Club

This detached symmetrical three-bay, two-storey country house with attic was built around 1835 and extensively altered around 1875. It has since been converted and extended for use as the clubhouse for Malone Golf Club. The building stands within the extensive grounds of the club on the east side of Upper Malone Road, the former Ballydrain demesne, with its principal elevation overlooking Ballydrain lake.

The original building has a rectangular plan with a central full-height canted bay. The pitched natural slate roof features hog-back ridge tiles and rolled leaden hips above the central bays to west and east. There are ashlar dormers with profiled sandstone gables, three ashlar sandstone chimneystacks with moulded copings, and concealed lead-lined parapet gutters. The main walling is coursed quarry-faced basalt with ashlar sandstone quoins and copings, moulded sandstone finials to gable apexes and corners.

The principal western elevation has a central two-storey canted bay with a pierced sandstone parapet punctuated by a central dormer. The left and right bays each have canted bays at ground floor with three windows aligned above and a central attic dormer. The window openings are largely square-headed with flush chamfered ashlar sandstone block and start surrounds with hood moulds; first-floor openings have quarry-faced basalt relieving arches. Ground-floor windows in the flanking canted bays are set with moulded sandstone mullions. All windows are now replacement uPVC casements.

The north gable is abutted by a contemporary single-storey extension with pitched slate roof, fully glazed to the west, with a first-floor window and smaller attic window. The rear elevation is largely obscured by extensions connecting to the stable yard, which combine pitched natural slate and modern flat roofing, with uPVC rainwater goods and basalt walling with sandstone dressings; interior courtyard walling is engineering brick.

The south elevation is asymmetrical with a double-gabled profile. The left section is wider and taller, with a pair of replacement French doors and overlight at ground floor, and a window to the first floor and attic. The right section features the principal ground-floor entrance comprising replacement double-leaf timber half-glazed panelled doors with a glazed toplight bearing the crest of Malone Golf Club. A sandstone oriel with corbelled base and offset roof occupies the first floor, with an attic window above. To the right of the main gable is a projecting extension from around 1880 spanned by a sandstone balustraded parapet. To the left side is a three-centred-arched opening with hood mould, now infilled with a window, and a large picture window to its right.

The single-storey extension to the west has ashlar sandstone walling with blind moulded sandstone shields between window openings. The section north of the west elevation bears the Montgomery family crest.

The entrance from Upper Malone Road is flanked by replacement quarry-faced basalt walls with rubblestone basalt copings and circular-plan gate piers. Two original ashlar sandstone gate piers, square in plan, remain east of the modern entrance piers. The building is accessed via a long, tree-lined tarmacadam driveway. The principal elevation is approached via a set of wide sandstone steps leading to a sandstone-flagged platform with moulded sandstone balustrades; an accessible ramp is located to the west. A carpark is situated south-west of the house. South of the building is a walled garden, now containing a bowling green, abutted by a ruinous gardener's cottage.