'Glenalmond' 60 Quarry Road, Belfast, Co Antrim BT4 2NQ

Glenalmond at 60 Quarry Road is a detached two-storey house with attic, built in 1931-33 in the Neo-Tudor style. It stands set back from Quarry Road, east of Belfast city centre and north of Stormont Estate, in semi-rural surroundings on the outskirts of Belfast metropolitan area.

The house was originally built for estate agent Robert M.T. McConnell to designs by Belfast architect John MacGeagh. It was considerably smaller in its original form, consisting of a 2½-storey north-south wing, a similar-height entrance wing to the west (then only one bay wide), and a 1½-storey eastern section containing a garage. The western wing was enlarged to its present size in 1938, also by MacGeagh, at which point the house acquired the name Glenalmond, after a glen west of Perth in Scotland. A gate lodge was added at the head of the drive at the same time.

The building is constructed in brown rustic brick laid in Flemish stretcher bond, with a roof of Rosemary clay tiles in varying pitches and four angled Tudor-esque brick chimneystacks with roof dormers. The plastic rainwater goods feature decorative holderbats on painted fascia with deep soffit containing circular vents. Windows are painted timber casements flush with the walling, with clay tile and brick lintels and sills throughout.

The asymmetrical principal elevation faces north, with a rectangular-plan gable-ended projecting wing to the east and a shallow projecting bay with hipped roof and shingled apex gablet to the west. The east gable end displays a carved masonry panel depicting a stag's head framed by projecting brickwork diapering. A first-floor stained-glass corner window with timber brackets supporting the roof soffit above straddles a chamfered junction. A pitched and tiled projecting timber front porch with decorative bargeboard and brackets contains a Tudor-arched timber-panelled door with wrought-iron pull bell. The east elevation features a modern roof skylight, two gabled dormers with shingled apices, and a single-storey pitched return to the north end containing two timber doors. The rear (south) elevation has centrally-placed double leaf doors and a curved bay window under a hipped roof on timber brackets to the west, with a further curved bay window under deep soffit flanked by two columns. An L-plan one-storey pitched extension extends from the east end of the house, constructed in brown brick laid in stretcher bond, with a concrete and corrugated outbuilding abutting it to the east. A rectangular-plan one-storey hipped extension projects from the west end, with a Tudor-arch door opening, plain brick reveals, and a timber-sheeted door over red sandstone steps with metal handrail to the north elevation.

The house was acquired around 1959 by Captain Oscar William James (Bill) Henderson and his wife Primrose. Captain Henderson was a member of the Henderson family, proprietors of the Belfast News-Letter for much of the 19th and 20th centuries, and he managed the paper from 1964 until 1991. He previously served in the Northern Ireland Parliament from 1953 to 1958 as Member of Parliament for Belfast Victoria Constituency. The Hendersons remained at Glenalmond into the 1980s.

Significant modifications and alterations have been made over time. Most substantially, modifications in 1992-93 saw the removal of most original internal features in favour of a mock Tudor scheme, the replacement of the original window frames, and the rebuilding of the lower eastern wing that formerly contained the garage. As a result, the original footprint has changed significantly and the house does not retain sufficient original historic fabric to be considered of special interest.

The property is accessed via a long driveway approach, with Number 62 beside the entrance on Quarry Road. Green space surrounds the house on all sides, with mature trees to the west and north boundaries. A horse paddock to the east contains stables and outbuildings; a tennis court lies to the west. A former quarry, now gated and delineated by trees, lies on the west side of the driveway approach. The site has industrial archaeological interest as it stands on what was previously largely open field, immediately north of which was one of several disused quarries from which Quarry Road received its name.