106 Old Holywood Road, Belfast, Co.Antrim, BT4 2HL

106 Old Holywood Road is a semi-detached Victorian cottage, one of a pair, built between approximately 1860 and 1879. The building is a three-bay, one and a half storey structure constructed in red brick with a central half-dormer to the north and a half-hipped gable to the east. A projecting chimney stack projects from the west elevation, with a single-storey red brick extension to the west.

The pitched slate roof features roll-top terracotta ridge tiles and overhanging eaves supported on chamfered triangulated brackets with a painted soffit and bargeboard. The gabled half-dormer faces north. The two-stage chimney to the west has leaded splays and a leaded course with a saw-tooth string course and terracotta pots. The guttering is ogee moulded uPVC discharging to uPVC circular downpipes, while the extension has a mono-pitched slate roof.

The red brick walls sit on a projecting stone plinth with a moulded stone sill course. A flush ashlar sandstone springing course runs to the ground floor windows. A string course with upper and lower dentil courses marks the first floor half-hipped gable.

The north-facing front elevation has a pair of segmental-headed window openings to the ground floor flanking a doorway, with drip moulds featuring chamfered brick detail. The windows are square-headed timber casements. The half-dormer contains a pair of segmental-headed openings. A segmental-headed door opening faces east, with a drip mould and red brick shouldered surround, containing a diagonal sheeted timber door with fanlight over.

The west elevation displays a projecting chimney breast and stack flanked by ground and first floor window openings, with a single-storey extension to the south-west. The east elevation is single-bay and two-storey with a half-hipped gable containing a pair of segmental-headed window openings to ground and first floor.

Materials include natural slate roofing, red brick walling and timber casement windows. The building is enclosed by timber fencing to the north, a dwarf red brick wall with hedge to the east, and mature gardens to the west. It is attached to 104 Old Holywood Road to the south.

The building is known as Moat Cottage, a name possibly derived from its association with The Moat or Moat House nearby. It was likely built as workers' housing following the 1863-4 rebuilding of Moat House to designs by the architect W. J. Barre. Documentary evidence suggests these cottages may represent workmen's houses that existed by 1879, valued at £10 in the Valuation Revision Books.

By 1904 the cottage was occupied by Thomas Culbert, identified as a gardener, who rented from Frank Workman who had acquired Moat House. The Culbert family remained in residence for most of the twentieth century. Street directories for much of the 1900s referred to this pair of dwellings collectively as Moat Cottages. The building is well-maintained, though it has been recently renovated and retains very few internal architectural details.