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

104 Old Holywood Road, Belfast is a semi-detached Victorian cottage built between approximately 1860 and 1879, forming one of a pair with 106 Old Holywood Road to the north. The building is locally known as "Moat Cottage" due to its possible association with the nearby Moat House estate.

The cottage is constructed of red brick on a projecting stone plinth and comprises two bays with one and a half storeys. The pitched slate roof is finished with roll-top terracotta ridge tiles and features overhanging eaves supported on chamfered triangulated brackets, with painted soffit and bargeboards. A half-dormer with gabled detail projects to the east. The south elevation displays a two-stage projecting chimney stack with leaded splays, leaded course detail, saw-tooth string course and terracotta pots. A single-storey red brick extension was added to the south-west around 2000, with its own pitched slate roof and painted bargeboard.

Externally, the building retains many period features including moulded stone sill courses, a flush ashlar sandstone course at impost level to the ground floor openings, and segmental-headed window openings throughout with timber casement windows. Drip moulds with chamfered brick detail are present over openings. The roof utilizes natural slate with uPVC guttering and downpipes. Walling is red brick throughout.

The front elevation faces east and consists of two bays: the lower bay contains a pair of segmental-headed window openings and a segmental-headed entrance door, both with chamfered brick drip moulding; the upper bay features a pair of windows within the half-dormer. The south elevation, flanking the projecting chimney, has segmental-headed window openings at ground and first floor levels, with the extension to the left containing a pair of square-headed windows. The north elevation adjoins the neighbouring property.

The building is bounded to the east by a dwarf red brick wall with hedging and has mature gardens to the west. A stream runs to the south, crossed by Kennel Bridge over Old Holywood Road.

Historically, the site was undeveloped in the mid-nineteenth century and formed part of John L. Bell's Moat House property in 1860. The estate was subsequently acquired by Thomas Valentine, who had Moat House rebuilt in 1863-4 to designs by architect W. J. Barre. Numbers 104 and 106 were constructed sometime between this rebuilding and the mid-1880s, appearing marked in ink on the Valuation Map of circa 1860 to 1885 and shown on the 1895 Ordnance Survey map at 1:2,500 scale. They may represent workmen's houses constructed by 1879 and valued at £10 in the Valuation Books.

By 1904, the occupants are recorded as Thomas Culbert at one dwelling (valued at £6) and James Campbell at the other (valued at £5), both leasing from Frank Workman, who had acquired Moat House. Culbert was employed as a gardener. Street directories throughout the twentieth century refer to this pair and nearby houses collectively as Moat Cottages, though the Culbert family specifically designated their home at 106 Old Holywood Road as "The Moat Cottage" or "Moat Cottage". The Culbert family remained resident at number 106 for much of the twentieth century, while the Robinson family occupied number 104 for an extended period. By the 1956-72 valuation period, the immediate lessor was Ideal Planning Ltd; number 104 was then the residence of J. Robinson (comprising house, office and garden, valued at £10), whilst number 106 housed Agnes Culbert (house and garden, valued at £12).

The building is well maintained. Although it retains considerable Victorian character through its architectural detailing, it has undergone alterations and is not considered of special interest for listing purposes.