Carnsampson, 43 Moyarget Road, Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, BT546HJ

Carnsampson, 43 Moyarget Road, Ballycastle

A tall three-bay, three-storey gabled-ended mid-Victorian house built around 1870, facing east. The building stands one room deep with adjoining office ranges to the rear. It retains its small attractive parkland setting to the east, with a lawn flanked by deciduous and coniferous trees, approached by curved avenue sweeps from the north-east and south (the southern avenue pre-dating the house).

The house is rendered externally in cement, with a recently re-slated natural slate roof, wide eaves with plain wooden fascias and uPVC guttering. A rendered chimney stack rises from each end gable, surmounted by a projecting moulded cornice above a plain frieze.

A projecting porch with flat roof occupies the centre of the ground floor, with a panelled door and 2/2 sliding-sash window on each flanking side. The porch is flanked by plain pilasters supporting a projecting cornice crowned with a blocking course. The flanking ground floor windows are plain wooden 2/2 sliding sash. All three bays of the first floor have identical wooden 8/2 sliding-sash windows with curved meeting stile at the base of each top sash. The second floor contains 2/2 sliding-sash wooden windows in each side bay, positioned just below the eaves, while the central bay features a camber-headed window with two wood mullions and one cross transom. This window creates what is effectively a half-dormer with gently curvilinear coping, awkwardly breaking through the roof eaves.

A bold projecting stucco string course runs between the first and second floors, extending down both side elevations and supported at the corners by pairs of stucco consul brackets. The central bay front projection is supported by six consuls. These features were retained during the 2011 refurbishment.

The south gabled elevation has a single uPVC casement window on the top floor below the gable. At ground floor level, a double door with single light over leads into a newly built single-storey garden sitting room extension, which replaced a late Victorian conservatory. The north end gable has two uPVC double casement windows at second floor level, a wooden 2/2 sliding-sash window at first floor level, and a uPVC door at ground floor level leading to the garden.

A substantial refurbishment was undertaken in 2011. All windows were replaced: wooden sliding-sash on the front elevation and uPVC casements on other elevations. The roof was renewed, new floorboards and joists installed, and the interior walls were drylined. The old main staircase and plasterwork on the ceilings of the front rooms were retained. The rear two-storey gabled extension was demolished and replaced with a larger two-storey extension adjoining an L-shaped office range forming a rear yard, approached through an original pend arch to the south-west. One range was gutted and rebuilt internally; an adjoining yard range on the south side of the yard was entirely rebuilt.

Historical Background

The 1669 Hearth Money Roll records ten hearths in the townland of Carnsampson, with one entry under Mr. John Stewart showing two hearths, possibly referencing a dwelling at this location. The first edition (1830s) and first revision (1860) Ordnance Survey maps show a house named 'Annaville' on this site. While the main building's size and shape do not correspond to the existing house, two of the rear ranges appear to share the same footprint.

The present house was built around 1870 and appears on the second edition (1905) Ordnance Survey map with its front lawn and flanking avenue sweeps. It was built by the Woodside family, described as minor gentry, army officers and active Unionists. They invested successfully in American property, railways and manufacturing, and held assets including Ballycastle Gas Company, Ballycastle Rail Company, Ballintoy Sett quarry, the Limestone quarry and the Salmon Fishery.