Moyarget Lodge, 98 Moyarget Road, Ballycastle, Co Antrim BT54 6HL

Moyarget Lodge is a well-preserved gentleman farmer's residence built circa 1855, set on the south side of Moyarget Road outside Ballycastle, County Antrim. It is a detached, symmetrical three-bay, two-storey with-attic house, restrained and attractive in its design. The listing covers the house and its courtyard walls.

The composition works on two levels: the taller main-roofed portion reads as a compact symmetrical villa, while the lower-roofed combination of asymmetrical side returns and a walled court reads as subservient to it. This contrast of heights and massing is central to the character of the building. The overall effect is enhanced by a lofty, mature setting of lawns and a curving tree-lined approach, and by the clear separation of the house from the working farm to the west — marked by a lane, a courtyard wall, a blank side return gable, and a hedgerow. The building is largely intact inside and out, retaining finely worked internal detailing.

EXTERIOR

The roofs are slated and hipped throughout, with the exception of a gabled dormer above the stair landing. Each hip of the main roof carries a corbelled chimney stack at its apex, with a moulded band course, eight circular clay pots apiece, and a leaded flat top between them. The main roof has a pronounced eaves overhang with a painted timber fascia, soffit, and dentils. The eaves of both side returns are clipped, with a painted timber fascia, and sit much lower than the main roof — springing from a level equivalent to the window-sill level of the first floor of the main house. Rainwater goods are cast iron, with half-round gutters and round-profile downpipes. The exterior walls are sand and cement render, ruled and lined throughout. The main house portion has a base plinth.

Principal Elevation (north-east) The principal section of the elevation sits proud of the side return and courtyard wall, allowing it to read as a symmetrical three-bay house. There are three square-headed window openings on the first floor and two square-headed window openings flanking a central entrance doorway on the ground floor. A single step rises to the entrance, which comprises a painted timber four-panel door with fielded panels, a central brass doorknob, and a single-pane transom window above. The entrance is flanked on either side by a fluted pilaster, with a modest but refined stone canopy above.

To the north-east, a blank side return continues as a courtyard wall, punctuated only by a single square-headed door opening with a solid timber door providing access to the enclosed side court. Beyond this, the elevation of a much larger side return addresses the court. On the ground floor, three stone arches create a colonnade-like porch, behind which a rear wall contains two window openings fitted with timber sliding sash windows — a four-over-eight and a three-over-six. This colonnaded porch provides open-air access to a rear entrance hall on the left and a corridor on the right, both of which are utilitarian outhouse rooms. At first-floor level, a single square-headed window opening has a six-over-six timber sliding sash window. A modern steel fire escape stair provides first-floor access to a flat-roofed, timber-clad box porch supported on two square-profile steel columns; the elevated porch has a single six-pane window facing north-east and a square-headed entrance doorway to the side fitted with a solid panel uPVC door facing north-west.

Side Elevation (south-east) The south-east elevation has two symmetrically arranged square-headed window openings with six-over-six timber sliding sash windows on the ground floor and two more matching windows on the first floor.

Rear Elevation (south-west) The taller-roofed part of the south-west elevation is symmetrically arranged with three square-headed window openings on both the ground and first floors, all with six-over-six timber sliding sash windows. The lower-roofed side return has five square-headed window openings aligned above four smaller square-headed window openings and a square-headed door opening; all windows are six-over-six timber sliding sash, and the door is a glazed uPVC type with twelve glass panes above a solid panel.

Side Elevation (north-west) The north-west elevation presents a blank gable of the larger north-west return onto the farm access lane, extending as a tall wall enclosing the side court — also blank except for a doorway onto the lane. Inside the court, the north-west elevation of the main dwelling is an asymmetrical arrangement of window openings of different sizes and proportions. At roof level, the elevation extends into a flush gabled dormer containing an arch-headed window opening with a six-over-six timber sliding sash window. On the first floor, a larger six-over-six timber sliding sash window sits beneath the dormer, with a smaller six-over-six timber sliding sash window to the left. On the ground floor, a three-over-six timber sliding sash window aligns beneath the stair-landing and dormer windows; to the left, a three-over-six timber sliding sash window sits close beside a one-over-one timber sliding sash window.

Materials summary: natural slate and lead roofing; cast-iron rainwater goods; cement render with ashlar stone scribed walling; timber sliding sash windows throughout.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

The 1832 Ordnance Survey map shows a group of three buildings roughly on the site of the present farm complex. One appears to correspond to part of an outbuilding still standing at the south or south-east corner of the farmyard. The first valuation book of October 1834 may record the property as occupied by a Mrs Hopkins, comprising a slated house measuring 30½ feet by 20 by 11 feet, with a thatched outbuilding and barn.

The name Moyarget Lodge appears in newspaper notices from early 1840, by which date the property had been acquired by John Stewart-Moore (circa 1806–1877). He is referred to as "of Moyarget" as early as January 1838, suggesting he moved here around 1835–38 and subsequently set about enhancing and gentrifying the holding. The revised Ordnance Survey map of 1855 shows a much more extensive collection of buildings laid out along the regular lines of the current farmyard, with the old pre-1834 dwelling still in occupation. Between 1855 and 1859 the present house was built on previously undeveloped ground just east of the yard.

The second valuation of 1859 records the new residence as measuring 15 yards by 13 by 2 storeys, with returns to the west side of 10 by 6 by 2, 3 by 4 by 2, and 3 by 3 by 3. Accompanying outbuildings are also recorded with a range of dimensions, and a gate lodge stood at the head of the main drive onto what is now Moyarget Road. The old house is also recorded in 1859, its main section approximating in size to those noted in 1834, though by then an extension had been added to the north end and an outhouse projection to the rear.

After John Stewart-Moore's death in 1877 the house passed to his wife Elizabeth. The 1901 census records the 73-year-old Mrs Stewart-Moore living there with her unmarried youngest daughter (also Elizabeth), two domestic servants, and four house guests. By 1911 mother and daughter had been joined by the former's grandson, Francis Cuppage Gage, along with three domestic servants; the house itself was described in that census as a first-class dwelling with 15 rooms in use by the family. Mrs Stewart-Moore died later in 1911 and her daughter in 1932. Moyarget Lodge subsequently passed to a relative, James Stewart-Moore, and remains with his descendants.

The house appears to have changed relatively little in terms of its footprint since construction. The 1904 Ordnance Survey map indicates that some additions were made to the north side of the return at some point after 1859, with the plan as it stands today shown on the 1922 map. However, the valuation revision records indicate no major alterations to the building during the later 19th or early 20th century. Many of the accompanying rubble-built farm outbuildings are also well preserved; the earlier structures are of particular interest as most predate the house itself and are quite probably, at least in part, of early 18th century construction.