Corrstown House, 155 Hopefield Road, Portrush, Co. Londonderry, BT56 8NZ

Corrstown House is a symmetrical two-storey-with-attic, three-bay Georgian farmhouse with associated outbuildings, constructed prior to 1830 and situated on a large, secluded corner site at the junction of Hopefield Road and Magheraboy Road, south of Portrush town centre in the townland of Corrstown. It is a good example of a pre-1830s Georgian farmhouse with a range of vernacular outbuildings arranged in the traditional grouping around a central yard. The building is currently vacant and has fallen into disrepair, resulting in the loss of historic material and a reduction in setting quality, though it remains of special architectural and historic interest as an important surviving example of its type in the area.

The farmhouse is rectangular on plan. The roof is pitched, covered in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles, and has four rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are carried on a projecting eaves course. The external walls are finished in painted ruled-and-lined render. Windows are timber-framed sash, now largely without glazing, and several openings have been boarded up or filled with concrete block; all windows are surmounted by label moulds and have projecting painted sills.

The principal elevation faces west and is symmetrically arranged with three openings at each floor level. At ground floor centre is an elliptical-headed doorcase with fanlight and sidelights, all of which are currently boarded up. The north gable has a single window to the centre at attic level. The east, rear elevation has three irregularly spaced windows at each floor; at ground floor there is a door opening fitted with a modern metal door, and a diminutive window opening to the left of centre. The left side of the building is partially cement rendered and shows evidence of a former two-storey extension. The south gable has a window to the centre at attic level, and at ground floor there is evidence of a former single-storey extension.

To the rear of the house, a range of harled and whitewashed outbuildings encloses a yard. The long range to the north is partially built in red brick to its upper section and has exposed stonework to the rear; the roof structure has been lost entirely. The south face of this range has a number of door openings without doors and oculi fitted with radial iron lights. The west gable has collapsed. To the east of the yard stand two single-storey outbuildings with their gables facing the main house; the southernmost of these has an M-profile corrugated tin roof. The west gables of both outbuildings have a window opening to the left with horizontal metal bars and a doorway without a door to the right. The outbuildings, though dilapidated, are of significant interest and, together with the harled and whitewashed walls and Ulster piers, add to the historic integrity of the site.

The site is a large, mature corner plot in an unspoiled rural setting. The house frontage has long grass and is bounded by mature trees and hedgerow. The former entrance to the west on Hopefield Road is overgrown, but a harled and whitewashed Ulster pier with pointed caps survives. The entrance from Magheraboy Road to the south has replacement cement piers with a metal farm gate and corrugated tin sheeting; to either side of this entrance are low harled and whitewashed walls. A block-paved front yard is enclosed by a harled and whitewashed wall with round piers. A gate pier is also attached to the south wall of the outbuilding to the north of the yard, giving access to associated farmland to the east. A red brick well stands within the yard.

The house was depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830, confirming it predates that year; the northernmost outbuilding was also shown as existing at that date. The farmhouse was not included in the contemporary Townland Valuation of around 1830 because its value fell below the minimum £5 threshold required for inclusion. A small ruined outbuilding to the north-east of the farmhouse was constructed between 1830 and around 1860, first appearing on the second edition Ordnance Survey map. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 recorded the house as valued at £4 10s., owned and occupied by Isaac Hunter, a local farmer. Hunter was an active figure in the local community, having contributed much of the information recorded in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs for the area, and also supporting local schools through subscriptions. Isaac Hunter continued to reside at Corrstown House until 1897, when a Mr Hugh McNeill acquired the lease at an annual cost of £25. The 1901 Census records McNeill, aged 46 and Presbyterian, as a local farmer living at Corrstown House with his wife Bessie, aged 29, their two infant children, and a number of farm servants. The census building return described the farmhouse at that time as a first-class dwelling comprising 11 rooms, with associated outbuildings including a stable, two cow houses, a dairy, a boiling house, and a barn. The small single-storey outbuilding to the east of the site had been constructed by the time of the third edition Ordnance Survey map in 1904. The 1911 Census downgraded the farmhouse to a second-class dwelling for reasons that are not recorded, and few further changes to the site were documented before the Annual Revisions were cancelled in 1929. Hugh McNeill continued to live at Corrstown House until his death in 1931, at which point ownership passed to his son John Alexander McNeill. In 1972, the architectural historian Girvan described the building as a three-bay, two-storey cement-rendered late Georgian farmhouse with notable features including a segmental fanlight and Georgian fanlight. The property was listed in 1977 and remained occupied into the late 20th century, but has since lain vacant, with the loss of many original features observed by Girvan in 1972. All of the surrounding outbuildings have fallen into a similar state of disrepair.