116 Tromra Road, Mullarts, Cushendun, Co.Antrim

116 Tromra Road is a detached two-storey four-bay farmhouse and former shop, built in the Georgian style around the 1830s and located in the townland of Gortaghragan between Cushendall and Cushendun on the north-west side of Tromra Road. It is an increasingly rare surviving example of a combined rural dwelling and commercial premises — a building type that once served as both a commercial and social hub for surrounding communities. The building is set back from the road, with a large piggery outbuilding to the rear and smaller outbuildings to the north-east side.

The building is rectangular on plan, with its principal elevation facing south-east. It is well-proportioned, and its exterior retains most of its original historic character with detailing consistent with its construction date.

The roof is covered in natural slate with clay ridge tiles and three rendered chimney stacks fitted with circular black pots. Half-round replacement aluminium guttering is fixed to a painted timber fascia, terminating to a circular aluminium downpipe on the left side of the front elevation.

The principal south-east elevation is finished in smooth painted render. A two-storey store sits to the left side with a flat corrugated metal roof. All window openings are square-headed, set on painted masonry sills with a painted plaster band to the reveals. The ground-floor bays align with the window bays above. Windows throughout the ground and first floors are exposed box 2/2 timber sliding sash. To the left side is a shopfront containing bi-folding timber doors with tall Victorian-style glazed panels, raised-and-fielded panels below, a narrow plain fanlight above, and two glazed panels to the right side with remnants of shop signage above. The entrance is a segmental-headed door recess set within a windbreak porch with a pitched slate roof, containing a replacement painted square-headed four-panel timber door with three small glazed panels to the top section; the door opens onto a threshold one concrete step up from ground level. The store to the left has painted sheeted timber double doors and a square-headed casement timber window.

The south-west elevation is two storeys, with the two-storey store gable rising above the main house. The store walls are in smooth unpainted render; the house gable is painted render and contains a small attic-level square-headed window opening, currently missing its window, to the left side of the chimney.

The north-west rear elevation is in smooth painted render and incorporates a two-storey return built at half-landing level to the main house. This return has a pitched slate roof and a large chimney stack to the apex with a single black pot. The rear of the main house has single square-headed windows on painted masonry sills at both ground and first-floor levels, with the upper bay not aligned with the one below. The ground-floor window is a small 4/2 exposed box timber sliding sash; the first-floor window is a replacement timber casement.

The north-east elevation is also in smooth painted render and similarly incorporates a two-storey return built at half-landing level, with a pitched slate roof and a large chimney stack to the gable. The main house gable contains a single square-headed window on a painted masonry sill with a 2/2 timber sliding sash at first-floor level to the left side. The rear return contains single square-headed windows on painted masonry sills at ground-floor and first-floor half-landing levels, with the bays aligned above and below. The ground-floor window is a small 1/3 modified exposed box timber sliding sash; the first-floor window is a larger 2/2 exposed box timber sliding sash.

To the rear, a collection of outbuildings is accessed through wrought iron gates to the left. The principal outbuilding is a large two-storey six-bay piggery to the north-west, with smooth rendered walls and a corrugated metal pitched roof. It contains a number of single and double timber sheeted doors at ground level on the north-east side, and square-headed window openings to both ground and first floors fitted mostly with 1/1 timber sliding sash windows. Further outbuildings to the rear have smooth rendered masonry walls with pitched asbestos-clad roofing, metal windows, and a corrugated metal sliding door on the south-east side.

The building is situated to the east of the former Cushendall Presbyterian Meeting House and its two-storey manse, Mansefield, which were constructed around 1852. According to historian C. Dallat, this meeting house served the Presbyterian population of both Cushendall and Cushendun until services moved to Cushendall in 1859, held in the school on the hill of Court McMartin. The former meeting house along Tromra Road is now used as a barn by the adjoining Mansefield House.

The building first appeared on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832, shown as a rectangular structure without its current rear return or outbuildings. It was excluded from the Townland Valuations of around 1834 as its value fell below the £3 minimum threshold for inclusion. By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857, little had changed on the site. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 records the property as valued at 10 shillings, leased by Edmund Cuppage — a prominent landlord of Mount Edwards — to a local farmer named James Magee. James Magee remained at the property until around 1865, when it passed to James McDonnell; the Annual Revisions record the value being increased to £1 5 shillings at around that time. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1903–04 shows that a large outbuilding to the rear had been added between 1857 and the turn of the 20th century, and the increase in rateable value suggests this was erected around 1865. A Mr Daniel McNeill occupied the farm from around 1884 until around 1901, when a local merchant and farmer named Richard McFetridge took over the site. The 1911 Census of Ireland records McFetridge living there with his wife and nine children, and the accompanying Census Building Return described the farmhouse as a first-class dwelling of seven rooms, with outbuildings including a stable, two cow houses, and a piggery. The Annual Revisions record that McFetridge established a shop at the property around 1922. The First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland, covering the period 1936 to 1957, increased the combined value of the farmhouse and shop to £19 15 shillings, and noted that the building was also used as a local petrol pump station at that time. Richard McFetridge continued to live at the property until his death in 1948, when it passed to his son John. By the end of the Second General Revaluation, covering 1956 to 1972, the total rateable value of the farmhouse and shop stood at £39 15 shillings. In 1972, the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's guide to the Glens of Antrim described the building as "a four-bay two-storey whitewashed house with Regency glazing, set back from the road [and one of] a pleasant group of buildings." The building was listed in 1980. By the 1990s it continued to function as both a dwelling and shop, and in 1993 it underwent an extensive renovation that included the reconstruction of its chimney stacks, the re-slating of the roof in second-hand slate, and the installation of aluminium rainwater goods.