4 Maud Cottages, Cushendun, Co.Antrim

4 Maud Cottages is a modest two-storey, white-painted Arts and Crafts-style end-of-terrace house, built in 1926 as part of a terrace of four Interwar dwellings. It stands in the heart of the village of Cushendun, County Antrim, within a designated Conservation Area and an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, close to the River Dun.

The terrace was designed by the office of Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978), the London-based architect best known for the Italianate tourist village of Portmeirion in Wales, which he designed in stages between 1925 and 1975. There is some scholarly debate over attribution: historian Seán Rothery has suggested the actual designs were the work of Frederick McManus (1903–85), a young Irish architect employed in Williams-Ellis's London office in 1925–26, with the Cushendun Conservation Area Guide describing McManus as an assistant who prepared the plans. Williams-Ellis had previously worked for the same patron at Cushendun, designing Nos 1–7 The Square in 1912 and redesigning Glenmona Lodge in 1923–24.

The cottages were commissioned by Ronald John McNeill (1861–1934), a prominent local landowner and outspoken Ulster Unionist politician who had served as Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1922–25), Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1925–27), and twice as British Representative to the League of Nations — signing the Kellogg-Briand Pact on behalf of the British Government in August 1928. He was created the first Baron Cushendun in 1927, though the title became extinct upon his death in 1934. The cottages were named after his wife, Elizabeth Maud, who had died in 1925. His residence, Glenmona Lodge, had been burned to the ground in 1922 in response to his outspoken opposition to the Anglo-Irish Treaty. The terrace was built on the former site of a coastguard station constructed in the mid-19th century but lying in ruins by the 1920s.

The style of the cottages has been variously described. The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society Guide of 1972 characterised them as Cornish in style — a reflection of Elizabeth Maud's Cornish origins — a quality seen particularly in the wall-hung slate cladding to the upper storeys. Rothery regarded them as Arts and Crafts, while the 1996 Conservation Area Guide observed that beyond the slate-hung walls there is little else that is distinctly Cornish about them.

The building has a rectangular plan form. The upper storeys are clad in wall-hung slate, while the lower storey is finished in white painted render set on a plinth painted in a contrasting colour. The lower storey features recessed arcading and a central bow. Windows throughout are small-pane Georgian-glazed timber sliding sash, with outer bays having timber shutters. The overall fenestration pattern across the terrace row is irregular: only the end bays at ground-floor level align with bays at first-floor level. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles, and there are three rendered, painted tall chimney stacks with clay pots. Half-round cast-iron guttering discharges to circular-section cast-iron downpipes.

The principal elevation faces north-east onto an open green overlooking the bay and the North Sea beyond. It is accessed via a gravel driveway from Bay Road through a pair of square, white-washed stone entrance pillars with iron gates, and the terrace row sits behind painted metal railings. On the principal elevation, a semicircular-headed painted panelled timber door with decorative metal door furniture serves as the entrance; to the right is a single recessed blind bay, and to the left is a single square-headed window with painted timber shutters. The slate-clad upper storey has square-headed timber sliding sash windows.

The south-east side elevation features a projecting white painted rendered chimney stack, with a single square-headed timber sliding sash window to either side of it. The lower walling is white painted render on a painted plinth base, and the elevation is bounded by a low stone wall. The south-west rear elevation overlooks a rear yard containing a small lean-to stone outbuilding, bounded by a high stone wall; the rear elevation was not fully accessible at the time of survey but, where visible, consists of two square-headed window bays to the slated upper storey overlooking a large open green facing Main Street. The north-west side is joined to the neighbouring No. 3 Maud Cottages.

No. 4 sits to the south end of the terrace row, perpendicular to the Glendun River. The listing extent covers the house, outbuilding, walling, gates, and railings.

Historically, No. 4 was first valued at £3 and 10 shillings and recorded as vacant until 1930. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), its value had risen to £12 and it was occupied by a Mr John McKillop, who remained until the 1950s. Ownership of Maud Cottages passed to the National Trust in 1954. By 1956 No. 4 was occupied by a Mr William Bell, who was still in residence at the close of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), by which time the property was valued at £16 and 10 shillings. The cottages were listed in 1980, the same year the village was designated a Conservation Area. Around 2011, No. 4 underwent general renovations including the reslating of its roof and the restoration of its windows.

The cottage has strong group value with Nos 1–3 Maud Cottages, the nearby Square (Nos 1–7), and Glenmona Lodge, all connected through the same patron and, in large part, the same architect's office. Together they represent a significant phase of planned development in Cushendun during the early 20th century.