176 Garron Road, Glenahilt, Co.Antrim, BT44 0RA

176 Garron Road, Glenahilt

This detached four-bay single-storey house with attic was built around 1800-1820 and is set on an elevated site overlooking the Coast Road on the south side of Garron Road, accessed via a long concrete driveway. The property includes rendered circular piers with metal gates to the northwest and a two-storey rubblestone outbuilding to the west.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing north, with a pitched natural slate roof featuring rolled lead ridges, three rendered chimneystacks with concrete coping to either gable end, cast-iron guttering on iron brackets, and cast-iron downpipes. The walls are rendered in painted trowel-textured cement. The front elevation displays four bays containing three windows with square-headed openings, flush sills, and replacement 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with concave horns. An off-centre windbreaker entrance with a lean-to slate roof contains a replacement vertically-sheeted timber half-door opening onto a concrete paved forecourt. The east elevation is blind with a gabled end and a lean-to structure matching the front details. The rear elevation, set at a lower level than the sloping terrain, features an off-centre lean-to extension with a projection entrance porch having a slate roof and replacement vertically-sheeted timber door. The west gabled elevation has a single four-pane timber casement window at attic level.

The two-storey rubblestone outbuilding to the west has a pitched natural slate roof, walls with lime pointing, replacement timber casement windows, and replacement sheeted timber doors with timber lintels.

The house was first recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 as a simple rectangular structure without outbuildings. It was too modest to be recorded in the Townland Valuations of around 1834, which required properties to be worth a minimum of £3. By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857, the outbuilding (to the southwest) had been erected. Griffith's Valuation of around 1859 recorded a rateable value of £1 10 shillings, with the farmhouse leased by Mark McDonnell (the 5th Earl of Antrim) to Michael Black, a local farmer. The 1901 Census of Ireland noted that Black occupied the property with his wife Catherine and son Bernard, describing it as a second-class dwelling with two inhabited rooms plus a stable, cowhouse, piggery, and barn. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1903 showed no discernible change since the mid-nineteenth century. Michael Black remained at the farm until his death in 1924, when it passed to his relative Bernard Black. The property was subsequently purchased by James Laverty by the 1930s. During the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57), the rateable value was raised to £2 10 shillings. Mary Collins occupied the house from the 1950s, followed by John J. O'Mullan from 1967. By the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72), the total rateable value of the house and outbuildings was £3 10 shillings.

Although the external historic fabric has been altered with the addition of textured render, the historic character and proportions remain, as do the interior plan form and hearth. The dwelling is of local interest as one of very few vernacular structures to survive in the area. The largely unspoilt setting is enhanced by the presence of this rare building type.