Carey House, 142 Cushendall Road, Ballyvoy, Ballycastle, Co Antrim, BT54 6RN

Carey House is a detached Edwardian-style two-storey house built in 1908 and designed by Assistant County Surveyor Thomas J.O. Neill. The building is asymmetrically composed with a two-storey rear return to the north and a single-storey access porch to the side (west). It is approached via a compacted hardcore drive with outbuildings to the north and west, set back from Cushendall Road on flat ground. The land to the rear falls steeply northwards into the Carey River valley and open countryside beyond.

The exterior walls are roughcast render above an ogee-topped base plinth with smooth render plasterwork, detailed window surrounds and rusticated quoins. Main roofs are natural slate with looped terracotta ridge tiles and end finials. Minor roofs use terracotta tiles with looped terracotta ridge. The east-facing roof portion has a stepped and corbelled brick chimney stack with four circular clay pots, while the west portion has a smaller straight chimney stack with two pots. Bargeboards are painted timber, and rainwater goods are cast iron with half-round gutters and round-profile downpipes. Some timber sash windows have finely detailed margin-pane windows while others are plain; some windows have been replaced with timber windows that replicate the appearance of originals.

The principal elevation (south) is asymmetrically composed around a central square-headed doorway with a freestanding porch. The entrance contains a painted eight-panel timber door with a multi-pane transom window above. The porch has terracotta tiles, ridge and ornate finial on a square concrete base with fluted architrave. To the right of the entrance, a raised gable roof dominates the composition, with a tripartite window arrangement at first-floor level and a canted bay window on the ground floor. The canted bay has one-over-one timber sash windows to either side with margin-pane windows. The first-floor arrangement contains a two-over-two timber sash window flanked by two one-over-one sash windows, with raised plasterwork panel-detailing ornamenting the upper gable. To the left of the entrance at ground floor are a pair of one-over-one timber sash windows with margin-pane windows in the upper sash. At first-floor level, a pair of windows without margin windows sit within a raised parapet dormer with ornate plaster detailing. A flat render stringcourse runs at first-floor window-cill level, with a second moulded band at eaves level of the bay window.

The west elevation has an irregular gable roof (shallower pitched and longer to the north) continuing as a flush rear-return. A single-storey porch sits slightly off-centre with a slate gable roof, terracotta loophole ridge tiles and ornate end-finial, containing a single-pane window to the south and a square-headed doorway with a six-panel timber door to the north. At ground level north of the porch is a one-over-one timber sash window with margin-pane windows top and bottom. A second one-over-one plain timber sash window sits south of the porch. Above the first-floor cill band are two differently sized one-over-one timber sash windows without margin windows. A large six-panel stained-glass window illuminates the staircase, with each panel having a rectilinear sub-division pattern mirroring the margin-pane window detailing.

The rear elevation (north) comprises two gables. The western gable steps out in plan as a two-storey rear-return with a shallower roof pitch. This return has two one-over-one timber sliding sash windows at ground level and two further ones at first-floor level, all differently sized and asymmetrically placed. The eastern gable has two one-over-one timber sliding sash windows at first-floor level and is blank at ground floor, though bearing evidence of a now-demolished slate-hipped-roof single-storey structure that once occupied the re-entrant corner. All three external corners have heavily rusticated corbelling.

The east elevation features a single-storey canted bay entrance porch at the northern end and a centrally positioned broad stepping-in brick chimney stack dominating the roof. The walls are roughcast within rusticated corner corbelling, a moulded base plinth, split by a moulded band at bay window eaves level and a flat render string course at first-floor window-cill level. At first floor are two one-over-one timber sliding sash windows. At ground floor's southern end is a single one-over-one timber sliding sash window; at the northern end a canted-bay entrance porch has a hipped terracotta tile roof with one-over-one timber sash windows on either side complete with margin-pane windows in the upper top sashes, and centrally a two-leaf glazed timber door with a transom window above subdivided to match the margin-pane detailing. The east-facing elevation of the rear return has a two-pane timber casement window at first floor and a one-over-one timber sash window placed slightly lower. At ground floor is a set of replacement timber double doors, each leaf having a solid lower panel and glazed upper panel subdivided to mirror the margin-pane window detailing.