65 Cushleake Road, Cushendun, Ballymena, Co. Antrim, BT44

65 Cushleake Road, Cushendun

A detached single-storey rubblestone dwelling built around 1830, located in the townland of Cushleake Mountain South on an elevated site on the north side of Cushleake Road. This is a rare example of a modest vernacular farmhouse, notable for retaining its original form, outbuildings, and many external features within a relatively unaltered rural setting.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing south-east, with a pitched natural slate roof topped with black clay ridge tiles. A single iron rooflight sits on the front pitch, and two rendered chimneystacks rise from the roof. Cast-iron guttering is fixed on iron drive-through brackets, with cast-iron downpipes. The walls are whitewashed render over rubblestone.

The four-bay east front elevation features square-headed window openings with concrete sills and replacement top-hung timber casement windows. An off-centre flat-roofed square-plan projecting entrance porch with corrugated iron roof provides the main access. To the left of the porch is a diminutive square-headed window opening with a fixed-pane timber-framed window. Two square-headed door openings are present: one with a vertically-sheeted timber half door featuring a small light to the upper half, and another with a half-glazed sheeted timber door. The south-west gable is blind with concrete coping and has a small lean-to extension with corrugated iron roof. A small animal pen enclosed by rubblestone wall and iron railing with matching gate adjoins to the right.

The three-bay rear elevation has lean-to extensions to the north-east and south-west. The north gable is abutted by a lean-to rubblestone byre with corrugated iron roof and a square-headed vehicular opening with double-leaf timber sheeted doors.

The site is set on elevated ground with a small rubblestone outbuilding to the south-west, featuring a corrugated iron roof and vertically-sheeted timber door. A grass driveway descends southwards to the road, with a replacement steel gate hung on a square masonry post and timber fence.

Historical Development

The building first appears on the 1832 First Edition Ordnance Survey map in its current rectangular layout. The 1834 Townland Valuations did not record the farmhouse, as its value fell below the £3 per annum threshold required for inclusion. The 1857 Second Edition Ordnance Survey map shows the site with little alteration. The 1859 Griffiths Valuation assigned a rateable value of £2 and recorded that the property was leased by James Robert White of Whitehall Broughshane to John McQuilty, a local farmer. By around 1872, ownership had passed to the estate of General Sir George White. Occupants changed frequently over subsequent decades.

By 1901, the property was inhabited by Andrew McClintock, employed as a gamekeeper by the White estate. The 1901 Census building return described it as a second-class dwelling with a slate roof and three rooms. The Third Edition Ordnance Survey map (1903-04) confirms that the rubblestone outbuilding to the west had been constructed by the turn of the century. Under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57), the value was raised slightly to £2 and 10 shillings. The McClintock family remained at the site until at least the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72), when the occupant was recorded as A. McClintock and the value stood at £2.

By the time of the field inspection conducted as part of the Second Survey, the building was no longer occupied. Its original function as a farmhouse has been superseded by a modern dwelling to its south-east, and the original vernacular dwelling is now maintained as an outbuilding.