Glenburn House And Gate Screen, Ballyemon Road, Cushendall, Co.Antrim

Glenburn House and Gate Screen

Glenburn House is a detached, symmetrical four-bay single-storey house with attic, built around 1887. It stands on elevated ground on the north-west side of Ballyemon Road, one kilometre south-west of Cushendall in the townland of Killoughag. The building is currently derelict and substantially overgrown.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing south-east. It has a pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and rendered chimnestacks rising from both gable ends, topped with lipped clay pots. The eaves overhang and are supported by two timber brackets on the north-east elevation. Rainwater goods are UPVC.

The walls are constructed of flint-dashed cement render with a smooth rendered plinth course. Windows are square-headed with painted stone sills; the original windows are 6/6 sliding timber sash windows with slender horns and exposed sash boxes. The symmetrical south-east front elevation features a central square-headed door opening with a replacement hardwood glazed doorcase, though the door itself is missing. The gabled south-west elevation has three ground-floor windows and two attic windows. The gabled north-east elevation mirrors the south-west side. The rear elevation is inaccessible.

The house sits on its own grounds, set back from Ballyemon Road and accessed via a winding driveway that crosses a small river. A rear yard is enclosed by rendered walls with double-leaf wrought-iron gates hung on rendered piers. A two-storey rendered building with slate roof stands to the west, fitted with various UPVC or timber casement windows.

The building was originally known as Burnside farmhouse. It was first recorded in 1887 at a rateable value of £6, leased by Charles Lepper of Glenville House to the Reverend William Christie, curate at Layde Parish Church. The Reverend Christie departed around 1892, when the property passed to James Park Cinnamond, manager of Cushendall's Northern Bank Branch. Around 1898, it was taken over by Alexander McKillop, a local farmer. The 1911 Census of Ireland classified it as a first-class dwelling of six rooms, with associated outbuildings including a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, fowl house, barn and turf house. The property was purchased outright by the McKillop family. Daniel McKillop, the son of Alexander, was recorded as occupier in the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57), when the site's rateable value increased to £7 and 5 shillings. He remained recorded as occupant at the Second General Revaluation (1956-72), at which point the value stood at £13 and 15 shillings. The third-edition Ordnance Survey map (1903-04) recorded the farmhouse with its current layout, depicting the main dwelling and a single-storey outbuilding to the north, plus a second outbuilding to the north-west that was later replaced by a modern barn in the late twentieth century.

A 1972 Ulster Architectural Heritage Society guide described Glenburn House as an excellent and unexpected large farmhouse of single-storey and attic construction, whitewashed with five bays, though featuring five tall windows crammed into the gable-end in a Russian or Bavarian manner, with complete Georgian glazing-bars throughout. The house was listed in 1976. Records indicate that Glenburn House underwent extensive renovation around 1999, which included reslating of the roof, renewal of window frames and installation of new doors, though the current derelict condition suggests the building has since fallen into disrepair.