Oatland Cottage, 6 Lower Ballinderry Road, Upper Ballinderry, County Antrim, BT28 2EP

Oatland Cottage is a Grade B1 listed building comprising a Georgian single-storey cottage erected around 1800, with an Edwardian first floor added around 1905 to designs by William Fennel. The house is located centrally in Upper Ballinderry on the north side of Lower Ballinderry Road, adjacent to listed structure HB19/01/042.

The building has a rectangular plan form with two long one-and-a-half storey returns to the rear, flanking a central gabled abutment. The pitched natural slate roof is fitted with crested terracotta ridge tiles, exposed decorative rafter-ends, timber barge-boards with simple mouldings, and ogee moulded cast-iron guttering with box section down-pipes and semi-octagonal hopper-heads. Chimneys are replacement red-brick.

The ground floor walls are constructed from galletted coursed basalt walling, while the first floor features dry-dash with timber-frame style gables. A moulded string course runs between the floors, possibly representing a former eaves detail. Long-and-short quoins and a plinth course complete the walling.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged. At ground floor are 6/6 timber sliding sash windows without horns, surrounded by rough red-brick that has been painted to appear more regular, with large rectangular masonry cills. The first floor windows are bi-partite segmental arched steel framed casements with single-brick segmental arched heads and masonry cills with associated timber louvered shutters. A timber four-panelled front door flanked by decorative side-lights is preceded by four Ionic columns rising to cornice level and surmounted by an elliptical arched bat-wing fanlight. The front porch is an elaborate 20th century brick and timber framed glazed structure with decorative coloured and etched glazing to the gable ends, centrally located at ground floor with two windows either side. The first floor features six windows with two at either side directly over the ground floor openings, and a pair closely positioned in the central bay which rises to a gable above.

The left gable is symmetrically arranged with a central ground floor window and a tri-partite window comprising a 2/1 sash flanked by 4/1 timber sliding sashes, which replaced an earlier oriel bay around 1960.

The rear elevation is abutted by two long one-and-a-half storey gable-ended returns flanking a central gabled abutment. The central single-bay return comprises a door set into a round-headed arched opening with a fanlight over, flanked by two elongated rectangular windows at ground floor and a pair of camber-headed 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with leaded and stained glass. The right-hand return is three bays deep and principally matches the front façade details. The west face comprises three ground floor windows and three first floor dormers embracing 1/1 camber-headed timber sliding sash windows.

The north face has a single centrally positioned matching 1/1 timber sash window to first floor, with the ground floor further abutted by a single-storey lean-to outbuilding. The east face is rendered with two enlarged tri-partite timber casement windows to ground floor and a pair of dormers embracing 2/2 camber-headed timber sliding sash windows with horizontal glazing bars. The first floor was raised in 1998 and comprises three uPVC double-glazed windows. The rendered gable end is asymmetrically arranged with a large tri-partite ground floor window and a diminished first floor window right of centre. The rendered west face comprises a rear door located right of centre with a bi-partite timber casement window to the right and a matching tri-partite window to the left, with two 2/2 timber sliding sash windows with horizontal glazing bars to the first floor.

The house is well secluded from public view, largely screened by tall mature trees bounding the site to the front. The site is accessed via wrought-iron gates and robust chamfered piers with plinth and cornice surmounted by a reeded cap, adjoining a curved low-rise matching parapet wall. Gardens to the south, east and west comprise lawns and mature trees.

To the north is a courtyard enclosed with an asymmetrical two-storey galletted-rubble outbuilding with red-brick surrounds, hipped natural slate roof with clay hip and ridge tiles, timber fixed and casement windows with astragals, steel framed roof lights, and timber sheeted doors including an elliptical-arched coach entrance. The roof was raised by two brick-courses around 2000. A single-storey mono-pitch stable block with clay-tile roof and matching stonework, both possibly dating from the same period as the original cottage, was also re-roofed around 2000. Beyond the immediate surroundings is a wooded area with a small pond. To the north east is a basalt walled garden. Lamp standards are positioned on the front lawn.