20 Scroggy Road, Carnkilly Lower, Glenavy, Crumlin, Co. Antrim, BT28 2EZ

20 Scroggy Road, Carnkilly Lower, Glenavy

A two-storey, three-bay, direct entry part thatched house of random rubble construction, heavily patched in places. The building faces south-west overlooking a small forecourt that borders a minor road leading north from Ballinderry station to Glenavy, situated about one and a half miles from the latter village.

The thatch covering extends across the two left-hand (north-west) bays and terminates in a cement gable. Two rows of scallops are exposed at the ridge and one at the eaves. The remaining bay is covered with cement fibre slates finished with a timber bargeboard and fascias. The ridge is of red clay tiles. Red brick corbelled chimneystacks rise on either gable and at the intersection of the roof coverings; that on the left is provided with two pots.

The entrance door is finished with plywood sheeting and has an elliptical glazed opening, set in a formless cement surround. There are five 3/6 vertically sliding windows—two at each level flanking the door and one above—with exposed framing and small sash stops. The openings are spanned by stone voussoirs and sills are of traditional depths apart from that over the entrance, which is narrower. There are no openings in the gables.

At the rear, the thatched section is lighted by a pair of vertically sliding windows with single pane upper sashes and lower sashes divided into two horizontally, with a red brick surround. Above this is a 3/6 vertically sliding window similar to those at the front. The lower window of the slated part is a 3x2 casement and the upper window is either blocked or obscured by vegetation. A corrugated iron roofed rendered annex abuts the right-hand (south-east) gable, divided laterally with the rear portion having been used as a byre.

A building is shown on this site on Ordnance Survey maps of 1832 and 1857, though it is considerably smaller than the present structure. The property is recorded in the valuation of around 1860, when it was rated at £2-10-0 and occupied by John Mallon, who leased it from the Marquis of Hertford's estate. The relatively low rateable value suggests the building may have been raised to its present two-storey form sometime after this date. The layout and basic detailing are virtually intact. Raising and slating has formed a normal progression in the development of vernacular buildings, and it is not unusual for only a section to be treated in this way. In its original form, the house was of at least early 19th-century date but could be much older. A building of similar configuration situated nearby at Feumore was de-listed on 31 March 1987 and has since been demolished.