Old ('cruck') house at 77 Straid Road, Ballyminstra, Ahoghill, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT42 2JQ

Old cruck-built house at 77 Straid Road, Ballyminstra, Ahoghill

This is a fine, long, one-and-a-half storey cruck-built vernacular house of possible 1600s origin, now with corrugated iron covering the thatch roof and roughcast façade. The property sits at the end of a lane to the south of Straid Road, roughly one mile south-east of Ahoghill. A large two-storey house, built in the mid to later 1990s, stands a short distance to the east.

The long front elevation faces roughly east. To the left of centre is the front entrance, which has a plain timber sheeted door no longer in use; the house is now entered via the rear door. To the left of the door are two relatively small plain sash windows set at marginally differing levels, with that to the right slightly higher. To the right of the doorway are five further roughly similar-sized windows, unevenly spaced and set at marginally differing heights, with the two to the far right noticeably lower. All these windows have sash frames. The second and third windows have much smaller upper sashes, and the fourth window has Georgian panes in a 6-over-6 pattern. The first window is marginally bigger than the rest. The south gable has a small sash window at upper level to the right, with two more at the upper level on the north gable.

On the rear elevation, to the left of centre is a timber sheeted (tongue and groove) door. To its left are two windows as on the front, with that to the far left marginally larger and set at a marginally lower level. Further to the left are three additional windows, unevenly spaced. The window to the left has a sash frame; those to its right are boarded up. Directly above the doorway is a tiny upper-level window with sash frame, with another to the right directly above another window. The whole façade is finished in unpainted roughcast with a smooth cement surround to the front entrance.

The gabled roof has a steep pitch and is covered in corrugated iron, though the thatch remains in place underneath. There is a cement-rendered parapet to the south gable. Three unevenly spaced brick chimneystacks are present—two to the gables and one to the south of centre of the ridge—all now in very poor condition. Odd remains of cast iron guttering survive. There are the remains of a small garden to the east of the house, with a portal dolmen a few metres to the south-west.

The cruck method of construction is a traditional building technique used throughout Ireland and much of the British Isles since medieval times. Dr Philip Robinson of the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum has stated that the particular type of cruck used in this house was prevalent in the 17th century; however, in the absence of dendrochronology tests, the building's age remains uncertain. The presence of a portal dolmen next to the building could suggest that this site has been occupied since well before the 1600s. The property is probably pre-1830 and is undoubtedly that shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. It is not noted in the near-contemporary first valuation returns (it was under rateable value) but is recorded in that of circa 1860, when it was leased by William Houghan from the O'Neill estate at Shane's Castle. It remained with the Houghan family until the 1950s, when it was acquired by the family of the present owner.

According to the current owner, the corrugated metal sheeting was placed over the thatch circa 1925–30, and it is probable that the present fireplaces and brick chimneystacks date from a similar period. The large house to the west was built in the mid to later 1990s.