Roselawn Cottage, 48 Middle Road, Islandmagee, Larne, Co Antrim, BT40 3SL

Roselawn Cottage is a rare example of vernacular architecture that retains its original external appearance. The building comprises a single storey thatched cottage with a lower slated wing extending to the west.

The main cottage has its entrance facing south. The south front displays four openings: two windows to the left of the doorway and one to the right. Two unmoulded chimneys, rendered and painted white, rise from the roof, one fitted with a modern terracotta pot and cowl. The thatch roof sits between gable upstands. The windows are timber sliding sashes, vertically hung with horns and a single horizontal glazing bar to each sash, creating a 2 over 2 arrangement; these are replacements from around 1987. The door is a timber ledged half-door type, also replaced around 1987. The walls are rendered over stone with an uneven surface, painted white, and topped with humped cement copings at the gables. The wall plane is canted toward the left hand end. The roof timberwork is modern.

The lower wing to the left is set back marginally from the front wall of the cottage and has similar rendered walling. Two windows in the same style as those on the main cottage face south. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates in regular courses with grey ridge tiles, all replacement; there is no gutter or downpipe. The end gable of the extension is plain. The north elevation of the extension is blank except for a cast iron soil pipe, and the roof slates are cut at an angle at the eaves to follow the canted wall plane.

The north elevation of the thatched cottage has four windows: three small and one large, all matching the previous style. The east gable has one similar window. A notable feature is a large projecting stone at the base of the south east corner. The external thatch covering is inappropriate for its vernacular character, featuring a block ridge and square cut eaves in an English style (as of March 2000).

The house stands well back from the main road, positioned at right angles to it. Later houses have been built around it, and a modern brick boundary wall of an adjoining garden is set tight against the west end, somewhat spoiling its originally rural setting. There is a concrete area in front and a grassed lawn to the rear.

A building is shown on this site on the Ordnance Survey map of 1831/32, though it does not appear in the contemporary valuation. It is recorded in the second valuation of 1860, with Mary Colwell listed as the occupant, Colonel Charles P. Leslie as the immediate lessor, and a rateable value of £1 5 shillings. According to the present owner, the property was reputedly originally a forge, then converted to a school, and subsequently to a house. The extension was originally a byre. The house was re-thatched in 1987 using Norfolk reeds sourced through Scotland, with the ridge completed in wheat.