Woodbine Cottage, 44 Middle Road, Islandmagee, Larne, Co Antrim, BT40 3SL

Woodbine Cottage is a single storey thatched vernacular cottage built around 1820, representing a good example of a now-rare building type. It retains its original layout, roof timbers, and window shapes, and occupies a prominent roadside position making it highly visible within the local landscape.

The cottage is oriented with its main south facade facing the road, comprising three openings: a central doorway flanked by windows on either side. The entrance is enclosed in a 1970s porch with low concrete block walls rendered and painted white, timber-framed glazing above, and an asphalt roof with PVC gutter. The main entrance door is timber panelled and glazed with translucent glass. The window to the left is a timber sliding sash with vertical hung 1 over 1 sashes with horns, though now fixed in position due to an inserted extractor fan in the upper pane; it has a painted stone cill. The window to the right is a timber fixed light with a top-hung vent. The main walls are rendered and painted white. The roof is thatched with reeds.

A single storey extension abuts the west gable, with walls and roof stepping back from the main block. The extension has two windows in its south wall: a timber casement with painted stone cill, and a small top-hung timber window set in a previously blocked opening. The extension roof is covered with fibre cement slate in regular courses to a very shallow pitch, a 1997 replacement for an earlier corrugated iron roof, and has a varnished wooden fascia. The west gable of the main cottage, rising above the extension roof, has one small loft window: a timber sliding sash with vertical hung 1 over 1 sashes, now enclosed within protective outer glass. The west wall of the extension has two timber fixed lights with top-hung vents.

The rear elevation has two windows: to the left, a white painted timber fixed light below a top-hung vent dating to around 1950, with plain reveals and no cill; to the right, a similar window of more recent date around 1995. A third similar window is located in the extension. The east gable is plain with a square-plan chimney at its apex featuring a projecting string course, whitened as the walls, and topped with a twentieth-century terracotta pot.

A low rendered and painted boundary wall projects forward from the left hand side and returns to the south, with an ornamental wrought iron gate leading down steps to a concrete area in front of the cottage entrance, where the floor level sits below road level. The roof timberwork is original to the building.

The cottage stands in a rural location at right angles to the main road, with its east gable against the footpath. A small front garden adjoins the property, with a larger garden to the rear. Its roadside siting makes it the most readily visible thatched cottage in the area.

Historical records show a building on this site in the Ordnance Survey maps of 1831/32 and 1857. The property does not appear in the 1830s valuation but is recorded in the 1860 valuation with an occupant named James Lawse and a rateable value of 15 shillings, with the immediate lessor listed as Colonel Charles P. Leslie. According to the present owner, the house was built for one of her ancestors around 1820, with a front porch added around 1920 and the interior refurbished around 1950. The building was re-thatched in 1994 by George Topping of the Thatch Advisory Service.