5 Coastguard Cottages, Ballygalley, Larne, Co Antrim, BT40 2QY

5 Coastguard Cottages, Ballygalley, is a single-storey former coastguard cottage built in 1873 as part of a terrace of five similar cottages designed by Belfast architect William Gray. It is constructed in red brick with sandstone dressings in a mixed Victorian style, retaining original character and most original features on its entrance front.

The cottage is laid out on an L-shaped plan with a projecting porch set in the angle with the front return to the right. The main entrance, which faces north-east, has a four-opening entrance facade. The porch is flat-roofed with a recessed central doorway set in a segmental arch of buff sandstone. The original segmental-headed panelled wooden door, dark stained, remains though there is a modern replacement; a buff sandstone blocking course sits above. The side wall of the porch contains two windows set in coupled round red sandstone heads with semi-circular headed timber fixed lights, single-pane with reeded glass in the right-hand light, red sandstone cills, and a cast iron downpipe.

To the left of the porch, the front wall has one window wide: rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 6 over 6 with horns, painted white, set under a flat arch head in red sandstone with buff keystone and red sandstone cill. The wall stands on a rubble blackstone plinth with red sandstone weathering. To the right of the porch, the front return wall mirrors the left side, with two windows symmetrically arranged around the central axis through the ridge of the hipped roof. The first window to the right is a rectangular sliding sash matching that to the left. The second window to the right is a semi-circular headed timber sliding sash, vertically hung with horns and one horizontal glazing bar in each sash, set in a semi-circular red sandstone arch with buff keystone.

The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses with an oversailing sandstone eaves course and PVC guttering. Chimneys are positioned at the extremities: to the left just behind the ridge, one chimney is coupled with one of the adjoining house in moulded red brick with cream earthenware pot, original; to the right at the cross ridge of the return, a shared chimney with the adjoining house to the right in moulded red brick with sandstone weathering to the base and a projecting string course, with cream earthenware pots, original.

The rear facade has original rear walling one window wide constructed of basalt with brick dressings, later painted red, containing a rectangular window with timber fixed light and top-hung vent-light, now a modern replacement. To the left is a later flat-roofed bay in the corner with the rear return, smooth rendered with rectangular wooden fixed lights and a flush door with large glazed panel, a modern addition. The rear return is of basalt rubble with a cement rendered portion. Lean-to roofs, slated to match the front, include a modern cylindrical boiler house flue. PVC windows and modern replacements are present, as are PVC gutters and downpipes. A small yard floored in concrete lies to the rear.

The house forms part of a terrace of five similar cottages and one two-storey house, all set back a short distance from the main road facing the sea. In front is a communal area, part gravelled and part grassed, with a low stone front boundary wall of rubble basalt. The cottages first appear on the Ordnance Survey map of 1903.