10 Beach Road, Whitehead, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38 9QS

An attached end-of-terrace three-bay two-storey former Captain's house, part of the former Coastguard station, built in 1870. The building is located on the west side of Beach Road on an elevated site with views towards Belfast Lough, ideally positioned for its original maritime purpose.

The Captain's house is the grander of the terrace. It is L-shaped on plan. The walls are ruled-and-lined rendered with a rendered plinth, though this finish is not original—the building was originally brickwork, as shown in early photographs. There is a smooth render to the rear elevation and a sandstone sill course at first-floor level. The roof is half-hipped and naturally slated, with timber bargeboards and a red brick corbelled chimney to the party wall and rear pitch. Half-round cast-iron gutters run the length of the building.

The principal elevation faces east and contains a recessed bay to the left with a replacement square-headed uPVC entrance door with transom light and vermiculated sandstone surround, accessed by two concrete steps. A small square timber-framed casement window sits to the left, with two further bays to the right, each containing a window at ground and first-floor levels. Windows throughout are partly segmental-headed replacement uPVC casements and partly timber sliding sash windows, all with vermiculated sandstone surrounds and painted masonry sills.

The south elevation contains, at left, a square timber-framed casement window at ground floor surmounted by a timber-framed 1/1 sliding sash window at first floor. A triangular oriel timber-framed window with leaded roof and corbelled bracket support sits to the right at first floor, with diagonal timber aproning to its underside.

The west elevation contains a central timber vertically sheeted half door with transom light. Timber-framed 6/6 sliding sash windows flank this door at both floors to the left and at ground floor to the right. A triangular oriel window identical to that on the south elevation is positioned above. Gunports are visible to the underside. The north elevation is abutted by the adjacent building HB22/06/011H.

The building retains many original features including musket loops and oriel windows. Early photographs suggest that entrances to the shore side (east) were added in the latter half of the twentieth century. A passage is said to have formerly run the length of the terrace from the Captain's house to a fortified watchtower, aiding freedom of movement between cottages in case of attack—a theory reinforced by the gunports and musket loops present throughout the terrace.

The building sits within its own grounds with access to the south-east through vermiculated square sandstone gate pillars. A car park and modern garages sit to the north-west, with an enclosed yard to the west. Rubble boundary walls enclose the south and west sides.

The Coastguard service at Whitehead was established in 1820–21, originally listed as being at Black Head. An earlier group of Coastguard cottages occupied Marine Parade, recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832. The terrace of which this house forms part was built in 1870 to replace those cottages, at a cost of £1,732 18s 2d. It was designed to accommodate a chief boatman and five coastguards. The current Coastguard Station on Beach Road first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902.

The cottages formed part of an extensive series of stations erected in the mid-nineteenth century around the coastline of Antrim and Ireland. The Coastguard was administered by the Admiralty as a naval force maintained to suppress smuggling, aid shipwrecked vessels, and serve as a reserve to the navy. A December 1871 letter from D. Hornby, Secretary of the Office of Public Works, to William Gray in Belfast records that the Admiralty had been requested to authorise the proper officer of the Coastguard to take possession of the new buildings at Whitehead once final works by the contractor were complete.

Valuation records show the Coast Guard Station, house and garden valued at £20 in the 1864–1879 revisions. An 1880s note records 'there is no chief officer's house here', and an 1914 entry notes one house vacant since January 1911 with a value of £3.

Comprehensive renovation of the terrace, including replacement windows, doors, and kitchen extensions, was carried out between 1986 and 1989. The building is located within a conservation area and is in private ownership.