1-6 Shiels Houses, Larne Road, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim BT38 7EA

This is a detached, two-bay, single-storey vernacular house built around 1850 on the south side of Backfarm Road in Carrickfergus, County Antrim. It is a direct-entry plan form, a type of design common to the area. The house is rectangular, facing east, with a windbreaker porch to the east and a bed outshot projecting to the west. It is of local interest, but not an exceptional example of its type.

The roof is pitched and covered with corrugated iron, featuring metal ridge caps. Chimneystacks of random rubble basalt, rendered on the south side, rise from the gable ends. The walls are random rubble construction, with traces of lime render. The windows are square-headed, painted timber 2/2 sash windows with stone sills. The principal, east-facing elevation features a rubble stone catslide windbreaker porch centered between two windows, one on either side. The window to the left is a replacement casement. The south gable is adjacent to an attached outbuilding. The rear, west-facing elevation is blank, with the catslide bed outshot projecting off-centre. The north gable is also blank, displaying a faint outline where a gabled outbuilding, with a lower ridge, was recently demolished.

The house is accessed via an earth drive and sits within a site overgrown with mature trees and shrubs to the south, southeast, southwest, and west. An attached outbuilding stands to the south; it has a square-headed entrance opening on its east elevation, a blank south gable, and a partially collapsed west elevation. The roof is corrugated iron.

The property first appeared on the Ordnance Survey map of 1854. Griffith’s Valuation of 1858 describes a "house, offices and land" valued at 15 shillings, occupied by James McCusker and leased from Samuel Galbraith. Subsequent Valuation Revisions show no significant changes beyond changes in occupants.