Rosebank, 79 Raw Brae Road, Whitehead, Carrickfergus, Co.Antrim, BT38 9SZ

Rosebank is a detached three-bay two-storey late Victorian house built around 1890, situated on the north side of Raw Brae Road in Carrickfergus. The building remains largely unaltered and is considered one of the most significant rural buildings in the Whitehead area.

The house is rectangular on plan with a two-storey return to the rear and a single-storey extension to the east gable with flat roof. The pitched roof is finished in natural slate with blue and black clay ridge tiles, featuring three roof lights to the north face, deep overhanging eaves, and plain bargeboards. Smooth rendered gable chimneystacks with terracotta pots rise prominently. Ogee-profile cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout, with replacement cast-metal goods to the rear.

The walls are ruled-and-lined rendered with raised stepped chamfered quoins and a smooth rendered plinth. Windows are segmental-headed 1/1 timber sliding sashes with margin lights set within moulded surrounds and having painted masonry cills, except where otherwise noted.

The principal elevation faces south and contains a central entrance with a four-panelled timber door fitted with margined stained glass sidelights and fanlight recessed within channeled pilasters rising to a segmental-headed moulded archivolt and keystone. To the right of the entrance is a window; to the left is a canted bay with flat roof containing windows to each cheek, a continuous cill, and moulded cornice detail. The first floor has three windows, each contained within wall-head dormers with decoratively carved bargeboards and finials.

The left gable contains a single window to the left at ground floor and two windows at first floor. The rear elevation is abutted at its centre by a two-storey return detailed as the main block, with single windows at first floor to the right and left exposed sections; the stepped quoin detail does not continue to the rear elevation. The right gable is abutted by the extension at ground floor; the exposed section has two windows at first floor. The return north gable has a rendered chimney detailed as the main block and a single 2/2 sliding sash window at first floor without moulded surround detail.

The west elevation has two windows at ground floor: a replacement timber casement to the left and a 1/1 timber sliding sash to the right without margin lights. Two windows at first floor have no moulded surround detail. The east elevation has a single window at first floor; the extension south elevation contains a window to the left as the main block without moulded surround, and a diagonally sheeted timber garage door to the right. The east elevation of the extension is blank.

Set parallel to the road, the house is preserved within its original setting, accessed by a lane along the east boundary through alcoved entrance walls and cast-iron gates supported on square smooth rendered piers with pyramidal caps. The listing includes the house gates and gate screen.

Historical records show that a previous smaller building occupied the site, appearing on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832 and second edition map of 1857. Valuation Revisions record this earlier property as a house, office and land, owned by Isaac Creighton and leased from Robert Harte, with a valuation of £0.15s. By 1895 the building valuation had increased to £15, and by 1896 the occupier was listed as David Creighton. The current house first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902.