Templecorran House, 47 Manse Road, Ballycarry, Larne, Co Antrim, BT38 9HP

Templecorran House is an early 19th century two-storey house built in 1839 for the Presbyterian minister, Reverend John Stuart. It is constructed in a vernacular Georgian treatment of the classical style, displaying the characteristic proportions, details, and plan form associated with that style. It is the only medium-sized house of Georgian type to survive intact within the village area, giving it particular local interest. The house appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1858 but not on that of 1831.

The house is gabled with a symmetrical front, and the main entrance faces south. The south elevation is two storeys and three bays wide, with a central entrance. The walls are rendered in wet dash using crushed stones, a replacement from the 1980s for the original harling, with smooth cement render to the reveals of the openings. The roof is covered in Bangor Blue slates laid in regular courses between gable upstands with sandstone copings, with dark-toned ridge tiles. There are two chimneys, one on each gable, both rebuilt in rough-faced granite in narrow courses — the left-hand one rebuilt around the 1960s and the right-hand one completed around the 1980s. The eaves are overhanging on a projecting stone eaves course, with a metal gutter that replaced the original cast iron one around the 1980s but looks authentic.

The windows are rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, six over six panes, with horns — except that the horns are missing from the left-hand window on the first floor. All windows are original except the central first-floor window, which is a replacement from around the 1950s. All are glazed with putty and have projecting stone cills painted grey. The entrance is recessed within a segmental-headed opening and features a rectangular timber panelled door surmounted by a fanlight with looped and radial glazing bars, flanked by simulated sidelights. The rectangular timber surround to the door has stop chamfers and may be replacement woodwork. The door is six-panel with raised and fielded panels and is original, though the lower two panels are later replacements and lack mouldings. The brass ironmongery is presumably original. A modern metal bracket lamp sits above the door but is inconspicuous. Two wide sandstone steps with iron bootscrapers on each side are all original.

The west elevation shows the west gable to the right and the side wall of the rear return to the left. The west gable walling is rendered as the entrance front, with recessed sandstone kneelers and projecting sandstone copings that continue as a horizontal string course at the base of the chimney. There is one rectangular window, as elsewhere, at first-floor level, and one small semicircular-headed window to the attic: a timber sliding sash, vertically hung, four over four panes, with horns, and with a spandrel light to the upper sash. Reveals and cill are as elsewhere on the building, and there is a granite chimney to the apex. The side wall of the rear return is set back and is two storeys, with the roof slated as the main front. There is one chimney on the end gable, smooth cement rendered with a projecting string and weathered cap, and concrete flag copings to the gable upstand. The walling matches the entrance front with a projecting stone eaves course and metal gutter, plus a circular cast iron downpipe repaired at the bottom. There are two windows to each floor, rectangular timber sliding sashes, vertically hung, four over four panes, with horns and exposed frames. The first-floor windows have projecting stone cills; the ground-floor cills are thin concrete flags, replacements for the original slate cills. The frames themselves are replacements from the 1980s, but the original sashes have been re-used. The back door is a rectangular timber ledged door with a rectangular fanlight containing eight small panes. The doorstep is of modern concrete flags in two tiers. Extending to the left is a single-storey later addition, built of brick but rendered on this side to match the main house, with a corrugated asbestos roof on a projecting eaves course constructed with concrete cills, and two rectangular timber ledged doors. This later addition is excluded from the listing.

The north or rear elevation cannot be viewed in its entirety from a single point due to surrounding trees. It comprises the rear elevation of the main house with one window wide to each side of the projecting gable of the rear return. The central gable walling matches the rest of the building. There is one first-floor window with a semicircular head, a timber sliding sash detailed similarly to the attic window on the west gable. The ground floor of the return gable is obscured by the later addition, which has a brick end wall partly rough rendered and a monopitch roof as elsewhere, with three windows: a small fixed light to the left, a small top-hung casement to the right, and a vertically hung sliding sash of two over two panes without horns to the centre, all with recessed cills. To the right of the rear return, the rear elevation of the main house has a large rectangular timber window to each floor: six over six panes with horns in recessed frames at first-floor level, and twelve over twelve panes with horns in exposed frames at ground-floor level. The first-floor window has an original stone cill; the ground-floor cill has been replaced with concrete slabs. The roof is slated as the entrance front, with sandstone copings to the gable. To the left of the rear return, the rear wall of the main house has one window at first-floor level matching those on the entrance front. This section of roof is slated as the entrance front but has three modern flush rooflights, and the gable has sandstone copings. There is a metal gutter on the stone eaves course with a circular cast iron downpipe to the left-hand side.

The east elevation shows the east gable of the main block to the left and the side of the rear return to the right. The east gable walling matches the west gable, with the end of the entrance-front metal gutter returning at the left-hand side and a cast iron downpipe. There is a large rectangular timber window with a projecting sandstone cill at ground-floor level, a similar window at first-floor level, and a small semicircular-headed timber window to the attic, as on the west gable. The side wall of the rear return is two storeys and similar to the west side, but with two modern flush rooflights. There is a large semicircular stair window to the left-hand side: a timber sliding sash, vertically hung, four over four panes, with horns and a radial fanlight to the upper sash, in an exposed frame with a projecting sandstone cill. To the right-hand side there is one window to each floor, similar to the west side of the rear return with projecting concrete cills, painted. The east elevation of the extension to the rear return is single storey, with rubble stonework surmounted by brick courses and an overhanging corrugated perspex roof, with most of the wall hidden by overgrowth.

The house stands in a rural location in its own extensive grounds, set at right angles to the main road and set back from it, largely hidden from public view by surrounding trees. There is a stone gravel area to the front of the house and across the west gable, a tarmac area across the east gable, and modern concrete pavings to the rear at each side. To the front of the house is a sunken garden of curvilinear design, constructed of concrete retaining walls faced with granite.

The main entrance gateway consists of a pair of circular whitened rubble stone piers with a projecting slate string course to a roughly conical cap, with short whitened rubble stone screen walls curving forward from the piers with short returns to each side. On the left-hand side these extend into a dry stone front boundary wall to the main road, which is overgrown with creeper. There are no gates. At the north end of the front boundary is a larger rear entrance gateway to the outbuildings. This rear entrance has a pair of curving stone screen walls rendered as the main house, with concrete copings to the right-hand side and three regular courses of granite sets to the left-hand side, fitted with a pair of modern iron gates set deeply recessed. The left-hand screen wall abuts the west gable of a two-storey outbuilding directly on the main road, with a PVC downpipe at the junction. The outbuildings are of rubble stone with external steps to the east gable, a modern car port to the south side roofed with corrugated perspex set in a concrete area bounded by the curved screen wall of the rear entrance gateway, and a slated roof matching the main house. There are other detached outbuildings of no quality or interest. Between the outbuildings yard and the rear area of the house is a rubble stone wall of no special quality containing two gateways. The western gateway has a pair of wrought iron gates of traditional design but recent manufacture, mounted on square piers rendered as the house. The northern gateway has a single original gate of flat iron, mounted between the wall and a modern concrete pipe used as a pillar.