House at 53 Deerpark Road, Drumcrow, Glenarm, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0BH

House at 53 Deerpark Road, Drumcrow

This is a two-storey vernacular farm house dating from the 1840s-50s, located at the end of a long farm lane (170 metres) on the west side of Deerpark Road, roughly 5 miles south of Glenarm. The building forms part of a group of farm buildings. It is now largely abandoned but remains an excellent and rare surviving example of its type, having suffered little alteration despite entering disrepair.

The house appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857-58 but not on that of 1832-33, placing its construction within this period. Local tradition suggests it was built by a family called Robinson. Photographs believed to have been taken in 1903 show that the left-hand first-floor window to the front was originally positioned further to the right. The property was abandoned sometime after 1970.

The front elevation faces approximately north and is roughly symmetrical. At its centre stands a projecting gabled single-storey porch, which cuts across much to the first-floor level. The porch's front gable bears a timber-sheeted door with a three-pane fanlight. To the east and west of the porch are Georgian-paned sash windows (both 6/3). To the left of the porch is a tripartite window at both ground and first-floor levels (1/1, 1/1, 1/1 configuration, with the side margins fixed rather than sash). To the right of the porch is a Georgian-paned sash to the ground floor (6/6) and first floor (6/3). To the far right, a long attached lean-to outbuilding leans to the west gable of the house. The north face of this outbuilding is flush with the front elevation of the main house and has a timber-sheeted door at its far right. The west face of the lean-to has three timber-sheeted doors of differing sizes. The gable of the two-storey section rises above the lean-to and is blank. The east gable is also blank.

The south elevation features a single-storey gabled return at its centre. The gable and west face of this return are blank. The east face contains a door opening to the right. To the left of the return is a plain sash window to the ground floor and a modern top-hung window to the first floor. To the right of the return is a tripartite window matching the front arrangement at ground-floor level and a plain sash to the first floor.

The external walls are mainly whitewashed random rubble, with the upper portion of the south gable finished in plain render. The roof is covered in plain natural slate with cast iron rainwater goods. Three plain rendered chimneystacks serve the gables.