James Orr’s Cottage, Manse Road, Ballycarry, Larne, Co Antrim

James Orr’s Cottage, located on Manse Road, Ballycarry, Larne, County Antrim, dates from between 1760 and 1779. Originally a thatched house, it is now used as outbuildings and is connected to a modern bungalow. The building is single-storey and features rendered, whitened walls and an asbestos slated roof. It has rectangular timber fixed windows with plate glass and a ledged timber door with a flush exterior surface. The cottage appears on an Ordnance Survey map from 1831. It is of local interest as the birthplace of James Orr (1770-1816), also known as ‘The Bard of Ballycarry,’ a weaver, small farmer, and participant in the 1798 rebellion. His poems were initially published in Belfast newspapers and are now found in collections of Irish verse, and he is commemorated by a memorial in the old graveyard at Templecorran old church in Ballycarry. The building is situated in a grassy garden in a rural area, to the rear of the modern bungalow. A photograph of the cottage in an earlier condition, with a thatched roof, is included in “Ballycarry in Olden Days” by A. Dowlin. The architectural style is vernacular.