58 High Street, Carnlough, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0EP

58 High Street, Carnlough, is a two-storey gabled house dating from the mid-18th century, probably built between 1760 and 1779. It appears on the 1832 Ordnance Survey map and is known to have been occupied in the late 18th century by Philip Gibbons, a sea captain who married the daughter of the Earl of Antrim's agent in Glenarm around 1788. Gibbons settled in Carnlough and constructed a small stone quay or pier just north of the village before his death in 1815. The building stands as a structure of local historical interest, though it has undergone refurbishment that has resulted in the loss of some original architectural features and character.

The house comprises a long rectangular main block with a large two-storey half octagonal canted projection to the east containing the main entrance. The roof is covered with Bangor blue slates in regular courses with dark-toned ridge tiles between gable copings. Three chimneys are present: one on each end gable and one centrally positioned on the main ridge, all smooth cement rendered with plain block cornices and black pots.

The entrance elevation walls are rendered with wet dash of crushed stones on a recessed plinth with keyed finish, except at the left-hand end bay where there is an outbuilding separate from the main house interiors but with continuous roof and wall planes; this outbuilding bay is of rubble stonework lightly coated in cement wash. The main house has one window bay to the right of the entrance bay, is two windows wide to the left of it, and has further unglazed window openings in the end bay to the left. Windows are rectangular PVC fixed lights with top-hung vents set in slightly raised smooth cement rendered surrounds with thin modern concrete cills. One window is set to each floor in the angled faces of the entrance bay on each side of the entrance. The end bay to the south has one open window opening to the first floor containing part of a derelict previous window frame, and one open window opening to the ground floor with a partly blocked-up doorway opening to the left. The canted projection has a hipped roof slated as the main roof, with metal flashings to ridges and is surmounted by a chimney, rendered as the others, with one black pot. The main entrance in the ground floor of the front bay is a rectangular opening set in a slightly raised smooth rendered surround with a pedimental top; it is currently fitted with a temporary flush timber door that is not full size.

The south gable presents a blank wall of basalt rubble and fieldstones with some limestone included, surmounted by a chimney at the apex; the chimney is of concrete blockwork unrendered to the south side.

The rear elevation shows the main house is four windows wide to the first floor, with one further opening in the end bay to the right. A modern gabled single-storey projection is positioned at the right-hand end of the main house portion. The roof of the main block is slated as the front, and moulded gutters match those to the entrance front. The wall is cement rendered with keyed finish. The end bay to the right is of basalt rubble and fieldstones, partly whitened, with some brickwork and fireclay dressings to an open doorway; the old doorway lintel is of timber. Windows of the main house match those on the entrance front, but most are boarded up. Part of the rear wall is broken open to reveal an original large boulder core. The later rear return is of modern rectangular blockwork with a low-pitched slated roof and timber eaves boards; the return is unfinished with a large rectangular picture window to the gable and a rectangular doorway in the north side lying open.

The north gable wall is rendered as the entrance front, with a smooth rendered chimney at the apex. Two windows are positioned to the ground floor and one to the attic with similar surrounds to those on the entrance front, but the ground floor windows are boarded up and the attic window is open and unglazed.

Prior to the refurbishment undertaken in the early 1990s, the house was recorded in the first survey in 1970 as being badly run down. At that time it was described as having harled and whitened stone walls, a rectangular fanlight with patterned glazing bars, and sashed windows with full glazing bars; the windows were sashed 6 over 6.

The building stands within the built-up area of the village facing onto High Street. The doorway in the entrance bay opens directly onto the road without pavement, but the main block is set back from it with a small roughly grassed open patch in the angle to the north of the entrance bay and a small garden to the left of the entrance bay. The front garden, bounded to the south by the gable of an adjoining house and to the front by a stone wall, is overgrown. To the rear is a roughly grassed plot with a yard area to the north side of the house, approached by a gateway between the north gable and the front boundary wall to the side yard area, closed by a temporary tubular steel gate. The north boundary is formed by a concrete post and wire fence; the rear boundary is formed by modern timber palisading on a concrete block base; the south boundary at the rear is formed by a basalt fieldstone and limestone rubble wall, overgrown with creeper.

The front garden wall to the south of the main entrance consists of basalt fieldstones and rubble and limestone rubble, roughly covered with old lime render, with some coping stones of basalt fieldstones still remaining. The wall ramps up at its north end to a concrete post and steps up at the south end where it curves back to abut the neighbouring house. The wall to the front of the side yard at the north of the house consists of rubble masonry containing basalt, limestone, concrete and what appears to be green schist, roughly lime rendered. A large square rubble pier is positioned at the north end next to the house, with a truncated pyramidal roof of basalt fieldstones on slate courses.