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

58 High Street, Carnlough

A two-storey gabled house comprising a long rectangular main block with a large two-storey half-octagonal canted projection to the east containing the main entrance.

The roof is finished in 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 walling is rendered with wet dash of crushed stones on a recessed plinth with keyed finish. At the left-hand end bay there is an outbuilding separate from the main house interiors but with continuous roof and wall planes; the walling of this outbuilding bay is of rubble stonework lightly coated in cement wash. Moulded gutters of cast iron are fitted, though no downpipes are present.

The entrance elevation has one window bay to the right of the entrance bay and two windows to the left of it, with 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 to each floor appears 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 above, with metal flashings to ridges and is surmounted by a chimney 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 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 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 located at the right-hand end of the main house portion. The roof of the main block is slated as described above, with moulded gutter as above. 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 with an old timber lintel. Most windows of the main house are boarded up. Part of the rear wall is broken open to reveal the original large boulder core. The later rear return is of modern rectangular blockwork with low pitched slated roof and timber eaves boards; this return is unfinished with a large rectangular picture window to the gable and a rectangular doorway in the north side left open.

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

Setting

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, bounded to the south by the gable of an adjoining house and to the front by a stone wall. The front garden 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 concrete post and wire fence; the rear boundary is formed by modern timber palisading on a concrete block base; the south boundary at rear is formed by a basalt fieldstone and limestone rubble wall overgrown with creeper.

The front boundary walling to the front garden of the house, 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 remaining. The wall ramps up at the north end to a concrete post and steps up at the south end where it curves back to abut the neighbouring house. To the front of the side yard at the north of the house, the wall consists of rubble masonry containing basalt, limestone, concrete and what appears to be green schist, roughly lime rendered. A large square rubble pier stands at the north end next to the house, with a truncated pyramidal roof of basalt fieldstones on slate courses.