Maritime Cottage, 2 Belfast Road, Carrickfergus, BT38 8BU

Maritime Cottage is a detached, symmetrical three-bay one-and-a-half-storey house erected around 1820, located on the east side of Belfast Road in Carrickfergus. The building faces west and is rectangular on plan with a two-storey return to the rear and a single-storey extension to the south gable. It is well detailed and proportioned and has retained its original plan form and interior.

The house is built with ruled-and-lined rendered walling over a shallow rendered plinth, with a pitched natural slate roof finished with blue and black clay ridge tiles. Rendered chimneystacks rise to the gable ends, capped with octagonal clay pots. The eaves are deep and overhanging, trimmed with plain bargeboards.

The principal (west) elevation features a central entrance with a four-panel moulded door, glazed fanlight and sidelights recessed within a segmental-headed opening with splayed reveals. Original ironmongery survives. Flanking bays have paired square-headed 2/2 timber sliding sash windows, each with a hoodmould. A central wall-head dormer to the first floor contains a round-headed 2/2 sliding sash window, with smaller dormers to each side, all with glazed walls. The north gable comprises two first-floor windows.

The rear (east) elevation has a central rendered two-storey return with windows to flanking bays. The return contains a replacement three-pane window to the ground floor and one to the first floor matching the original. The right cheek has a two-pane replacement window to ground floor and an original window to the first floor; the left cheek has a replacement window and door to ground floor with the first floor blank. The south gable has two first-floor windows.

The building is abutted to the right by a flat-roof garage and to the left by a rendered wall with saddleback coping and timber-sheeted door. A single-storey flat-roof extension abuts the rear elevation and is detailed to match the main block, featuring timber casement windows to each face and uPVC rainwater goods. A further double garage extension to the south has a timber-sheeted door.

The boundary to Belfast Road is marked by a roughcast wall with saddleback coping, featuring central square rendered pillars with pyramidal caps and ball finials, and a cast metal gate. Vehicular access from Rodgers Quay is through similar square roughcast pillars with pyramidal caps and timber-sheeted gates. A garden extends to the east side of the driveway.

The cottage has considerable historical significance as the home place of Paul Rodgers, shipbuilder (1834–1901), a renowned builder of schooners who served an apprenticeship of six years with Carrickfergus shipyard. One of his vessels, the steel schooner 'Result', built for James Fisher of Barrow and launched in 1893, was described as the finest small sailing fishing vessel ever built in Britain. During the First World War it served as a fighting ship under the name 'Q23' until 1967. Rodgers was a member of both the Carrickfergus Municipal and Harbour Commissioners and made a significant impact on the socio-economic development of the locality, notably refusing to make redundancies despite his own financial difficulties.

Early Ordnance Survey mapping evidence shows the site contained similarly aligned buildings in 1832, depicted as a square form with a smaller building to its right, surrounded by vacant land. The second edition map shows the building had been developed with a front extension and gardens. The third edition of 1902 records further extensions. The Townland Valuation does not record the building.