22 Joymount, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38 7DN

22 Joymount is a mid-Victorian terraced house in Carrickfergus, built around 1870, overlooking Belfast Lough. It forms one of a pair of attached properties facing southeast along Joymount Bank.

The main street frontage presents three bays across two storeys with an attic storey, rendered in painted finish. The roof is pitched with concrete tiles and includes a large rendered chimneystack to the north gable with clay pots. Overhanging eaves feature cavetto moulding and a rendered plat-band with original cast-iron rainwater goods. The front elevation has square-headed window openings with moulded architrave surrounds and painted masonry sills, fitted with replacement multi-pane timber casement windows. A round-headed door opening with moulded architrave and plinth blocks leads to the entrance, which retains its original iron spoked fanlight above a replacement timber panelled door. The doorway opens onto a sandstone step with a decorative cast-iron bootscraper. To the left is a further round-headed door giving access to the rear.

The rear and flanking returns show a more complex building history. A two-bay two-storey return shared with the adjoining property to the south, and a further three-bay two-storey return extending to the north (built around 1830 as part of an earlier detached house), both have natural slate pitched roofs with replacement plastic rainwater goods. The rear elevation features cement wet-dash rendered walling. The south return has horizontally-glazed two-over-two timber sash windows with ogee horns. The north return contains early three-over-three timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes, no sills, and some crown glass. Single-pane timber sash windows with ogee horns appear at the rear elevation and attic storey of the north gable.

The shared return contains a square-headed door set at an angle with an original timber plank door. The north return has a square-headed door opening onto a stone step with an early cast-iron bootscraper and a replacement timber door.

To the rear is a small concrete yard opening into a raised garden enclosed by rubblestone wall to the north, timber fencing to the south, and a redbrick wall to the west. Significantly, the wall to the rear of No. 22 contains an isolated upstanding portion of the original seventeenth-century town wall of Carrickfergus.

According to historical records, the buildings appear on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and the Town Plan of Carrickfergus of 1860. Griffith's Valuation of 1860 records both properties as "house, office, yard and small garden," each valued at £13 10 shillings. The town wall dates to the early 17th century. Boyle's Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that in the 16th century the people of Carrickfergus requested a town wall for protection, but permission was delayed. By 1607, a letter was addressed to Sir Arthur Chichester requesting aid in walling the town, and in 1608 Chichester announced that His Majesty had consented to furnish 100 men to assist. The walls were progressively dismantled over time until 1815, when action was taken to preserve them.

The house has been substantially altered, which detracts from its architectural interest. Though not of listable quality, both these properties contribute positively to the Conservation Area.