26-28 Harbour Road, Carnlough, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT44 0EU

26–28 Harbour Road, Carnlough, is a mid-nineteenth-century building in plain style that, despite the loss of some original features, contributes positively to the essentially nineteenth-century character of the village's main street, particularly as part of a broader terrace.

The building is three storeys high and three windows wide, though not symmetrically arranged, with a lower two-storey wing projecting to one side that contains a vehicular entrance. The main entrance faces east onto Harbour Road.

The entrance elevation features a roof of Bangor blue slates laid in regular courses between stone or smooth render gable copings, with dark-toned ridge tiles and two chimneys at the extremities, rendered in smooth cement with plain block cornices and no pots. The wall is smooth cement rendered and painted white, with a black-painted plinth-like band running along the base. An eaves course projects, and rusticated quoins mark the extremities. Cast iron gutters and downpipes run along the elevation. Windows are rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, with six over six panes and horns, set in exposed frames within plain reveals with projecting stone cills. Modern scrolling wrought iron grilles are mounted on the ground floor window cills. The central entrance, which replaces two original doorways, is set in a fluted pilastered surround with ornamented brackets supporting a cornice. Below a deep fascia sits a panelled double door with blind sidelights framed by narrow timber pilasters and topped by plain rectangular fanlights. An iron bracket mounted above the entrance carries a shop sign.

The lower two-storey wing to the right has a roof slated to match the main block, continuous with the adjoining building; it contains one chimney at its right-hand extremity, smooth cement rendered with a plain block cornice and two pots. The walling matches the main block in material and is set in the same plane. The ground floor contains a vehicular entrance set within a voussoired elliptical arched opening with block jambs; the opening is fitted with an arched timber tongued and grooved sheeted panel presenting the appearance of a pair of double doors. A window on the first floor above follows the same pattern as those of the main block. Both the south gable (where it projects above the adjoining building) and the north gable (where it projects above the two-storey wing) are smooth cement rendered.

The rear elevation of the main front block features a slated roof matching the entrance front, with a swept dormer to the left-hand side whose window opening has been closed with concrete blockwork. A tall square rendered chimney with two pots rises at the base of the roof. The original rear wall is now obscured by a modern extension with a hipped roof of synthetic slates and modern rooflights; the north wall of this extension is of concrete blockwork, rising at the west to a taller Mansard-roofed rear block fronting onto High Street.

The building stands directly on the pavement of the village's main street within a terrace. The property's rear portion faces High Street. The rear block's elevation facing Bridge Street is two storeys high and five windows wide on the first floor, with five windows and a door to the left on the ground floor. The wall is smooth rendered and painted white, with black-painted quoins at the extremities and PVC gutters and downpipes. All windows are timber sliding sash, vertically hung, with horns and single over single panes with vertical glazing bars (all replacements), set with painted concrete cills. The door is painted timber, two-leaf and panelled (new). The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with three gabled attic dormers having slated roofs and timber sliding sash windows to their fronts; the dormer sides have glazing with one vertical glazing bar each (all replacement or new). The south end is abutted by a neighbouring building with a lower ridge line; the north gable is of exposed concrete block with a canted face and Mansard roof profile (both forms inappropriate to the locality), finished with white-painted wooden barges. This rear building with its Bridge Street frontage is not included in the listing.

The building first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857 and is reputed to date from 1848. Originally a house, it contained the post office from the mid-nineteenth century until its recent interior conversion to a public house called The Coach House, now accessible from within the adjacent Londonderry Arms Hotel.