Marlagh Lodge, 71-73 Moorefields Road, Ballymarlagh, Ballymena, Co Antrim, BT42 3BU

Marlagh Lodge is a small gentleman's country house of around 1850, set on the south side of Moorefields Road roughly three miles southeast of Ballymena. It is a slightly eclectic early Victorian building combining Picturesque and late Georgian elements: gabled bays, painted lined render, a roof overhang with exposed rafter ends and finials, neo-classical window surrounds, and half dormers. The house actually faces northwest, though for descriptive purposes it is treated as facing west.

The front elevation is symmetrical. At the centre of the ground floor is a square lean-to porch, slated, with a slight overhang and plain barges and eaves; the roof was probably originally flat. The north face of the porch has a panelled timber door with a three-pane rectangular fanlight, encased with plain pilasters and decorative scroll brackets supporting a plain blocking course, the top right corner of which has been cut off by the roofline. The west face of the porch has a large sash window with typical early Victorian broad margin panes and plain surrounds to the sides, again with the top of the surround cut off by the roof. The south face repeats this arrangement with a surround matching that of the doorway, similarly truncated. Plain pilasters mark the corners of the porch.

The porch spans between two large, identical, shallow full-height gabled bays. Each bay has a sash window with broad margin panes at ground floor level, set within a simple surround with plain pilaster strips, entablature and cornice. At first floor, each bay has a slightly smaller Georgian-paned sash window (six panes over six) encased with pilasters with simple scroll brackets supporting a tympanum. At the apex of each gable is a very small loft window with a semicircular head, a plain sash frame, and a label moulding. Each gable has a roof overhang with exposed rafter ends and finials, and plain pilasters to each edge. Between the two bays, directly above the porch, is a slightly recessed bay containing a relatively large double sash window with Georgian panes (six over six, doubled). This window is encased with plain pilasters. The whole of the front elevation, excluding the pilasters, is finished in painted lined render.

The north elevation has a complex appearance. To the left is the long single-storey return, and to the right is the main two-storey section of the house. The single-storey return is itself in two sections: to the far left is a slightly lower portion with a hipped roof, and to its right is a marginally taller gabled portion, the two connected by a short flat-roofed link. The north face of the hipped-roof portion has a Georgian-paned sash window (six over six) with a plain surround. The gabled portion has two plain sash windows and a central partly glazed door of around 1950, all with plain surrounds. The whole north face of the single-storey return is finished in unpainted lined cement render.

The main two-storey section on the right-hand side of the north elevation is itself in two portions, the left-hand portion being slightly lower and set back. This lower portion has a double sash window with Georgian panes at ground floor level (six over six, doubled) with a plain surround, and at first floor a window matching those on the front bays, partly set within an unusual tall gabled half-dormer with a roof overhang and plain barges. The taller portion to the right has at ground floor a small canted timber bay with rendered aprons and a felted hipped roof. The broad north face of this bay has a sash window matching those in the porch, with much narrower sash windows to the outer sides (three panes over three, with horizontal glazing bars). At first floor is a window and half-dormer matching that of the lower portion. The two-storey section of the north elevation is finished to match the front.

The south elevation of the main two-storey section closely resembles the far right portion of the north elevation, except that to the right it merges with the south face of a rear single-storey lean-to, with a rendered wall abutting the elevation just to the left of the lean-to's side. The south face of this lean-to has two small Georgian-paned sash windows, both six over six. This section of the south elevation is finished in plain painted render.

The south elevation of the single-storey return has three sash windows: the leftmost with Georgian panes (six over six), the other two plain. The rightmost window, which sits within the flat-roofed linking portion, is smaller than the other two. To the far left there is a gabled half-dormer with a plain sash window. On the exposed east-facing gable of the return, which overlooks the linking portion, there is a small window with a modern frame. At the far right, the hipped-roof portion of the return projects southward; its south face is blank and its east face has a plain sash window, then a timber-sheeted door, then another plain sash window, then another door. These faces, together with the blank west face of the hipped-roof portion, are finished in rough harling that has been painted at some stage. The south elevation of the main gabled portion of the return and of the linking portion are finished in plain render, also painted at some point.

The rear (east) elevation of the main two-storey portion is complex. To the far left at ground floor level is a small single-storey lean-to whose east face is blank, leaning against a full-height gable whose first-floor level is also blank. To the right, this lean-to is attached to a larger lean-to that projects further east; the east face of this ground-floor portion has a timber-sheeted door and a small Georgian-paned sash window (six over six). The south face of the lean-to has another similar sash window. The set-back first-floor and half-landing level of this lean-to merges to the right with a small gabled bay: the lean-to at this level has a sash window similar to but larger than the previous ones, while the bay has a semicircular-headed sash window with Georgian panes (eight over six). To the right of this whole lean-to arrangement there projects a full-height gabled bay, which merges with the single-storey return. The rear elevation of the two-storey portion is finished in a mixture of plain and lined render, all painted.

The roof of the whole property is slated and has a slight overhang to the main two-storey section, with exposed rafter ends in many places. There is a cast iron skylight to the south side of the return roof. The main two-storey section has five relatively small rendered chimneystacks with bases, string courses and largely matching octagonal pots. There is a cruder rendered stack to the return. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

To the immediate rear of the property is a yard enclosed by a rubble wall. On the south side of the yard is a single whitewashed row of sheds with a hipped roof, three timber-sheeted doors and three windows of various sizes and frames. Outside the yard to the east is a large two-storey hipped outbuilding of basalt rubble construction with brick-dressed openings and a slated roof. To the rear of this outbuilding is a long single-storey lean-to in brick with a corrugated asbestos roof, dating from the mid-20th century. Tall rubble walls extend from both the north and south ends of the outbuilding. In the north wall there is a vehicle gateway with square basalt pillars topped with stone pyramidal caps and fitted with timber gates. The south wall incorporates a tall bellcote structure whose uppermost portion is in brick and may not be original. To the west of the bellcote is another gateway with shorter pillars of the same type and a timber gate. To the east of the large outbuilding is a large walled garden, now simply a field, with the remains of relatively low walls partly patched in breeze block. To the front of the house is a garden with a short drive, bordered by a low rubble wall with a mid-20th-century-style vehicle gateway to the far west.

The house first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857. A valuation of around 1859 records it as occupied by Henry Hutchinson Hamilton O'Hara and described as "all new and in superior order." It is highly likely that O'Hara, a member of the gentry family of O'Hara of Crebilly, built the property around 1850 or shortly afterwards. Henry died in December 1875, apparently in London and apparently in poverty, and Marlagh Lodge passed to his only sister Mary, the wife of General Robert Wardlaw. The Wardlaws leased the property first to a Robert Craig, then by 1884 to a Robert Esler; a valuation of 1890 to 1904 comments, with some snobbery, that the house, though "built for a gentleman's residence," was "now occupied by a farmer." Around 1901, Esler acquired the freehold and leased the property to a John Dinsmore, and then from 1908 to a Dr Alexander Duncan. By the 1890s, the valuations indicate that the single-storey return — originally most likely containing quarters for a servant or servants together with service rooms — had become a separate dwelling, rented out by the owner of the main house. In 1920 both the main house and the rear dwelling were sold to a Thomas McAllister, passing to a John McFetridge in 1926. They remained in the possession of McFetridge's relations until acquired by the present owner in the 1990s.