40 Port Road, Cloghfin, Islandmagee, Larne, Co Antrim, BT40 3SN

A single storey thatched cottage, a good example of a now rare vernacular type, dating from the 1820s to 1830s. The building stands in a rural coastal location on slightly sloping ground overlooking the sea, well downhill from the road and reached only on foot. It forms a picturesque and evocative element in the landscape when viewed from the roadway above.

The main entrance faces south. The south facade comprises three bays with a doorway positioned between two windows. The walls are of rubble stone, harled and whitened. The front door is timber sheeted and painted red, with a rectangular glazed panel to the top and enclosed by an outer half-door, all set within a rectangular surround with a timber lintel painted red. A concrete front step provides access. The ground slopes from west to east. Windows to the front are rectangular, set in plain reveals without cill projection; the timber fixed lights contain eight rectangular panes and are replacements from around 1990. Two square-plan chimneys, one to each gable, feature brick blocking courses and are whitened. The roof is thatched with flax from Green Mill, Ballyclare, County Antrim, between cement half-copings on the gables, held down by steel wire running from end to end and secured with wire loops. The roof timberwork is original.

The west gable is blank, with ground outside higher than floor level, reached by three stone steps supplemented by two lower steps on concrete. The north facade walls and roof are similar to the entrance front but in poorer condition. A projecting flat-roofed extension occupies the centre between two windows: to the left is a timber vertically hung sliding sash window with six over three panes and horns, original; to the right is a timber fixed light with a horizontal glazing bar. The extension is roofed in corrugated iron and corrugated plastic, with walls mainly of timber studding rendered in Tyrolean finish and painted white, but also partly of whitened corrugated iron. It has a PVC gutter and down-pipe. Two timber windows serve the extension: one top-hung single light, one a single casement.

The east gable has similar walling to the west; two windows, the upper a small timber fixed light with top-hung vent, the lower a timber vertically hung sliding sash with horns, 1 over 2, with a vertical glazing bar to the lower pane, in poor condition. Attached to the gable is a single storey corrugated iron shed with a modern flush timber door and timber fixed light window.

Historical records show a building on this site appearing on the Ordnance Survey map of 1831 to 1832, though it is not recorded in the contemporary valuation. It appears in the second valuation of 1860, with Jane McKay listed as occupant, Colonel Charles P. Leslie as the immediate lessor, and a rateable value of 12 shillings. According to C.E.B. Brett, the property was occupied by Joseph Hay for much of the 1870s and by Mrs Annie McGowan from 1897 to 1919.