26 Scotch Quarter, Carrickfergus, Co Antrim, BT38 7DP

26 Scotch Quarter, Carrickfergus

A three-storey terraced house of early 19th century date, probably constructed in the mid to late 1830s, though a smaller building occupied the site when it first appeared on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. The building appears for the first time on the 1857 OS map. It has been substantially altered and now retains little architectural or historic interest.

The south-facing main elevation is three storeys high and two windows wide to the upper floors. The walls are smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked, and painted cream, with raised quoins to the right-hand extremity painted brown. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, continuous with the roof of number 24 to the left, and gabled with flush verges to the right. Two rooflights are present.

The entrance is set in a recessed segmental arched opening with continuous roll moulding. The door is a rectangular timber 4-panel original, positioned between panelled pilasters with a radial fanlight above, though a modern letterbox has been added. A canted single-storey bay projects to the left of the entrance, a later addition featuring a moulded cornice and frieze with smooth cement rendered walls. The bay has one window in each face with rectangular openings with moulded and stop-chamfered reveals to the sides and head, with a projecting cill continuous around. Windows in the bay are rectangular PVC fixed lights with top-hung vents, replacements for originals.

The windows to the two upper floors are rectangular PVC fixed lights with top-hung vents set in raised moulded surrounds with projecting cills, all replacements for original timber sashes. Across the front of the building is a railed enclosure concreted over, with iron railings and gate of 20th century date mounted on a plinth wall.

The rear elevation is three-storey, smooth cement rendered and partly painted white. All windows appear to be modern replacements comprising timber fixed lights with top-hung vents. A large metal fire-escape stairway is attached to the rear elevation with modern glazed and panelled wooden doors leading onto it. The small enclosed rear yard is concreted over with rubble and brick walls of poor quality. A small single-storey block formerly part of the property now belongs to the adjoining number 28 and is accessible only from there, though it has a glazed modern door overlooking this property's yard.

The building stands facing the main road within an urban area as part of a terrace development, overlooking a public park to the front with an open view to the sea beyond. Its front path and enclosure are now recessed behind the later front projection of an adjoining hotel to the east. The two-storey outbuildings of number 22 extend behind the house to meet taller extensions to the rear of the hotel at number 28, encircling the rear of this property with buildings of no apparent architectural quality that spoil the rear setting.

Before acquisition by the present owner, the building was used recently as hotel accommodation by the adjoining hotel to the east, with an opening linking the two buildings at first floor level. The hotel retains a small single-storey block projecting into this property's plot immediately to its rear.