Ballypriormore Primary School, 111 Brown’s Bay Road, Islandmagee, Larne, Co Antrim

Ballypriormore Primary School is a single-storey building constructed between 1920 and 1939. It was designed in 1929 by the architects of the Northern Ireland Office of Works, as reported in the Belfast News-Letter on 19 January 1929. The school’s design reflects an important office of the period but is considered to have insufficient architectural merit for listing, a judgement further influenced by later additions.

The building has roughcast walls and a slated hipped roof, laid out on an angled plan. The main entrance features a classical-style pedimented doorcase with pilasters, dated 1931. The north wing retains small-paned timber windows, while the south wing has been altered with the replacement of original windows with plate-glass in timber frames. Plain wrought-iron boundary railings are set on low, cement-rendered walls along the road, but these are of no particular interest. Later post-war extensions, constructed in red brick with flat roofs, are situated to the west and rear of the original building. The school stands alone in open countryside, facing the road and easily viewed from it and sits within a tarmac playground.