Coastguard Cottages, 10 Belfast Road, Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim, BT38 8BU

Coastguard Cottages, 10 Belfast Road, Carrickfergus

A group of mid-nineteenth century coastguard cottages built around 1864, located south of Belfast Road in Carrickfergus. The cottages are set parallel to the road with small gardens to the rear. They feature appealing architectural details including cogged brick eaves and a string course. Though the group has historic interest relating to Carrickfergus's maritime heritage, it has been altered and lacks sufficient architectural merit for listing.

The specific cottage at 10 Belfast Road is an attached single-bay two-storey terraced cottage, situated third from the east in a group of seven. The building is rectangular in plan with a single-storey pitched return to the rear. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with blue-black clay ridge tiles. The eaves are cogged brick, with a few cast-iron downpipes remaining and square-profile replacement uPVC rainwater goods fitted. A roughcast-rendered corbelled chimneystack with decorative clay pots sits on the east party wall.

The walls are roughcast rendered. A cogged brick string course runs across the north elevation only, topped with a smooth rendered platband and smooth rendered plinth beneath. Windows throughout are 6/6 replacement uPVC casements imitating 6/6 timber sliding sashes, with painted masonry cills. The principal south elevation is abutted by a single-storey pitched return shared with the adjacent cottage; the exposed section to the right has windows at each floor. The north road-facing elevation has a single window to each floor, with the first-floor window consisting of dipartite 4/4 uPVC casements. The south return features two windows in the south gable (shared with the adjoining property) and a replacement timber-panelled door.

The cottages are accessed from the east with parking to the north. A roughcast-rendered boundary wall with saddleback coping bounds the site to the road edge.

Historically, the Coastguard Station is first recorded in the Valuation Revision book of 1861–94, leased from J. Bowie with a ground rent of £36. It succeeded an earlier station at Governor's Place, Carrickfergus. The 1860 Carrickfergus town plan shows the buildings added in pencil at a later date (exact date unspecified). The houses appear on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902, captioned 'Coastguard Station'. The station remained in use until at least 1945 and is now in private ownership, having been recently refurbished as dwellings. The terrace is now harled, and it remains unclear from casual inspection whether it was originally of brick or basalt construction. Decorative details noted in a 1991 survey include stone and diagonally-set brick stringing below the first-floor window sills, with further decorative brickwork along the eaves and chimney corbels. Various additions have been made to the rear south wall during recent refurbishment.