Hill Head, 58 Pottinger Street, Hillhead, Cullybackey, Co. Antrim, BT42 1BP

Hill Head is a detached, rendered, two-storey house built around 1857 (though its style is consistent with a date of around 1840–45), set on rising ground to the north-west of Cullybackey town centre. It was built in association with the adjacent dyeing and finishing works as part of the industrial linen complex along the riverbank, and its history is closely bound up with the commercial development of the village. The house sits within its own grounds at the end of a short drive screened by extensive foliage, with broken views over the town centre. The original grounds have been partially encroached upon by modern housing to the south and east.

The plan is roughly square. To the rear west there is a single-storey hipped-roof return, which is shown on the valuation plan of 1906 and is likely Edwardian in origin. To the north-west there is a further single-storey flat-roofed return dating from around 1950. A single-storey outhouse stands to the south, and there are two further single-storey garden sheds in the rear yard.

The main roof is hipped and slated with black ridge tiles; the roof to the rear elevation is double hipped. Downpipes, hoppers and gutters are cast-iron. There is a brick chimney to the east with a dentilled course and a profiled stepped capping. External walls are painted dry-dash render, with a painted carved stone plinth at the base of the front elevation.

The front north-eastern elevation faces onto a short lawn. The timber panelled entrance door is flanked by leaded sidelights and surmounted by an elliptical-headed leaded fanlight; the sidelights and fanlight incorporate later coloured glass. The knocker, doorknob and letterbox are later replacements. A carved elliptical-headed door canopy, supported on timber brackets and Queen Anne Revival in style, is thought to date from the 1930s or 1940s. The windows are six-over-six timber sash frames set on cut-stone sills, each with a carved Art Deco-style stone hood. The upper level repeats the same six-over-six sash arrangement with carved stone surrounds.

The south-eastern elevation faces onto a short overgrown lawn and features two bays added around 1900–1910. To the right of the ground floor is a bowed bay with seven timber casement windows on cut-stone sills and leaded lights to the top pane. To the centre is a projecting squared bay with three lights to the front and one light to each side, with timber windows as elsewhere. Both bays have flat roofs and a carved timber fascia. The upper level has six-over-six timber sash windows with carved stone surrounds as previously described.

The north-western elevation commands extensive views over the main town. The main house elevation is to the left, the flat-roofed return is to the centre, and the side elevation of the hipped-roof return is to the right. The main house has six-over-six timber sash windows with unusual, vaguely Art Deco-style carved stone surrounds and cut-stone sills. The flat-roofed return has a timber casement window with a concrete sill. The hipped-roof return has paired twelve-over-one timber sash frames with painted cut-stone sills.

The rear south-western elevation has an assortment of square-headed timber sash windows at ground floor level. The upper level has one-over-one timber sash frames. All windows are set on cut-stone sills.

The single-storey hipped-roof return has, on its south-eastern elevation, a semi-circular-headed doorway to the right and a square-headed window to the left. The door is timber panelled with rectangular single-light windows to each side and a radial fanlight over. The window has paired twelve-over-one timber sash frames with a painted cut-stone sill. The windows to the north-western elevation match. The roof of the return is covered in artificial slate. External walls are dry-dash render.

The single-storey flat-roofed return has a timber casement window with a concrete sill and dry-dash rendered external walls.

The outhouse to the south is accessed via timber double gates. Its north-western elevation, which faces into the rear yard, has a flat-headed timber doorway to the left, a large square-headed opening to the centre, and window openings to the right. External walls are painted render and stone, the roof is covered in artificial slate, and rainwater goods are replacement uPVC.

The rear yard is gravelled and grassed, accessed via a gated entrance to the south of the main house, and is bounded by a random rubble stone wall and a timber picket fence.

Little internal detail from the mid-19th century survives; much of what remains appears to date from the Edwardian period. Significant Edwardian elements include the bays to the south-eastern elevation, some of the sash window frames, the downpipes and hoppers, and some of the fireplaces.

The documentary history of the site is well recorded. The Ordnance Survey map of 1832 shows a house and outbuildings on the site, but not the present building. The first valuation of 1834 records an old dwelling measuring 59 feet by 24 feet by 15½ feet, with a return noted as in poor condition, a thatched outbuilding of 61 by 20½ by 7 feet, and another outbuilding of 42 by 20½ by 8 feet, all with a combined rateable value of £5 14s 0d. The present house, without its return, appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1857 marked as Hill Head, and the second valuation of around 1861 records it as a relatively new building described by the valuer as "a comfortable house but plain building finish," measuring 15 yards by 14 yards over two storeys, with a rateable value of £22.

According to the local historian William Shaw, writing in 1913, a Mr Davison was responsible for building the house and the adjoining dyeing and finishing works. The concern passed to a Mr Walker, who in partnership with Messrs Nicholl carried on a prosperous business for many years. Joseph Nicholl of Cullybackey is listed as a linen merchant and registered bleacher in Pigot's Directory of 1824. Shaw records that in his later years Joseph Nicholl shared the house with his late wife's brother Robert Young, and that after Nicholl's death the house and business passed to his sons John and Robert. By 1861 a James Woods was in residence, with Thomas Casement as immediate lessor; Woods, who Shaw says bought the mills from the Nicholls, is likely to have been responsible for building the new house. In 1873 Hill Head and the mills were acquired by Robert Simpson and Nathaniel Morton. By 1883 the house was being leased to Captain Joshua Rowan, who remained until 1888, when William Moore, apparently in partnership with Simpson and Morton, is recorded as occupant. Around 1893 a William Young bought the mills and Hill Head, leasing the house to John Newton from 1895. Newton is listed as tenant until 1929. When valuation returns resumed in 1936, an Osbert Jackson had taken up the lease and appears to have acquired the freehold at some point before the later 1950s. In 1959 a Norman Cox is listed as resident and owner, succeeded in 1964 by Major (later Colonel) Frank B. S. Maclaran, who was still in residence in 1987.