60 Carnearney Road, Ahoghill, BALLYMENA, BT42 2PL

60 Carnearney Road, Ahoghill

A two-storey, five-bay gabled house and shop built around 1850, located on Carnearney Road in the townland of Casheltown, Parish of Portglenone. The building stands on the northeast junction of Clooney Road and Carnearney Road in a rural setting southwest of Ahoghill.

The main oblong-shaped building is oriented northeast-southwest and sits tight to Carnearney Road. A single-storey lean-to structure abuts the northeast gable end, with a shorter protrusion centred on the southeast elevation facing into a walled yard. The yard is enclosed by rubble-stone and roughcast-rendered walling to the northeast and southwest, and by single and two-storey whitewashed stone outbuildings to the southeast.

The building has a duo-pitched roof with natural slates and black clay ridge tiles, with projecting eaves course rendered to match the walls. Red brick rectangular chimneys with yellow brick corbel brackets and diamond-shaped detail occupy both gable ends, suggesting late 19th-century alteration. There are no chimney pots. The walls are rough-dash rendered with a traditional timber shop-front. Timber sliding sash double-hung windows with exposed box frames and stone cills are positioned throughout. The building sits on a smooth rendered base plinth with stone toothed quoins at all four corners, painted in a contrasting colour.

The principal elevation faces northwest. The main two-storey building occupies the right side with a mono-pitched addition to the left. At first floor of the main building, five equally spaced openings contain double-hung sliding sash windows with 2/2 lights in Regency style with margin panes, each with exposed box frame and stone cills. The ground floor has separate entrances for house and shop: to the left, a six-panelled timber front door with glazed over-light (replacement) flanked by sliding sash windows; to the right, a pair of vertically sheeted timber double doors with over-light adjoined by a large picture window with painted boarding. A pilastered shop-front with timber signboard and cornice moulding frames the right section. uPVC guttering on cast-iron rise-and-fall brackets discharges to a cast-iron down-pipe on the far right. The shop-front, door frame, exposed box-frames, cills and window reveals are painted in a contrasting colour.

The southwest gable end sits tight to Clooney Road and is blank except for a single top-hung timber casement window at first floor, offset to the right. It has rough-dash rendered walls with smooth painted quoins, base plinth and verge band.

The rear (southeast) elevation is less formal, with two smaller timber sliding sash windows at first floor: that to the left has 1/2 lights and that to the right has 3/6 lights, both off-centred to the right. A single-storey lean-to abuts the ground floor with a single window boarded up to the right side and evidence of similar-sized openings blocked up and rendered to the left. Windows do not have cills. The projecting eaves course supports uPVC guttering which discharges to a cast-iron down-pipe at the far left. The lean-to has a black concrete tile roof with projecting uPVC fascia, barge boards and rainwater goods, with walls matching the main building. A sheeted timber varnish-stained door (replacement) occupies the right side; the left cheek is blank.

The northeast gable end features the red brick chimney as described, projecting timber barge board and soffit painted to match the quoins, and a single-storey abutment spanning the full width of the building. This abutment has a slate roof, a single timber sliding sash window and rendered walling matching the main building. The corner of the lean-to is rounded on plan where it meets the southeast elevation into the yard; this side contains a smaller uPVC window.

Roofing materials include natural slate on the main building and black concrete tiles on the rear lean-to. Rainwater goods comprise uPVC gutters and painted cast-iron pipes. Walls are rough-dash rendered with smooth rendered quoins. Windows are timber sliding sash double-hung with unrecessed box frames, top-hung timber casements on the southwest, and rear lean-to windows as described.

The building forms part of a farmyard complex bounded by approximately 2-metre-high rubble-stone walling to the northeast, which joins flush to the two-storey gable end of a range of outbuildings at the northwest edge of the site. The outbuildings step down to single storey and meet rough-cast rendered walling along the Clooney Road boundary. The outbuildings have informally arranged openings, mainly sheeted timber doors facing into the yard, and natural slate roofs. A smaller walled enclosure is located at the northwest corner.

A circular Ulster pillar with conical cap and cast-iron gates marks the entrance to the site on Carnearney Road. A small garden plot belonging to the house sits on the northwest corner of the crossroad facing the building. It is entered from the roadside through a single cast-iron pedestrian gate with fluted gate posts leading to an arch formed within the lower branches of mature yew trees. The other two corners of the crossroad have open green space with low-level hedges and fencing.