Druid’s Cottage, 91 Ballylumford Road, Islandmagee, Larne, Co Antrim, BT40 3RN

Druid's Cottage

This mid-Victorian house, built between 1857 and 1883, is a two-storey dwelling of considerable architectural interest. It is distinguished by its unexpectedly close juxtaposition with a prehistoric dolmen, which stands immediately outside the front door—a scheduled monument—for whose rugged appearance the house provides a genteel backdrop.

The building presents a symmetrical, three-bay entrance front of 1½ storeys facing west. The walls are rendered, lined and blocked, with rusticated quoins to the extremities. The roof is pitched with gables, clad in Bangor blue slates in regular courses. Two chimneys, one at each gable end, are smooth rendered with stepped cornices and carry four tall buff earthenware pots each, original to the 19th century. Cast iron gutters with returns run to the end gables. Eaves are coved above a platband, with plain timber barge boarding to the central gablet.

The central doorway is set in a coved recess and features glazed rectangular sidelights with one horizontal glazing bar to each, and an elliptical fanlight with spandrel panes. The door itself is original, constructed with raised and fielded panels with round heads, and fitted with a brass lion head knocker. Ground floor windows are timber sliding sashes, vertically hung with 1 over 1 glazing and horns; these are recent replacements following the original pattern but not the original small-paned arrangement. Windows have painted stone cills and continuous drip moulding that steps over each window to abut the moulding around the porch. A small window in the gablet above the porch is sashed similarly to the ground floor, with platband cill and no drip moulding.

The north gable wall matches the front elevation. Overhanging eaves have timber sheeted soffits on shaped purlin ends. Two windows are present as on the front, but each sash has one horizontal division. A cast iron downpipe is fitted.

The east facade of the front block is harled with a dry dash of pebbles and chippings. A large ground floor window is sashed as on the front but with one vertical glazing bar to each pane, and new cement render repairs to the head. A curved wall to a two-storey rear porch—an Edwardian addition—projects from this elevation, finished with roughcast of a heavy texture studded with pebbles. The porch has a translucent glazed rectangular door flanked by leaded sidelights, with concrete cills. A three-light timber casement window with horizontal division to the first floor is similarly flanked by leaded sidelights. Cast iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

The north wall of the two-storey rear return is dry dashed as the east facade. It carries two first floor windows and two ground floor windows, all sashed as previously described; the sashes have glazing patterns as noted on the main elevation. A basement door, modern in pseudo-Tudor style, is fitted. A lean-to single storey outset projects from this return, roofed in slate with a PVC gutter. It features a timber casement window (replacement) and roughcast walls of thick texture.

The east gable of the rear return is dry dashed as previous. Two small sashed windows, one to each floor, and a larger similar window to the attic below the half-hip roof are present. A PVC downpipe is fitted.

The south gable of the front block is similar to the north, carrying two windows as described, plus a modern rectangular door with plate glass above a panel and reeded glass to a rectangular fanlight.

The south facade of the rear return, to the right of the front block, contains three large windows to each floor, all sashed 1 over 1 as previously noted except the right ground floor window, which has vertical glazing bars. PVC guttering and cast iron waste pipes run to this elevation. The end bay of the return carries two windows at staggered floor levels, both sashed 1 over 1 as before; the lower example is new.

The house was renovated in the early 1900s by a Captain Arthurs, according to the present owner. Ordnance Survey maps reveal that a previous house occupied the site in 1832 and 1857, immediately to the north-west of the dolmen. The present front block, positioned to the north-east of the dolmen, first appears on the 1902-3 map alongside a north-west wing representing the earlier house, which was removed by the 1921 revision when the present rear return first appears. A journal illustration from 1883-4 shows the cottage with timber sliding sashes of 6 over 6 glazing pattern, demonstrating subsequent alteration to the window glazing.

The house stands in a rural location set back from the road, facing it. The prehistoric dolmen stands immediately outside the front door as a scheduled monument. A car park area bounded by a low wall lies to the north at the front, with a garden extending to the south of the house.