James Orr’s Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-storey building with rendered and whitened wall and asbestos slated roof, formerly a cottage but now used as outbuildings. Windows are rectangular timber fixed lights of plate glass; ledged timber door with flush exterior surface.

Setting: the building stands to the rear of a modern bungalow, connected to it at one end, and situated in a grassy garden in a rural area.

Historical information

Appears on OS map of 1831. This was the birthplace of James Orr (1770-1816) who was known as ‘The Bard of Ballycarry’. He was a weaver and small farmer who took part in the 1798 rebellion. His poems were originally published in Belfast newspapers but have found their way into later anthologies of Irish verse. He is commemorated by a memorial in the old graveyard at Templecorran old church in Ballycarry.

References - Primary Sources

1. OS Map 1831, Co Antrim 47.

Secondary Sources

A. Dowlin, Ballycarry in Olden Days (Belfast, 1963), pp 43-46 [includes a photograph of the cottage in an earlier condition, with thatched roof].

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a building of some local interest as the birthplace of a local figure of historic importance and literary repute, but it has lost most of its original features.