59-65 Coastguard Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey double pile house with an attached row of three single-storey cottages. Main entrance to the house (no. 65) faces north-east; main entrances to the cottages (nos. 59-63) face south-west. Cottages have slated gabled roofs of Bangor blue slates in regular courses with hipped roofs to projecting front porches; smooth rendered chimneys with modern pots; walls smooth cement rendered, lined and blocked; later lean-to outside toilets added alongside each cottage porch; stone cills; windows boarded up; all derelict.

The house (no. 65) has a three-bay symmetrical front elevation; roof as on cottages; one chimney on each gable, smooth rendered with original pots; cast iron gutter and downpipes; walls finished as on cottages but originally built of stone as revealed at one corner to rear; windows to front timber sliding sash, vertically hung, with horns, 2 over 2 with vertical divisions but panes all broken where visible, the rest boarded up; modern 20th century louvered shutters fitted to each side of outer windows as decorative feature only, not functional; later central projecting timber-boarded porch in poor condition, with ledged timber door in one side; ruinous outbuildings to one side. Boundary walls to the side and rear of the terrace of house and cottages are largely ruinous; hedges to the front; pervasive air of decay to whole site. The group stands near the end of Coastguard Road on a peninsula in Larne Harbour with a view across the Lough to the east and the remains of a 16th century tower house, traditionally referred to as Olderfleet Castle, to the other side, but the 19th century
setting has been degraded by insensitive later developments.

Historical information

Buildings appear on the site on the OS map of 1833 but were not marked as a Coast Guard Station until the map of 1857. They do not quite match the appearance of houses shown on the site in a painting ‘North View of the Curran of Larne’, by Andrew Nicholl, c 1828. The houses lie within the area of a historic monument, SMR: ANT40:40.

References - Primary
1. Andrew Nicholl’s Paintings of The Antrim Coast in 1828, Glens of Antrim Historical Society, Belfast ND.
2. OS map 1833, Co Antrim 40.
3. OS map 1857, Co Antrim 40.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A group of derelict houses which are of some minor local interest but are of negligible architectural interest, while their originally scenic waterside setting has been spoiled by later developments.