Rose Cottage

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The house occupies a roadside position at the junction of the road from Randalstown to Gracehill, about 6 miles from the former town, and the road that proceeds in a south-easterly direction towards Moneyglass eventually reaching Toomebridge. The house is about three miles south of Gracehill.

The front of the building faces east.

This is a single-storey plastered and whitened house with a thatch covering between cement skews at the gables both of which rise to a corbelled chimneystack. There is a further stack placed right of centre above the original main hearth. The chimneystack over the left-hand (south) gable and that over the original main hearth are provided with a single pot and a spark arrester. That over the right hand (north gable) is without a pot.

The entrance with a sheeted half door is flanked to the right by two double casement windows, and to the left by a similar window.
A modern extension projects on the right hand (north) gable. It is roofed with natural slate, rainwater goods are of metal, and a pair of windows on the (north) gable matches those at the front of the house.

The left-hand (south) gable of the main house is blank

On the west side the sheeted rear door has a glazed panel, and the distribution of casement windows is similar to that of the front namely two to the right, and one to the left.

All of the window openings have narrow sills.

Historical information

A smaller building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1832 / 33, but not noted in the first valuation. The revised OS map of 1857 shows a house of apparently similar size to the present. The valuation of 1859 records the occupant as William McDowell, with Rev. W.C. O’Neill the immediate lessor and the rateable value calculated at £1-10-0.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/1/37 OS map, County Antrim sheet 37, with valuation
references (1832 / 33-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/1/37B OS map, County Antrim sheet 37, with valuation references (1857-59)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/1/68 Second valuation, Ahoghill (1859)

Secondary sources
1 Girvan, W.D., ‘Lists of Historic Buildings…West Antrim’ (Belfast, 1970), pp.25, 27

Other references
1 EHS Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, 15 June 1994
2 EHS Report on the roof structure by D.A. Morris, Building Conservation Officer, UFTM, 12 December 1994
3 EHS Report relating to the repair of the roof structure, from McKay & Kirkpatrick, Building Contractors [?date]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

The house faces east on a raised site about three miles south of Gracehill, on the road to Randalstown.The original layout is still identifiable. Apart from the extensive introduction of sawn timbers into the right hand section of the roof the early structure has been retained.
The extension of 1993 makes use of natural materials and is considered to be acceptable. Integration of access from the main house by forming a corridor has been achieved with minimum interference to the original layout.