Kilbegs House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey, five-bay rendered house, with a lower single-bay outbuilding to the west and a gabled front porch. Main entrance faces north.

Entrance elevation: roof of Bangor blue slates in regular courses, between smooth rendered gable copings. Three chimneys, one on each end gable and one in line with left-hand side of porch: smooth cement rendered and lined, with plain block cornices; one original octagonal pot to each chimney.
Wall rendered with a dry dash of pebbles, painted over, with a slightly projecting smooth rendered plinth, plain platband at first floor cill level, plain projecting eaves course, and rusticated quoins to extremities. Cast iron gutter, and cast iron downpipe to left-hand side but the end of it stops at mid-window height.
Five windows to first floor of main block, and two to each side of porch on ground floor, all modern rectangular timber, brown stained, 6-pane fixed lights with 6-pane top-hung vent above; ground floor windows set in broad frames; slightly raised smooth rendered surrounds, and projecting stone or concrete cills.
Porch rendered as previous, with slated roof as previous, and cast iron gutters and downpipes. Plain timber barge boards to front gable. Doorway set back in a deep recess between projecting side walls forming open porch to front, with smooth rendered inner walls and ceiling to open porch, and modern red tiled floor surface. Doorway comprises a rectangular timber glazed and panelled door flanked by glazed and sheeted timber sidelights surmounted by rectangular fanlights; all doorscreen glazing is of decorative leading in a restrained Art Nouveau style; loose concrete flags to area in front of porch.
Extending to the right is the lower outbuilding to the west; wall rendered as main block but with a smooth rendered vertical strip to the right-hand extremity, and no platband or eaves course; one large painted base stone protrudes from the plinth. Roof slated as previous; gutter missing; metal downpipe; one window, rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 6 without horns, set in exposed sash boxes, with surround and cill as previous to main block.

East elevation is a blank two-storey gable, rendered as previous to entrance front, except quoins to right-hand extremity only, with a vertical strip of render to the left-hand extremity; and platband at eaves level divides attic roof space area from first floor.

Rear elevation: two-storey slated as previous with a central gabled two-storey rear return. Wall is rendered with a painted dash of crushed stones, with slightly raised smooth rendered plinth and vertical strip to right-hand extremity and to left-hand extremity above outbuilding to the west; projecting brick eaves course; cast iron gutter and downpipe.
Rear return is of similar render but without eaves course or corner strips. Roof slated as previous. Plain wooden barge boards to gable; cast iron gutters with what appears to be painted PVC downpipes; cast iron soil pipe.
Windows to rear elevation, including return, are all modern rectangular fixed lights or top-hung vents; all except top left window are set in similar raised surrounds to entrance front. Ground floor window to right of rear return appears to occupy a former doorway, with walling below cill plain rendered. Ground floor window to left to rear return also set in a door-high panel of smooth render which contains a modern projecting metal flue or fan outlet below the window opening.
Doorway in east side of rear return contains a modern rectangular flush timber door with glazed panel, and modern metal handle, set in a raised smooth rendered surround.

Extending to the left is the rear wall of the outbuilding to the west: rendered as main rear wall and in same plane but without eaves course or corner strips; some modern concrete blockwork, painted over, visible in upper portion of wall. Roof slated as previous except for a patch of synthetic slating irregularly arranged. Rectangular doorway to ground floor has derelict timber frame with wooden lintel; door missing.

West gable of outbuilding to west is rendered as rear of outbuilding, but with a smooth rendered strip at the left-hand extremity. Two rectangular windows, one in ground floor and one at attic level. Ground floor window has timber frame only but window missing, with only a later perspex sheet fitted over frame; surround and cill are as previous to entrance front. Attic window has a perspex sheet fitted over a modern small-paned timber window, set in a continuous raised surround.

West elevation of main block, above outbuilding: wall rendered as previous with quoins to left-hand extremity and smooth rendered strip to right-hand extremity and to verges.

SETTING: The building stands in a rural area surrounded by agricultural land. It faces the road but is set back from it with a lawn in front. Front boundary fence of modern horizontal fencing; openings in fencing to each end, without gates, lead to tarmac and stony driveways leading to front of house and to rear yards. Western boundary formed by the basalt rubble wall of an adjoining graveyard. Rear yards surfaced in concrete, and contain various outbuildings and sheds in basalt rubble, concrete block, and corrugated iron, none of any special interest.

Historical information

Precise date of building not known but a building is shown on the OS map of 1829 & 32; more substantial outbuildings appear on the OS map of 1858. According to a letter from a member of the Neely family who owned the house in 1978, sent to EHS, the house had been owned by a Samuel Orr, a purveyor to troops at Shane's Castle c 1766. His son William, who was a prominent local rebel in the 1790s, was reputedly born here; in 1796 he was reputedly captured at the house and subsequently taken to Carrickfergus Castle where he was executed in 1797. The house was then burned by the yeomen in an effort to dislodge the Orr family but was later repaired. The architecture of the property as it now stands does not appear to bear testimony to a mid-18th century date. All but one previously sashed windows were replaced by modern windows of a different type sometime after 1988.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1829 & 32, Co Antrim 49 (a building is shown on the site).
2. OS Map 1858, Co Antrim 49 (a building is shown on the site along with more substantial outbuildings).

Secondary Sources
1. C. Dickson, Revolt in the North (Dublin, 1960), p 177 (refers to William Orr having been born at Kilbegs near Milltown).
2. Correspondence to EHS from a member of the Neely family in 1978, then owners of the property.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is a house, of reputed late 18th century date, which has direct connection to the 1790'sdisturbances.