Whinstone Crag

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Exterior observed only from a distance as closer access not gained.

It appears to be unchanged at both front and rear from the time of the first survey in 1994 when it was described as "A building in a thoroughly modern style laid out to a split level arrangement on the brow of a sloping site. Essentially a single-storey dwelling, part of which cantilevers out over a garage below. Some natural stone walling at garage level with stone dressings to small windows; otherwise walls are of white painted roughcast, with horizontally boarded timber fascias to the various blocks – laid out essentially as a T-shape with a small porch in one angle, until a later addition appeared. Very conspicuously sited and something of a landmark in a very rural area."

SETTING: The building is sited on an eminence in a very rural area with distant views over the countryside to the south, from where it appears as one of a group of conspicuous landmarks, to the west of Donegore Parish Church. Approached by a winding driveway to the north, marked by a modern gateway of low rendered screen walls and piers with steel gates. It stands in a garden of informal layout with grassed areas and rockery planting.
Front boundary to public road of thick foliated growth which hides most of the building from public view on that side.

Historical information

Built in 1962; architect, William McVeigh; extended in early 1990s.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1965-6, Co Antrim Sheet 96.
2. Information from the architect William McVeigh.
3. Information from the owner in 1994.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a 20th century house in a modern style which forms a conspicuous element in the landscape but it has been altered and extended so that it no longer stands as originally built.