Ben Neagh

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey house five windows wide with a central doorway and hipped roof. Main entrance faces south-west.

Entrance elevation symmetrical. Roofs of Bangor blue slates in regular courses; lead covering to ridges. Cast iron gutters in poor condition. Rendered walls, wet dash using small stones, lime washed and coloured; plain projecting stone eaves course, painted; plain platband at first floor level; moulded rendered plinth. Two lateral chimneys, smooth cement rendered with plain cornice; three pots to chimney, original, octagonal. Windows rectangular timber sliding sash, vertically hung, 6 over 6, without horns, to first floor, and 9 over 6, without horns, to ground floor; projecting sandstone cills; smooth rendered reveals.

The entrance is enclosed in a later conservatory constructed of glazed metal windows and French doors of 1930s appearance and style, on low rendered plinth walls, roughcast to both faces, with projecting concrete cills. Floor of conservatory has encaustic tiles of decorative pattern; roof of conservatory is of hipped form, entirely glazed, on steel framing members. Entrance set in a coved recess with elliptical head: comprises a rectangular timber door, 6-panel, raised and fielded, flanked by narrow fluted timber columns with a moulded cornice, surmounted by an elliptical fanlight with radial and looped glazing bars. The ground floor of the entrance front is enclosed by overgrowth from the garden to each side of the conservatory.

The north-west end elevation of main front block is two-storey, one window wide; walling as previous; gutter as previous. Window on first floor has been blocked up: rectangular shape evident in tone of render; some render missing at bottom to reveal red brick blocking. Window to ground floor is blocked with corrugated iron.

Returning forward from rear line of first block is a lower two-storey gabled outbuilding: rendered as previous to main house but with render missing to reveal basalt rubble carcass. Gable attached to main house by short link wall of rendered brick rubble, but eaves area covered by creeper. Outbuilding roof slated as previous; ridge tiled. North-west elevation has similar walling to gable, with projecting brick eaves course; almost all of the metal gutter is missing. Two windows to first floor; three to ground floor, all open and unglazed; brick reveals.

Extending to the left is a small roofless gabled outbuilding at the end of the two-storey outbuilding.
Rear elevation of main front block: two-storey, dominated by two large chimney stacks, with the rear return projecting forward at the left-hand side. Walling is roughcast as previous to other elevations, in poor condition.
Two windows to first floor, rectangular timber sliding sash, 6 over 6, without horns, with exposed sash boxes. Ground floor of main front block not visible at time of visit as contained within enclosed yard.

North-west elevation of rear return is of similar character to south-east elevation; contains rectangular timber sashed windows. Ground floor of rear return not visible at time of visit as contained within enclosed yard.

Returning to the north west from the end of the long rear return is a two-storey slated and gabled outbuilding in partially derelict condition, displaying a bell-cote on the north-west gable and partly closing the rear end of the rear yard.

South-east elevation comprises two-storey end of the main front block, one window wide, with a long two-storey rear return extending to the north-east in stages. Main front block has slated hipped roof, as previous; cast iron gutter as previous, returning at right to rear elevation. Cast iron downpipe at right-hand side, at lower level, to collect discharge from rear return. Walling as previous to front. One window to each floor, sashed as previous to entrance front. Render of reveals to ground floor window spalling, to reveal brickwork beneath.

Rear return set back slightly, with lower eaves and ridge lines. Walling similar to main block but without platband or plinth. First block of return is three windows wide; gabled roof slated as previous; two chimneys to right-hand side, smooth rendered as previous chimneys; modern terracotta pots with similar cowls. Cast iron gutter in poor condition, with cast iron downpipes. Windows are rectangular timber sashes without horns, 3 over 6 to first floor with projecting stone cills, and 6 over 6 to ground floor, with similar cills. First opening to left on ground floor is a doorway, in the form of a rectangular timber sliding sash vertically hung, 6 over 4 with three wooden panels at the base.
Door enclosed in a later open porch, of timber construction on low roughcast plinth walls; hardboard internal lining with half-round logs of fir in herringbone pattern as external cladding; deep stone doorstep bounded by concrete flagging. Slated roof to porch, with timber barge boards.
Gable of first block of return is of basalt rubble, rendered; sandstone copings to gable.

Extending to the north-east of the first block of the return is a lower two-storey block in the same plane: slated gabled roof in poor condition; cast iron gutter in poor condition; cast iron downpipe. One chimney, smooth rendered as previous, but with a stack extension, rendered but spalling to show red-brick carcass; two plain earthenware pots. Walling similar to first return block. Four windows to first floor, all rectangular timber sashes; first two from left are 2 over 2, with horns; second two are 2 over 4, without horns. Ground floor windows are also sashed, from left to right: first three, 2 over 4, without horns; end two, 2 over 2, with horns.

Extending to the north-east from end of return gable is the set-back blank wall of a gabled block; slated roof, much sagged; eaves overgrown with creeper.

SETTING: The house stands within its own extensive grounds facing the main road but set well back from it, overlooking a grazing field, with a belt of trees along the boundary to the road. Main approach is by a curving drive branching off the driveway to a new house in the grounds to the east; entrance to the driveway from the main road is marked by a pair of modern rubble stone piers flanked by splayed front boundary walls of similarly modern character. Mature trees to each side of the house, with an overgrown garden around its perimeter. Secondary approach from road to north is by a driveway to outbuildings at rear. Outbuildings are of generally poor architectural quality.

Historical information

Built in 1810, presumably for James Macauley who was recorded as living there in the 1830s; James Macauley was the son of Robert Macauley the proprietor of nearby Glen Oak house and mills. In the 1880s Ben Neagh was the residence of Jonathan Peel whose descendants occupied it until recently. Subject of a repair scheme in 1979. The first survey in 1972 recorded a datestone of 1822 with shamrock motif but the location not established.

References – Primary Sources
1. OS Map 1832-3, Co Antrim 59.
2. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 35: Parishes of County Antrim XIII, 1833, 1835, 1838 (Belfast, 1996), pp 14, 47.
3. S. Lewis. Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), p 133.
Secondary Sources
1. U.A.H.S., West Antrim (Belfast, 1970), p 9.
2. R. Pierce and A. Coey, Taken for Granted (Belfast, 1984), p 122.

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 late Georgian house in a plain style, which appears to retain most of its original exterior features intact, but whose originally distinct and characteristic proportions and appearance have been spoiled by the later porches on the front and side elevations..