Ballealy Cottage was built in 1865 for the deerkeeper on the Shane's Castle estate, beside Lough Neagh, Co. Antrim. Set in a woodland by a stream, Ballealy presents a fairytale appearance of irregular gables and half-hipped roofs, edged with ornate bargeboards of trefoils and bold horned curls. Ballealy is built around a tiny central courtyard and is entered through an arched passageway. The outbuildings include a venison store.
It was built from local blackstone c.1835 for the estate deerkeeper and modelled, in miniature, on the lodge of the Windsor forest ranger, possibly by the architect Richard Morrison.
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