‘Grace Neill’s Bar’, 33 High Street, Donaghadee, Co. Down

Grace Neill’s is a small two storey (but low level) inn, in the middle of the terrace in High Street, which may have been built in 1611 and therefore claims to be Ireland’s oldest pub. But though the building is of undoubted great age, both the available evidence and its present facade appear to suggest an early eighteenth century date. The front (NE) facade has a central recessed doorway with recent but sympathetic timber sheeted and glazed double doors (with an outer wrought iron security gate). To the left is a square fixed light window with Georgian panes. To the far left is a timber sheeted door. To the right of the central doorway is a sash window with Georgian panes. To the far right is a timber sheeted door. Above the central door and the square window to its left is a timber sign board. The lower half of the facade is finished in lined render with a moulded course which follows the line of the tops of the ground floor openings. To the first floor are five evenly spaced sliding sash windows with Georgian panes. This upper half of the facade is finished in render. The original rear facade has now largely disappeared due to the addition of a large modern extension, however, the line of the original rear wall (and probably some of the original fabric) still stands and has been incorporated into the layout of the bar. There is a small fixed light Georgian paned ‘window’ to the NW side of this wall which may have been a real window at some point. The roof is gabled with shaped fibre cement slates, which are probably of early twentieth century origin. Central rendered chimney stack.