Cottage, Clandeboye Estate, Bangor, County Down, BT19 1RN

A one-and-a-half-storey five-bay cottage predating circa 1830, located within the Clandeboye Estate near Bangor, County Down. The building has a rectangular plan form with a small rear extension. Although its overall proportions and scale survive, numerous alterations and additions have significantly diminished its historic and architectural interest. While it holds local note as part of the Clandeboye Estate, it is not among the finest examples of its type.

The cottage features a pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles, plain timber fascia and barge boards, and plain timber soffits with eaves brackets. The chimneys are smooth rendered with overhanging coping and pots. The walling is finished in smooth cement render. Windows are replacement timber casements with astragals and masonry rectangular cills. The door is replacement plain timber with a half-circle concrete step. Replacement uPVC rainwater goods are installed throughout.

The principal south-west elevation is symmetrically arranged with a centrally located front door flanked by two ground floor windows. Above the door is a diminished six-paned fixed upper floor window. The left gable is asymmetrically arranged with one ground floor window to the left and two upper floor windows. The right gable mirrors the left. The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with a single-storey lean-to extension abutting the right side, featuring an artificial slate roof and roof light. Two modern roof-lights have been inserted into the rear roof pitch.

The cottage is set within a small enclosed site bounded to the west and south by a hedge with a mild-steel gate fixed to concrete piers. To the north and east are numerous timber and rubble sheds, outbuildings, and animal enclosures, beyond which extends a generally uninterrupted woodland and rural setting, apart from a large modern extension to the Clandeboye Lodge Hotel.

The cottage first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, depicted as an oblong building in the townland of Ballyleidy, half a kilometre south of Clandeboye House. The second edition map of 1858 shows no change. Griffith's Valuation of 1861 records that the cottage formed part of the Ballyleidy (later Clandeboye) Estate, though it was not separately valued but assessed together with the main house at £240. The cottage was first valued separately in 1894 when the Annual Revisions recorded it as a house and garden let by the Marquis of Dufferin, who was also noted as the occupant, valued at £4 10s.

Around 1910, a Mr. Henry Perry came into possession of the cottage. The 1911 Census states that Perry, a 33-year-old Presbyterian farm labourer, resided there with his wife Matilda, aged 31, and their four children. The Census Building Return describes the property as a second-class dwelling consisting of eight rooms with a small number of outbuildings including a cow house and shed.

The third edition Ordnance Survey maps (1900-02) record that kennels for the Clandeboye Estate were constructed at the rear of the house between 1858 and 1900. These kennels are not recorded in either the Annual Revisions or the 1911 Census, although it is likely that Henry Perry was charged with their keeping due to the close proximity of his house. Perry occupied the cottage until 1917, when it passed to Mr. John Wilson, who occupied the site until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1923. No further changes were recorded until the current edition Ordnance Survey map of 1968. The cottage continues to be occupied and remains owned by the Clandeboye Estate. Wooden animal enclosures to the rear of the dwelling indicate that its role in caretaking the estate's kennels continued until recent years.