87 Whinney Hill, Ballygrainey, Dundonald, Belfast, County Down, BT16 1UA

87 Whinney Hill, Ballygrainey, Dundonald, Belfast

A detached farmhouse built around 1800 as a single-storey vernacular dwelling and extended around 1900. The house is rectangular on plan with a single-storey side return to the west and a projecting single-storey gabled porch to the south. It is situated on a mature site with outbuildings to the north and a lawned garden with shrubs to the south.

The roof is pitched natural slate with two rendered chimneystacks, each carrying three clay pots on a moulded plinth. Rainwater goods are cast-iron half-round and ogee. The walling is smooth rendered. Windows throughout are predominantly 2/2 timber sliding sash with horns and horizontal glazing bars, set with projecting masonry sills.

The principal north elevation features three first-floor windows. At ground level, the left side has a single window, while the right side has a paired window with continuous sill. At the centre is a gabled porch opening to the east with a timber-sheeted door. The west gable is abutted by the single-storey side return, with a 6/6 sliding sash window at the left and full-height timber-sheeted double-leaf doors at the right. A herringbone timber shutter survives at an opening on the south elevation. The south elevation (facing the yard) has three first-floor windows, that at the right being lower in position. At ground floor, a replacement timber-sheeted door with a diminutive glazed panel sits right of centre, accessed by a single elongated slab step, with a 6/6 sliding sash window to the right. The east gable is abutted at ground floor by a slated lean-to containing a 1/1 metal casement window and a timber-sheeted latch door to the north elevation.

The site is enclosed to the road to the east by rubble stone walls with a curved rendered entrance featuring gate piers and wrought-iron farm gates. To the west are early rubble stone gate piers leading to an adjoining wood.

The outbuildings are arranged to the north around the farm yard. A single-storey range to the north comprises, from left to right, a metal casement window, a studded metal door, and a large replacement timber-sheeted door. A central block features two diminutive 2/2 timber-framed windows with timber-sheeted half doors at the centre. The block to the far left has full-height timber-sheeted doors on rollers. A one-and-a-half-storey barn to the west has a replacement round-headed window to the north gable. Its east elevation contains a round-headed carriage entrance at the left with replacement partially glazed double-leaf timber doors, flanked to the right by two diminutive 2/2 windows under the eaves and a replacement timber-sheeted door beneath. The south gable is blank. The west elevation has two 2/2 windows to the first floor at the left and two 2/2 windows to the ground floor at the left and right. A small block to the east at the left of the entrance has two timber-sheeted doors and two small windows. All outbuildings are one-and-a-half-storey rubble stone and brick, lime-rendered, with slated roofs. A threshing machine stands to the east.

Historical Context

The current farm is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 as a pair of parallel dwellings with what may be a small outbuilding between them. One of these houses survives as an outbuilding; the other was replaced by the two-storey farmhouse visible today at the turn of the century.

In Griffith's Valuation (1856–64), the houses are listed as the dwellings of James and Samuel Brown, both leased from the Marquess of Londonderry and valued at £1 10s. The Browns leased over 35 acres in total, valued at £15 for each of them. In 1867, James Brown's house was raised in value to £2 10s, possibly relating to the addition of a further building to the plot, which is first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–02 and still survives. Samuel Brown died around 1867 and his house was reduced in value to £1. Alexander Brown is noted as the occupier in 1877.

The valuation of the main house was increased to £7 in 1900 (reduced to £6 15s in 1904, possibly following an appeal). This increase is suggestive of the replacement of the original single-storey vernacular dwelling with the two-storey farmhouse present today. James Brown's census return of 1901 states that he was a farmer and widower, living with his three adult children, none of whom were married. His farmhouse had six windows to the front façade, six rooms, and ten outbuildings including two stables and three cow houses. James Brown died in June 1906, leaving a substantial fortune of nearly £1,000. That same year the farm was bought under land purchase legislation.

By 1908, James's son Alexander Brown is listed as the occupier of the main house, and he was living there with his brother and sister at the time of the 1911 census. The second house on the plot, now listed as offices or outbuildings, fell into ruins by 1908, when it was valued at 5s. In 1911, the valuation of the main house was increased again to £7 5s, indicating minor improvements. The farm appears to have remained in the Brown family throughout the period of Annual Revisions.

The house has recently been sympathetically restored by its current occupant. The landscape has changed little since the earliest Ordnance Survey map of 1834, the only major change being an increase in woodland in the area in recent times.