Rectory, Church Hill, Killinchy, Co Down, BT23 6PP

This is the site of a rectory house of probable early to mid eighteenth-century origin, built to serve Killinchy parish church. The house may have been built by Reverend Hamilton Traill of Holly Park around 1757 or earlier. It appears on Taylor's and Skinner's road map of 1777 as 'Rockmount', noted as being in the possession of Dr. Traill. The 1833 Ordnance Survey memoirs describe it as 'a very neat and comfortable residence commanding a good view of Lough Strangford'.

The building was a two-storey house with single-storey gabled side wings. The central block had a slated roof with gable ends and rendered chimneys. The walls were rendered and roughcast with stone eaves, a cornice and blocking course. The principal facade featured three first-floor and two ground-floor double-hung windows with Georgian panes. A central doorway had a moulded surround with a semi-circular arched head enclosing a decorated fanlight, with a moulded archivolt, decorated frieze and transom, and side Ionic columns which were partly fluted. This doorway was subsequently enclosed by a gabled porch with a slated roof and plain barges, and a central panelled door with a semi-circular arch and plain fanlight over a lintel. The approach consisted of four wide steps with side retaining blocks. Double-hung windows flanked the doorway on each side and the porch on each side with sill courses. The left-hand wing had a mock pediment and one central double-hung window. The right-hand wing had a five-sided bay on the gable with a hipped and slated roof, and the same double-hung window on the front with a semi-circular arch opening to a basement below. The front elevation extended approximately eighty-five feet with an extension on the right-hand side. A coach yard at lower level to the east was enclosed by former stable buildings.

The 1835 valuation records note that the house, then occupied by Reverend Henry Ward, had wings to the east and west gables and an extensive collection of outbuildings including a coal store, stables, coach house, cow house, shed and store. The building remained in Ward's possession at the time of the second valuation around 1861, when the Ordnance Survey map indicates an entrance porch to the south facade. The gate lodge had been built by this time also.

The church sold Rockmount in 1935, but as the buyer was the incumbent minister, Reverend Ralph Stone, the building continued to serve as the de facto rectory until 1945, when a serious fire forced the under-insured Reverend Stone to sell it to a Major Wilson. It remained in Wilson family hands until 1975, when Mr. and Mrs. Wilson demolished the building due to its poor condition.

A modern bungalow was subsequently constructed a few yards to the south of the former house. All former outbuildings have been demolished. To the south of the present house stands a large rubble-built gate post which likely marks the site of the original entrance drive. The 1834 Ordnance Survey map shows the present drives but also appears to indicate an unused entrance which would correspond with the position of this post, possibly abandoned following a minor road realignment or the removal of a roadside building around that time.

A simple, single-storey gabled gate lodge of circa 1840 survives at the south-west entrance to the site. The north facade has a right-of-centre gabled porch with a recessed door; to the far left is a sash window with horizontal glazing bars. The west gable has a large double sash window. The east gable appears once to have had a door, now blocked with brick. The entire facade is finished in roughcast. The roof is covered with Bangor blue slates and has an overhang with plain barges. There is a central chimney stack and no rainwater goods. The lodge is now vacant and slightly dilapidated.

The site occupies a wooded rise off Church Hill in the small village of Killinchy.