12A Kearney Village, Kearney Road, Kearney, Portaferry, Co Down, BT22 1QP

12A Kearney Village is a Grade B2 listed building, a former stable block of mid 19th century construction converted to a dwelling around 1990. The building sits on the southern edge of Kearney Village, approximately three miles east of Portaferry, County Down.

The structure is a long single-storey building with an asymmetrical south-east facing front façade. To the right of centre is a timber-sheeted outer storm door with a small glazed panel in its upper half. Four sash windows with vertical astragals are positioned to the left of the doorway, with two further similar windows to the right. The north-east gable contains a comparable sash window, whilst the south-west gable is blank. The rear elevation features four matching sash windows with a timber conservatory positioned between the second and third windows.

The building is finished in plain render and painted. The roof is gabled and covered with Bangor blue slates. The structure has rendered parapets and a single rendered chimney stack with two pots. Cast iron gutters and downspouts complete the external fittings. A small flat rubble outhouse and raised garden occupy the rear.

Historical records show a long building on this site on the 1834 Ordnance Survey Map, with a much shorter structure appearing on the revised 1860 map. According to current residents and neighbours, the building functioned as a stable block before its conversion during the early 1990s. A survey conducted in December 1970 identified it as a derelict single-storey cottage, though original survey photographs suggest it was indeed a stable block.

Kearney Village itself has deep historical roots. In early medieval times, the townland of Kearney was held by the McKearneys, possibly distantly related to the O'Neills of Tyrone. During the later medieval period, the Gaelicised Norman Savages acquired the land and leased much of it to the Smith family. A 1643 lease from Patrick Savage to Patrick Smith references the lucrative mill operations—the mill, mill ponds and watercourses—which generated substantial income for the landlord. By the later 17th century, the Savages had leased Kearney to the Ross family of Rosstrevor, who maintained possession throughout the 18th century. A March 1729 lease provides the first clear indication of a substantial settlement at the present village site.

The settlement expanded throughout the remainder of the 18th century, with residents employed on local farms and at two nearby flax and corn mills, whilst supplementing incomes through salvaging shipwrecks and possibly smuggling. The village likely reached its peak population and activity during the 1830s, when it comprised 33 families, two schools (one Church of Ireland and Catholic, the other Presbyterian), and a ceilidh house. Most buildings visible today appear to have been present by this period. The 1836 valuation records only three single-storey houses, occupied by Hugh McNabb, John McNabb, and Widow Hasty, who owned the nearby windmill.

Kearney's decline began in the latter half of the 19th century. By 1900, the population had halved as residents sought opportunities in towns or emigrated. By 1938, most farms and cottages had passed to Hugh Orr, who operated a model farm nearby. The decline continued, and by 1945 only three houses sheltered seven residents in total. When the National Trust acquired the village twenty years later, supported by funds from the Enterprise Neptune campaign, it was virtually a ghost town. Since 1965, the Trust has worked to restore and reconstruct Kearney based on the village plan shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey Map, representing the settlement at its zenith. Most houses are now occupied as full-time residences or holiday lettings, with all properties leased from the Trust.