’Drift Inn’ Bar, Manor Street, Donaghadee, Co Down

The site represents the former location of a house, later a public house, dating from approximately 1830, which was demolished around 1994 and remains vacant. Located at the northern end of Manor Street, near the Parade in Donaghadee, the building was described in 1977 as a substantial two-storey late Georgian house. It featured a central doorway with a fine elliptical arch fanlight, flanked by wide canted bays that rose to pyramidal roofs.

A town plan of Donaghadee, created around 1836 to accompany valuation records, depicts the house with its distinctive canted bays. At that time it was part of the estate of the late R. Halliday and had a rateable value of £34. Following the arrival of the railway in 1860/61, which terminated just northeast of the site, the property was renamed the Railway Hotel and subsequently operated as a public house, known as the ‘Drift Inn’. The building was demolished around 1994. The site lies within the Donaghadee conservation area.