15 Drumhirk Avenue, Drumhirk, Conlig, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 7QB

15 Drumhirk Avenue is a 1½ storey vernacular dwelling predating 1830, located on Drumhirk Avenue south-west of Six Road Ends near Newtownards, County Down. The building originated as a two-bay direct entry farmhouse and has been extended and adapted over time, with significant extensions added in the 1870s. It remains largely unchanged and retains much of its original style and proportions, including the later additions. The house, outbuildings, farmyard and garden setting are all relatively unchanged and represent a good example of a developed vernacular dwelling with well-preserved interior details, of an increasingly rare type and traditional arrangement.

The main house is roofed in natural slate with clay ridge tiles. The chimney stacks are smooth rendered with terracotta pots positioned at the gable ends of the original two-bay dwelling. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout. The walling is roughcast. Windows are 2/2 timber sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars and horns (unless replaced), set with stone cills. The principal elevation faces east and is asymmetrically arranged. A single-storey lean-to abutment with a gable rising left of centre embraces the front entrance, flanked by two unequally spaced single windows. The lean-to has single windows to its north and south faces. To the left of the lean-to is a single replacement timber casement window; to the right are three replacement timber casement windows with cills and window heads at various levels. The symmetrical left (north) gable has two windows flanking the chimney breast at attic level. The front door is a replacement timber door with a fanlight, embraced by squared pilasters rising to moulded imposts within a round-arch opening with a central decorated key block.

The rear (west) elevation is asymmetrically arranged with a hipped porch abutment located right of centre, featuring a vertically sheeted half door to its east face and single windows to its north and south faces. Single windows flank either side of the main elevation; cills and window heads are at various levels. Paired windows appear to the left, with a door to the far left and a single horizontally orientated timber casement window to the right.

To the south, the dwelling is abutted by outbuildings which turn at right-angles and project eastwards, forming a hipped roof with the main dwelling block. When viewed from the front (west) elevation, the ridge of the outbuildings projects above that of the dwelling block, forming a sloping triangle. The outbuildings are natural slate roofed rubble masonry with red brick surrounds. Detached single-storey gable-ended rendered outbuildings enclose the yard. Further modern agricultural units lie beyond.

The setting is enhanced by lime-rendered walling extending past the front elevation beyond the garden, with large circular and square piers flanking the yard and field entrance, and iron gates. Open rural landscape surrounds the property on all aspects.

Mapping evidence shows that the 1833–34 Ordnance Survey map depicts two ranges at right-angles corresponding to the present house and stable block. By 1858 a third outbuilding had been added to the north, creating a farm courtyard on three sides. The junction between the house and stable block was also filled in by this date, giving the house an extra bay to the south-west. The area has remained largely undeveloped since the earliest Ordnance Survey records.

According to Griffith's Valuation, the house, office and land were leased from Lord Dufferin and Clandeboye by William Boyd, a farmer. The buildings were valued at £3 and the farm comprised over 49 acres. William Boyd died in 1867 and was succeeded by Hugh Boyd, probably his son. Hugh Boyd enlarged the buildings on the site during the 1870s, adding porches to the farmhouse and extending the outbuildings to the east. By 1875, the total valuation of buildings had risen to £8 10 shillings. Hugh Boyd died in 1888. The farm appears to have passed to his widow Margaret Boyd until her death in 1892, when William R Boyd (known as William Boyd Junior) took over. Annual Revisions records show no further significant changes thereafter.

William Boyd Junior held other farms in Drumhirk Townland during the periods of the 1901 and 1911 censuses. In 1901, the thirty-eight-year-old Boyd lived with his wife Agnes and their one-year-old son in a house with five windows to the front facade, comprising six rooms. By 1911 the couple had four further children, and Agnes's mother, a widow, was also in residence. The Boyd family remained as occupiers until at least 1929. The house and outbuildings continue in use as a farm.