Carrick House, 31 Carrick Road, Carrickdrumman, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 3PA

Carrick House is a symmetrical three-bay two-storey detached farmhouse built around 1840, located on the west side of Carrick Road south of Banbridge. The building replaced an earlier vernacular dwelling on the site, as recorded on the First Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1834, where a thatched single-storey cottage (measuring 46.6 by 20 feet) with two single-storey thatched outbuildings are shown. The Townland Valuation (1828–40) lists the occupier as Joseph Carswell and notes the earlier buildings were old and slightly decayed. The rebuilding c.1840 reflects the prosperity achieved by the Carswell family during a period of widespread agricultural subsistence and famine in Ireland.

The farmhouse is rectangular on plan with a single-storey lean-to extension to the rear. It is simply proportioned and composed on a symmetrical plan, with architectural fabric largely intact and much early character preserved. The pitched natural slate roof features angled ridge tiles and raised stone verges, with rendered chimneystacks to the gables. Cast iron half-round rainwater goods are mounted on drive-in brackets. The walling is roughcast render. Windows throughout are six-over-six timber sliding sash with projecting sills.

The principal elevation faces east, arranged in three openings wide to each floor around a central doorcase. The doorcase is a particularly fine nineteenth-century feature, consisting of a four-panelled timber door with decorative oval-paned sidelights surmounted by an ornate spider-web fanlight. The south gable contains a smaller six-over-six window to the attic, with two further windows to the first and ground floors. The west (rear) elevation displays a symmetrical arrangement of openings. To the left is the abutting single-storey lean-to extension. At centre stands a round-arched multi-paned stairwell window with a timber-sheeted door to ground floor. To the ground floor right is a diminutive timber casement window set within an elliptical-arched recess.

The building is set back but visible from the road, accessed by a long tarmacadamed lane to the east. It stands surrounded by farmland and bounded by mature hedgerow with specimen trees. The rear yard is enclosed by two-storey rubble stone barns slated to roof, both built to courses with roughly dressed granite quoins, granite sills and plinth blocks to doors. The south barn features an unusual window with flush exposed box and flush transom beneath a relieving arch. Access to the barns is gained from the southeast via a pair of round gate piers with pointed caps supporting wrought-iron gates. Modern farm buildings lie to the south and an agricultural shed to the northwest.

The farmhouse is shown on the Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map of 1860 with the small rear return (still present) and outbuildings forming a courtyard. Griffith's Valuation (1856–64) records the occupier as John Carswell, with the house, offices and land comprising over seventy acres leased from Earl Clanwilliam. The buildings are valued at £15. The farm passed to William Carswell in 1887 following his father's death in 1884. John Carswell's will, dated 18th December 1884, distributed considerable financial assets (over £2,000) and several farms among his sons: Samuel inherited farms in Ballymacaratty Beg and Legananny; William inherited farms in Ballymacarraty More and Meenan; both also received a farm in Lisnagonnell. The Carrickdrumman farm does not form part of the recorded bequests. The 1901 census records William Carswell at the farm with his wife and six-year-old daughter; the twelve-room house is designated first class with thirteen outbuildings. By 1905, Arthur Bryson had taken over occupation, recorded in the 1911 census as newly married with six children from a previous marriage, all noted as scholars, plus two farm servants and a general domestic servant from County Armagh.

Arthur Bryson acquired ownership in fee in 1931 under land purchase legislation designed to redistribute large estates. The First General Revaluation of the 1930s revalued the house at £15 10s and £5 for agricultural buildings. The valuer noted it as a "Good house in fair repair, well fitted. Medium situation. Good agricultural buildings." The ground floor comprised two receptions, kitchen, pantry and scullery; the first floor contained four bedrooms, a bathroom with hot and cold water and WC, with two attics in the roofspace. Outbuildings documented include a two-storey stable and cart house to the north (still present), a potato house to the west (still present), and a two-storey byre, barn and garage with lofts over to the south (still present). The house passed to Robert Bryson in 1938, with no further occupiers recorded until 1957. The name 'Carrick House' first appears on the Ordnance Survey map of the 1960s–70s edition. The house remains in use as a dwelling.

As a middle-sized farmhouse, Carrick House is one of the better surviving examples of its type in the area, where such houses are becoming increasingly rare. The listing extends to the house, outbuildings, walls, gates and gate piers.