Glenlagan, 38 Skeagh Road, Dromore, Co Down, BT25 2QD

Glenlagan, 38 Skeagh Road, Dromore

Glenlagan is a two-storey house with attic, dated 1787, built in the Georgian style and extended in 1911. It sits on the south side of Skeagh Road approximately one mile north-west of Kinallen, in a rural setting bounded to the south and west by a tributary of the River Lagan. The house is the former dwelling of the mill master associated with a corn mill on the same site, and together with its outbuildings and surviving landscape features it forms a good example of the farmhouse type typical of this locale.

Architectural Description

The house has a rectangular plan form with a flat-roof replacement return and gabled rear abutments. The roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles, masonry skews, and roughcast rendered chimney stacks with corbelled caps and clay pots. Rainwater goods are cast-iron with an ogee moulded profile. External walls are finished in painted roughcast. Windows throughout are timber sliding sashes, 6-over-6 pane with horns and masonry cills, set into slightly projecting smooth rendered reveals. The front door is timber sheeted with a spoked fanlight and brass ironmongery, set within a round-headed arched opening with moulded pilaster and archivolt surrounds, approached by a granite step.

The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrically arranged overall. The original Georgian portion occupies the right-hand section and is symmetrically composed, with a centrally placed door flanked by two windows at ground floor level and five first-floor windows directly above. A date plaque above the door is inscribed "S.D. A.D. 1787". The 1911 addition projects to the left beyond the line of the principal elevation and is gable-ended with timber bargeboards and exposed purlin ends. It features a central canted bay with a leaded roof and carries a date plaque inscribed "R.B.D. A.D. 1911".

The north elevation is asymmetrically arranged with two windows at both ground and first floor levels and a single attic window. At ground floor left it is abutted by a single-storey gabled porch with a door to the left cheek and a diminished-in-scale window to the exposed rubble masonry gable. The rear elevation is also asymmetrically arranged, with two windows at ground and first floor level to the right, and a two-storey gabled abutment to the left (parallel ridge) containing single ground and first floor windows and a further diminished window to the right. Wrought-iron rooflights are present throughout. A single-storey flat-roofed extension, dating from approximately 1970, is centrally positioned on the rear. The south gable is asymmetrically arranged with a single ground floor window to the right and two diminished-in-scale attic windows.

Setting and Outbuildings

The house is approached from the road via a long driveway that meets the building at the rear. There is a lawn to the front, and an enclosed concrete yard to the north-west of the dwelling. A wooded area lies to the south and east, and a small garden to the south contains the former privy.

Several rubble masonry outbuildings and former dwellings are located to the west of the house. The former mill building (OB01), which pre-dates the house, is embedded in heavy vegetation on a steep embankment above the river. It has rubble masonry walls with brick surrounds, a pitched corrugated-iron roof, and a large segmental-arched opening on its gable end accessed by a masonry ramp. It is in poor condition. A split-level outbuilding (OB02) to the north-east of the mill block has rubble masonry construction with a slate roof and masonry skew; it features square-headed openings with fixed lights with glazing bars, timber sheeted doors, and masonry lintels. A single-storey outbuilding (OB03) with a chimney has rubble masonry walls, a slate roof, an elliptical-arched opening to the gable end, and fixed lights with glazing bars and timber lintels to the side elevations.

The south-west outbuilding (OB04) is of rubble masonry construction; the left portion appears to be a later addition and has slate roofing, while the right portion has a replacement roof. There is a chimney over the south-east gable, an elliptical-arched opening with brick surrounds and a timber sheeted door addressing the yard, and square-headed windows elsewhere. Some alteration to the openings on both long elevations is evident. The north-west outbuilding (OB05) is split-level with galletted rubble masonry and square-headed openings with masonry lintels. Its slate roof is in poor condition. The south-east elevation has a lattice window and timber sheeted doors; the south-west gable has arrow-loop openings and an attic window. The north-west elevation is abutted by a double-height corrugated-iron barn, and the north-east gable is abutted by a lean-to rubble masonry infill. The north-east outbuilding (OB06) is also split-level with galletted rubble masonry and a slate roof with diminishing courses. It has square-headed openings throughout with timber and masonry lintels, many of which have been altered; the south-east gable provides access to the upper deck via a modern opening. The former rubble masonry privy (OB07) has a replacement roof and is located within the small garden to the south.

Historical Background

According to the datestone on the building, Glenlagan was constructed in 1787. The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps, dated 1833, depicted the house as an L-shaped building associated with a corn mill on the nearby river and a large number of small outbuildings to the north-west and west. The majority of the smaller western outbuildings have since been demolished, though the three outbuildings to the north-west, arranged around a small courtyard and comprising two single-storey outbuildings and a two-storey barn, were already in existence by 1833 and survive in an excellent state of preservation.

The Townland Valuations recorded the site as occupied by a Mr Samuel Doake Esquire and valued at £21 18s., a figure reflecting the large number of outbuildings and the presence of the corn mill. By around 1861, the house and outbuildings were individually valued at £14 and the corn mill at £6. Samuel Doake continued to reside at Glenlagan until his death in 1901, though it is not known whether he worked the corn mill himself or let it to tenants; his Will records his occupation as a doctor. In 1901 his son Richard Doake took possession of the site. The 1901 census recorded Richard (aged 26, Presbyterian) as a scholar, residing with his sisters Emma (aged 23, employed as housekeeper) and Henrietta (aged 21, employed as a nurse). The census building return classified the house as a first-class dwelling with eight rooms, and noted the presence of a stable, cow house, piggery, and barn among the outbuildings.

By 1911 Richard Doake still owned the site but no longer resided there with his sisters; he had let both the house and the corn mill to a Mr James Dixon (aged 35, Unitarian). The two-storey extension to the north-west gable was added that same year, as confirmed by the second datestone. The value of the site was not revised upwards as a result, as many of the outbuildings had by then fallen into dilapidation. Richard Doake continued to be recorded as occupant of Glenlagan in the Annual Revisions until 1929, though it is not certain whether he resided there or let the property to tenants working the mill. The Doake family remained at Glenlagan at least until 1969, when a Mr P. J. Doake was recorded as both occupant and owner at the time of the First Survey. The house passed from the Doake family at some point in the late 20th century. Demolition of many of the smaller outbuildings took place in the mid-20th century, and the corrugated-iron outbuilding to the north was erected in the mid-20th century prior to the 1975 Ordnance Survey map. Glenlagan was listed in 1977 and remains in use as a dwelling.