23/25 Kinallen Road, Kinallen, Dromara, Dromore, Co. Down, BT25 2NW

A single-storey vernacular house sited gable-end to a bend in the road leading from Kinallen to the Dromore-Ballynahinch road, approximately two-thirds of a mile from Kinallen village. The building faces north.

The walls are harled and whitened or roughcast. The thatch roof is now covered with corrugated iron and is terminated by cement skews at the extremities, with plastic gutters supported on rise and fall brackets. Three chimneys serve the building: the east gable rises to a plain chimneystack with one clay pot, while two others at intermediate points are corbelled and each support a pair of pots.

The north-facing elevation, from left to right, comprises: two vertically sliding sash windows with two vertical divisions and horns; a framed, ledged and sheeted door; three top-opening plastic framed windows; a modern framed and sheeted half door with small glazed pane in the upper part; and a plastic framed window. The roof level then drops to cover a byre, which has a 2x3 metal window and a ledged and sheeted entrance door. A metal-sheeted door provides access to the garden, and there is a sheeted opening in the gable of the byre. The rear elevation, starting from the right, features a gate pillar with modern gate, a vertically sliding sash window with two vertical divisions, and four plastic framed windows.

The building has been altered at different periods, though vestiges of original details remain, such as the original profiles of surrounds. Plastic framed windows have been inserted but the original shapes of openings have been retained. The internal layout reflects changes made over time.

The house was built in three phases. The roadside section was erected after 1832 and appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833-34. The central section dates to before 1860 and appears on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1858. The eastern portion was added in 1949. The original smaller house does not appear in the 1835 valuation but the enlarged structure is recorded in the 1862 valuation, when it contained two dwellings occupied by George Bryson and Ann Bryson, each rated at £1. According to the present owner, one of the rooms of the original house was used for weaving. A small structure occupying the northern corner of the site is shown on both the 1833-34 and 1858 Ordnance Survey maps.