126 Portadown Road, Armagh, BT61 9HL

An elongated single-storey vernacular building located 5.5 kilometres north-east of Armagh City on the north-west side of the main road between Portadown and Armagh. The building demonstrates the pattern of a 'long house' farmstead with a house occupying the northern end and a cowshed at the southern end. Orientated on a north-south axis and following the fall in topography, the structure terminates at two heavily buttressed corners on the north gable. These brick and render-faced buttresses display a pronounced batter. The wall construction is likely rubble stone, rendered externally with sand-cement finish and modern pebbledash to the porch. A small concrete blockwork kitchen extension is attached to the rear north-west corner, built into one of the buttresses. The current roof covering is asbestos sheet.

The front elevation faces east and features three windows and a porch door with painted modern cement surrounds. Two full-height unadorned openings serve the cowshed. Blockwork walling has been added to reduce the width of an opening in the southern cowshed. The replacement windows are single-glazed timber frames with one pane over one and top opening casements. The rainwater goods are half-round uPVC. A rendered brick chimney stack rises from the structure.

The site lies on the north-west side of Portadown Road. The front entrance faces the access lane to the east. The property bounds the A3 road to the south-east, with the gardens of two more recent dwellings to the south and west. What appear to be foundations are located in the garden to the north-west. The front and rear gardens are bounded by high hedges; whilst the front garden is open to the lane, the rear garden is secured by a five-bar field gate.

The building appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1835. Comparison with John Rocque's county map of 1760 shows that the present Armagh-Portadown Road did not exist at that time and no buildings are marked in this vicinity, suggesting the dwelling was constructed after 1760, though the scale and accuracy of the earlier map prevents certainty. The property was not recorded in the first valuation of Loughgall parish in 1837. In the second valuation of circa 1862 (by which time Mullanasilla townland had become part of the new civil parish of Kildarton), the occupant was noted as Ogle Hutchinson, leasing the house, office and land from the Molyneaux and Castle Dillon estate, with the dwelling rated at £1-15-0. By 1879 the property had transferred to George Hutchinson. In 1895 James Mallin became tenant, followed by Johnston Irwin in 1899. The 1901 census records Mr Irwin, a 34-year-old farmer, living here with his wife Sarah and three infant children, with the house recorded as a third-class thatched dwelling with five rooms in use. Johnston Irwin acquired the freehold in 1911 and remained resident according to valuation books through 1930.

Between circa 1954 and 1970 the house became the local post office, relinquishing this role prior to 1984. A neighbouring telephone kiosk was installed post-1970. The post office had previously been located in 136 Portadown Road from before 1891, transferred to 149 Mullanasilla Road sometime between 1905 and 1947, then to 126 Portadown Road at some point between 1947 and 1970.

The townland name Mullanasilla derives from Irish 'Mullach na Saileach', meaning 'summit of the sallows'. The immediate vicinity has the name 'Woodview', probably referencing the extensive woodland at nearby Castle Dillon. This name appears to have been applied to the pre-1835 house on the south-east side of the road (137 Portadown Road) by at least 1860. By the early 1900s the area was also referred to as 'Woodview Post Office'.

Much of the exterior finishes have been replaced, including wall finishes, windows and roof covering, with rainwater goods replaced in uPVC. There is insufficient original historic character extant to meet listing criteria. Planning approval appears to have been enacted for a replacement dwelling.