Tullyrain House, 39 Drumneath Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4EG

Tullyrain House is a symmetrical three-bay one-and-a-half-storey detached rendered farmhouse with a range of rubble stone outbuildings, built around 1810 and altered around 1860. It is located on the west side of Drumneath Road, east of Banbridge, in a rural setting on an extensive mature site surrounded by farmland.

The house is rectangular on plan with a full-height return and a double-height rubble stone extension to the rear. It has a pitched natural slate roof with blue and black angled ridge tiles and raised masonry verges, rendered chimneystacks with three clay pots to the gables, and cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on projecting eaves. The walling is smooth render.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged about a central doorway with a window on either side. The doorway is elliptical-headed with a bolection-moulded six-panelled timber door with brass furniture accessed by a granite step, flanked by fluted jambs with moulded circular motifs and four-paned side-lights, and surmounted by a timber spider-web fanlight. Windows throughout are replacement 6/6 tripartite timber-framed sashes with horns and projecting stone sills; replacement 2/2 timber-framed sashes to the gables; and uPVC and timber replacements to the return. The south gable has two windows to the first floor and a window to the ground floor on the left. The west (rear) elevation has a window to the ground floor on the left and is abutted on the right by the full-height return. The return has a gablet and a window at ground floor on the north elevation. The south elevation has been modified to include a large modern fully glazed gablet with a conservatory beneath. The west gable is abutted by the double-height rubble stone extension, which has a central recessed segmental-headed entrance bay in red-brick with a replacement timber door and replacement timber sash window, flanked by two replacement timber sash windows in red-brick surrounds. The north gable has two windows to the first floor; the ground floor is abutted by a tall rendered wall. External steps lead to the west elevation.

The setting comprises a farmyard to the north side of the house accessed from Quarry Road to the north and Drumneath Road to the east. Rendered square gate piers with pointed caps mark the Quarry Road entrance. The Drumneath Road entrance has rendered entrance walls and squared stone gate piers with pointed caps supporting original cast-iron gates, both leading to the farmyard. A northeastern yard is accessed by tall square rendered piers with pointed caps. The farmyard contains a variety of refurbished slated and painted rubble stone outbuildings, probably not original, all with various timber-sheeted and replacement corrugated metal doors.

The house retains its original facade but has been altered to the rear with the addition of a conservatory. Although significant in the locale, its character has been compromised by alterations and there are other, better, examples listed.

Documentary evidence shows the farm appearing on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 as a rectangular structure with a return forming a T-plan, situated at the head of a tree-lined avenue with gardens and orchards laid out to the rear. The second edition of 1860 shows additional outbuildings in the farmyard. The farm is captioned as Tullyrain House from the third edition of 1903 onwards. The Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840 records the farm as the home of Andrew McClelland, with dimensions given for a slated house, kitchen and outshot. The quality mark given suggests the house was more than twenty years old in the 1830s. Four outbuildings are listed, three of which were thatched. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 records the farmer as Robert Strong, with the farm extending to over 61 acres and leased from James Quinn. The valuer describes the farmhouse as 'respectable' and 'well situated' with a 'neat avenue and gate'. Two additional outbuildings were added to the plot at this stage, one being a piggery, and two of the older outbuildings remained thatched. In 1870 the valuation of the buildings was raised to £16, suggesting additions or improvements around this time. The farm was taken over by John Graham in 1872 and then by Francis McGibney in 1896. At the 1911 census McGibney, then sixty-five years old, was living in the ten-room house with his Waterford wife and three teenage children. He was a farmer and also received a soldier's pension from his service in the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, which played a key part in the Crimean War of the 1850s. The next tenant farmer was Robert McCahy, who at the 1911 census was living at the house with his wife and four daughters aged between one and seven. McCahy became owner in fee of the farm in 1913 under the Land Acts and the farm remained in the McCahy family at least until 1942 when Sarah Kathleen McCahy is noted as the owner. The First General Revaluation of the 1930s revalued the property at £5 10s for agricultural buildings and £9 5s for the farmhouse. The valuer's notes and plan describe a one-and-a-half-storey house with return housing a dairy and scullery outshot. Accommodation comprised four bedrooms, two receptions, a kitchen, pantry and scullery. The valuer commented that the farmhouse was in 'good condition, substantially built' with a 'fair finish'. The house remains in use as a domestic dwelling.