Fowlersbridge House, 109 Dromara Road, Ballyroney, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 5EY

Fowlersbridge House is a detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey rendered house built around 1850, situated on elevated ground to the south of Dromara Road near Fowler's Bridge over the Drumadonnell River. It represents a classic example of a prosperous Irish farmhouse of the mid-nineteenth century, with substantial historic fabric surviving intact.

The main house is approached by a short gravel drive from the east and features a single-storey front entrance porch with a flat roof concealed behind a parapet wall with deep moulded cornice and frieze. A two-storey gabled return projects from the rear elevation, and a pair of lean-to extensions flank the building at the re-entrant angles.

The pitched natural slate roof is finished with black clay ridge tiles and fitted with a pair of redbrick chimneystacks with octagonal clay pots rising from either gable end. Plastic guttering sits at the rendered eaves course, with original cast-iron downpipes retained to the return only. The walls are painted with ruled-and-lined render over a rendered plinth course, with rusticated rendered quoins at the corners. Square-headed window openings are set with painted masonry sills, and the building is predominantly lit by replacement 6/6 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes and ogee horns. The front porch has stop-chamfered reveals to its square-headed openings, replacement single-pane timber sash windows and a replacement timber panelled door opening onto granite step and platform. The east gable contains a single irregularly placed window opening at each level—a replacement single-pane timber sash window to the first floor and a replacement timber casement window to the ground floor. The rear elevation and gabled return have unpainted rendered walling with a variety of replacement single-pane timber sash or timber casement windows and a replacement timber door. The return features an oculus to its apex. The west gable has a single ground-floor window opening with a replacement 6/6 timber sash window.

The setting comprises an enclosed front garden and west garden bounded by rubblestone walls and hedging, with a cast-iron pedestrian gate mounted on masonry piers approached by a sweeping rendered wall. The rear yard is enclosed by two significant outbuildings. To the east stands a gable-fronted two-storey rendered outbuilding from the same mid-nineteenth-century period as the house, with a pitched natural slate roof, square-headed window and door openings fitted with steel casement windows and steel sliding doors, and replacement rainwater goods. To the south is a multi-bay two-storey rubblestone outbuilding added in the latter half of the nineteenth century, constructed of coursed rubblestone with squared quoins, pitched natural slate roof with replacement rainwater goods, square-headed window and door openings with stone lintels, sheeted timber doors and iron bars to the windows. This structure is abutted on its north elevation by an external flight of concrete steps and on its south elevation by a later lean-to extension.

The house was first recorded on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860, together with the eastern outbuilding which survives. By the third edition of 1901–2, the house was captioned 'Fowlersbridge House' and the southern outbuilding appeared for the first time. The property was recorded at Griffith's Valuation between 1856 and 1864 as valued at £10 with an annual rent of £11 payable by William Dodds, the tenant, to the Trustees of the Honourable Robert Meade as landlord. The valuation increased to £10 10s in 1872, suggesting minor additions or improvements, possibly relating to the construction of the southern outbuilding. The house passed through successive members of the Dodds family until 1921, when it was taken over by Mary Shanaghan, followed by Alexander McKee in 1949. Revaluations in the 1930s placed the house and agricultural buildings at £11 and £3 10s respectively; this figure rose to £12 in 1954 when a new byre built in 1949 was added to the assessment. According to 1930s documentation, the ground floor comprised two reception rooms, a kitchen, scullery and pantry, with a bathroom and WC on the first floor. Water had been laid on and the house was in very good repair with cement render and sash windows, though it was unoccupied at that time because the farm owner resided in Newcastle. The house and outbuildings remain in domestic and agricultural use today.