The Manse, 44 Hillsborough Road, Ballymacormick, Dromore, Co Down, BT25 1QN

The Manse is a symmetrical two-storey three-bay former manse built around 1860, located on the south side of Hillsborough Road east of Dromore town centre in County Down. The building is square on plan with a return to the rear.

The house is topped with a hipped natural slate roof featuring leaded hips and ridges, with two central rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods sit on projecting timber eaves. The walls are pebble-dashed on a smooth rendered plinth. Windows throughout are timber-framed sliding sash, six-over-six panes without horns, with projecting painted sills. The principal elevation faces west and comprises three bays to each floor. At ground floor centre is an elliptical-headed doorcase accessed via three stone steps, featuring a replacement four-panelled timber door flanked by sidelights with panelled aprons and surmounted by a timber spider-web fanlight. The north elevation contains two windows to ground and first floor. The east (rear) elevation and south elevation have been modernised.

The Manse was the home of ministers of Banbridge Road Presbyterian Church from around 1860 until 1930. The building does not appear on the second edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1859 but is first depicted on the third edition of 1903; Griffith's Valuation of 1861 places its construction between 1859 and 1861. It was valued at £22 and leased to Reverend John McKee by Mr. Robert Dickson. McKee's successor, Reverend James Rentoul, occupied the manse from 1877 until around 1918. The 1901 Census recorded it as a first-class dwelling of 14 rooms; the 1911 Census noted associated outbuildings including a stable, three fowl houses, a barn and a store.

During Reverend Rentoul's ministry in the early 20th century, the church committee considered whitewashing the exterior, but Rentoul instead took matters into his own hands and tarred the building. The manse subsequently became known locally as the 'Black Manse' and attracted visitors from across Ireland as a notable oddity. The tar remained on the walls until 1967, when it was removed using a pneumatic drill and the plaster reapplied. The building underwent extensive renovation and modernisation in 1967, including the addition of a new door and modernisation of the rear return. The congregation sold the building in 1982 to raise funds for a new ministerial dwelling, which was completed in 1984. Since then the former manse has served as a private residence.

The building sits on a secluded elevated site accessed by a tarmac driveway from the northwest, lined with mature conifer trees and leading to a rear yard. The entrance is marked by rendered walls with flat coping stones and two Victorian square cast-iron gate piers with decorated shafts and finials (the right pier missing its finial). The front and north of the house feature a lawn and shrub garden. The manse represents a good example of a typical four-square Georgian-type dwelling of its period, remaining in its original setting despite modernisation.