Dunbarton, 59 Dunbarton Street, Gilford, CRAIGAVON, Co Down, BT63 6HJ

Dunbarton is a detached five-bay two-storey building of mid-nineteenth-century date, built around 1850 and located on the west side of Dunbarton Street in Gilford. The building is rectangular on plan with a single-storey flat-roofed garage attached to the south elevation. The roof is pitched natural slate laid over corbelled eaves. Chimneys are smooth rendered with corbelled coping and clay pots, positioned on both north and south gables. The walls are roughcast rendered with smooth quoins over a smooth rendered plinth. Windows are square-headed timber 6/6 sliding sashes with exposed sash boxes and painted stone sills. The principal north-east facing elevation contains five openings at each floor, arranged about a central square-headed entrance, though these openings are now blocked due to fire damage. The south-east gable is ruled-and-lined rendered, abutted at ground floor by the flat-roofed garage. The north-west gable is also ruled-and-lined rendered. The south-west rear elevation was not surveyed.

The building is set within grounds below the level of Dunbarton Street, bounded by replacement stone walling with access from the south-east. A recent single-storey outbuilding and workshop stands directly to the north.

Originally constructed as Gilford police station and court house, the building first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, captioned as a Constabulary Barrack. In Griffith's Valuation of around 1861, it is listed as a Police Barrack, Sessions House and yard, valued at £20, with an annual rent of £25 paid to the landlords, Dunbar McMaster & Co, owners of the local mill. In 1879 the police barrack relocated to 28 Main Street in Gilford, but the sessions house remained operational for some years, still in use during the Second World War. The remainder of the building was converted to domestic use, valued at £15 and successively occupied by William Wright (1880), Andrew Gregg (1885) and Thomas C Rogers (1896). From 1920 the occupier was John H Gough and his wife, who were resident at the outbreak of the Second World War. Mrs Gough was responsible for distributing orange juice, cod-liver oil and national dried milk from the courthouse as part of the wartime rationing system.

The building has sustained fire damage and is currently vacant. Despite this damage, the original structure survives and retains original features including the timber sliding sashes. The building represents an unusual local example of a combined police station and court house, reflecting mid-nineteenth-century developments in local administration and justice.