Cornhill House, 15 Cavehill Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 5BB

Cornhill House is a detached, symmetrical three-bay two-storey lime-rendered farmhouse built around 1820, located on the west side of Cavehill Road in Banbridge, County Down. The house is rectangular on plan, facing east, with a single-bay two-storey extension abutting the north gable added around 1900.

The original structure retains much of its historic character and fabric. The pitched roof is covered with notably large natural slate, topped with terracotta ridge tiles and three replacement profiled redbrick chimneystacks, with steel guttering on iron brackets fixed to the rendered eaves course. The front elevation is painted lime-rendered, whilst the remaining elevations and the extension are rendered in pebbledash with a smooth rendered plinth course.

The front east elevation displays three window bays with square-headed openings diminished in size, finished with painted masonry sills and exposed sash boxes. Original 2/2 timber sash windows with ogee horns are retained on the front elevation only. The rear elevation and east extension have been fitted with UPVC and timber casement windows respectively. At the centre of the symmetrical front elevation is a depressed elliptical-headed entrance, approached by three granite steps. The doorcase is tripartite in timber, surrounding an original vertically-sheeted woodgrained double-leaf timber door with iron door furniture, fixed-pane sidelights and a depressed timber radial fanlight above. The gabled south side elevation has a single 2/2 timber sash window to the ground floor and a chimney at the apex. The rear elevation contains irregularly arranged square-headed window openings and a square-headed door opening with a replacement vertically-sheeted timber door and rectangular overlight, opening directly onto the rear concrete paved yard. The gabled north side elevation, also with a chimney at the apex, is abutted by the gable-ended two-storey extension.

The plan form is notable as an apparent development of the lobby entry form with transverse stairs. The house originally contained ten rooms, and by 1933/4 comprised two rooms, a kitchen, pantry, milk room and three bedrooms.

The setting comprises an elevated site at a bend in Cavehill Road. The front garden is enclosed to the road by rough-cast rendered walls and a pair of wrought-iron gates on rendered piers, opening into a short gravel drive. A further vehicular entrance to the south, accessed via a pair of wrought-iron gates and sweeping rendered walls, provides access to the rear yard.

The farmyard is enclosed by two substantial rubblestone outbuildings forming an important part of the group. The southern outbuilding is two storeys tall, dated 'JUNE 1840', with a pitched natural slate roof, cast-iron rainwater goods and vertically-sheeted timber doors. It is abutted to the north by a flight of external stone steps and to the south by a lean-to structure with corrugated iron roof. The northern enclosure is a single-storey rubblestone outbuilding with pitched natural slate roof, vertically-sheeted timber doors with gauged redbrick arches to those on the rear north elevation. The west of the yard is enclosed by a late twentieth-century double-height structure. These outbuildings, together with the house, form a good and largely original vernacular group representing a substantial farm in a relatively unaltered state, now rare.

Historical records confirm the house and north outbuilding pre-date the first Ordnance Survey of 1833 and field inspection supports a construction date of around 1820. The Townland Valuation records it as a house and offices belonging to Joseph McKibben, valued at £6 13 shillings, with a two-storey slated dwelling measuring 44 by 23 feet and two thatched single-storey outbuildings. Griffith's Valuation of 1856-64 describes the property as a 'neat concern' occupied by Anthony McKibben, who leased it from the Representatives of William Sharman Crawford. The contemporary Ordnance Survey map of 1859 shows that a new outbuilding had been constructed forming a farmyard to the rear, bearing the datestone of June 1840. The house and outbuildings occupied a plot of over 81 acres and were valued at £9, rising to £10 10 shillings in 1872 following improvements to the outbuildings. The 1901 census recorded 63-year-old farmer Anthony McKibben resident with his sister and a domestic servant, the ten-room house designated first class. In 1903 the property passed to the Smyth family. The house has remained in domestic and agricultural use and continues to represent an important example of nineteenth-century rural settlement and farm organisation.