8 Balloolymore Road, Katesbridge, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 5QB

This is a detached symmetrical three-bay one-and-a-half-storey rendered house built around 1840, located on an elevated site on the north side of Balloolymore Road in Katesbridge. It is a modest example of rural farmhouse architecture from the period, distinguished by good survival of historic fabric and detailing.

The main house features a pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, rendered verges and rendered chimneystacks rising from all gables. The walls are finished in dry flint dash render with a smooth rendered plinth course. The symmetrical front elevation has three bays with square-headed window openings and painted masonry sills. The left window is a replacement 8/8 timber sash, while the right is an original 8/8 timber sash. The central feature is a three-centred arched door opening with an original tripartite timber frame, though the four-panelled door itself, webbed fanlight and sidelights are later replacements. The door opens onto a granite platform serving a paved front area overlooking the front lawn. Replacement plastic guttering and downpipes are fitted to the rendered eaves.

The west gable contains two original 2/2 timber sash windows serving the attic level. The rear elevation is partially obscured by an off-centre gable-ended return, which is one-and-a-half storeys in height. This return features a single round-headed stairhall window with an original 6/6 timber spoked sash window having a glazed hub, and a slender window opening at ground level with an original 4/4 timber sash window. A large square-headed window opening on the west cheek of the return has paired single-pane timber sash windows. A diminutive 2/2 timber sash window serves the attic level of the gable end.

The east gable has a pair of window openings to the upper level fitted with replacement timber casement windows. A flat-roofed single-storey extension abuts this gable, built around 1990. The extension has a single window opening to each level: a replacement timber casement window to the upper level and an original 2/2 timber sash window at ground floor. A further single-storey structure with a corrugated iron roof abuts the extension to the south and fronts onto the front garden.

The setting remains substantially intact. An enclosed yard lies to the east, paved in concrete and bounded by outbuildings. The north boundary is formed by a single-storey rubblestone outbuilding with a pitched natural slate roof (corrugated iron to the west), coursed and snecked rubblestone walling, vertically-sheeted timber sliding vehicular doors and some steel casement windows. The east boundary consists of a lofted single-storey lime-washed rubblestone outbuilding with a pitched natural slate roof, vertically-sheeted timber doors and some steel casement windows. Late twentieth-century structures enclose the south of the yard. These outbuildings, forming two linear ranges, represent the survival of small-scale rural industry and are historically associated with corn and flax mills that originally occupied the site.

Historic records show that the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833-4 records "Flour & Corn Mills" and a "Flax Mill" to the west of the present site, with further structures to the east that appear to have survived as outbuildings. The south outbuilding is oriented slightly differently on the second edition map of 1860 and may represent a rebuild. The Townland Valuation of 1828-40 records a house and corn, flour and flax mills on the site, with the dwelling house then occupied by Mrs Mayne.

The Maine family built the present cottage in the mid-nineteenth century. Griffith's Valuation of 1856-64 lists it as a house and offices occupied by William Maine and leased from Alexander Maine, valued at £10. The property was described as a neat cottage situated on a farm of over 61 acres, with the farm and return slated, and single-storey outbuildings recorded as thatched and slated. In 1904 the house passed to Samuel McLelland, recorded in the 1911 census as a farmer living at the house with his wife and five children. The nine-room house with 12 outbuildings was designated second class. The farm remained in the McLelland family into the 1930s, when accommodation comprised four bedrooms, two reception rooms, a kitchen, scullery and pantry. The house continues in use as a domestic dwelling.