16 Drumlee Road, Ballyward, Castlewellan, Co Down, BT31 9RS

16 Drumlee Road, Ballyward, Castlewellan, Co Down

A one-and-a-half storey two-bay direct-entry farmhouse dating from approximately 1800-1819 and pre-dating 1834, located at the end of a long lane approximately four miles west of Castlewellan on the north side of Drumlee Road. The building retains overall historic character and detailing alongside associated outbuildings, forming a good complex of traditional vernacular rural buildings that is becoming increasingly rare in the area.

The farmhouse has a rectangular plan form with a gabled windbreaker porch, a lower adjoining byre, and further detached outbuildings. The pitched natural slate roof features clay ridge tiles and cement skews. The chimneystacks are ruled-and-lined rendered with corbelled upper courses and clay pots. The eaves are corbelled red brick with no rainwater goods. The walls are lime render over rubble masonry.

The principal elevation faces southwest on an inclining site. It is asymmetrically arranged with a centrally positioned entrance porch flanked by a single window to the left and a tripartite window to the right (largely obscured by dense vegetation in a deep masonry planter). The gabled front porch has natural slate roofing and timber wave bargeboards. The front door is a replacement flush timber design set into an earlier timber frame encompassing an over-light with vertical margins and central paired glazing bars. Windows throughout are 1/1 timber sliding sash with exposed sash-box, horns and concrete cills unless otherwise stated.

The left gable is abutted by linear single-storey byres, with a former door location visible on the right side of the gable from inside. The byres feature natural slate roofing with clay ridge tile and corbelled brick eaves course, an exposed brick chimneystack, and lime render over rubble masonry walling. Painted timber sheeted doors have timber lintels with ventilation and waste openings to the northeast external wall adjacent to an internal stone-lined drain.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged with a variety of sash and fixed lights without cills. This comprises a single sash window on the ground floor right, a fixed 9-pane light on the ground floor centre, and an irregular 3/1 sliding sash with vertical glazing bars on the first floor right of centre. The right gable is symmetrically arranged with ruled-and-lined cement render, two timber casement first floor windows (the right one largely obscured by sprawling vegetation), and projecting corner stones.

The setting is rural, accessed via a long lane that bypasses two modern dwellings. Associated outbuildings to the west of the dwelling comprise single and two-storey rubble masonry ranges. A stepped single-storey range runs perpendicular to the byres, featuring natural slate and corrugated-iron roofing with timber lintels to sheeted doors. A two-storey range runs parallel to the lane with natural slate roof and brick flat-arches to openings, including a double-leaf round-headed arched doorway formed in brick to the northwest gable. A further large twentieth-century corrugated-iron shed stands to the south. Cobblestone paving with flagstones addresses the front entrance to the farmhouse. Cylindrical rubble masonry piers support wrought-iron gates adjacent to the east and south of the site.

The buildings appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, which correspond to the dwelling house and stone-built outbuildings present today. Minor additions have been made over the years, notably a mid-twentieth century barn, but the essential form of the farmyard has remained unaltered.

Historical records show that in Griffith's Valuation (1856-64), the tenant was Hugh Magill Junior, who leased approximately 12 acres from the Marquess of Downshire at an annual rent of £9 2 shillings. The buildings were valued at £3, with a pencilled note suggesting that the dwelling house was rebuilt or remodelled around this time. By 1867, Hugh Magill had increased his landholding to 23 acres, and by 1871 the building valuation had risen to £7 10 shillings, indicating further additions or improvements. However, this valuation became increasingly considered unreasonable over subsequent decades and by 1897 had been reduced to £4.

At the 1901 census, widow Eliza Magill and her four children aged 16 to 26 were resident. The five-room house with eight outbuildings was slated and designated second class. Eliza's son Robert R Magill became owner in fee of the farm in 1922 under land purchase legislation. The 1933-4 revaluation noted accommodation of two receptions, a kitchen and two bedrooms upstairs. The valuer commented that there was no ceiling on the first floor at that time, though it has subsequently been ceiled. Interior decoration suggests the house was inhabited until at least the 1970s but it is currently vacant.