Mount Ida, 137 Barronstown Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 3SA

Mount Ida is a detached, symmetrical country house of around 1770, rendered and set over a basement with two storeys and an attic above. It is square on plan, faces west, and sits on an elevated site within extensive landscaped grounds to the east of Barronstown Road, Banbridge. A range of two-storey rendered outbuildings stands to the rear.

The house pre-dates the first Ordnance Survey of 1833, and documentary sources place a house on this site from at least 1796. The building fell into ruin during the 20th century and was roofless by 1975. It has since been heavily refurbished and is now largely a reconstruction: almost all fabric has been replaced except for the outer shell, meaning little of the original interior survives. The date of around 1770 is attributed on the basis of its external form rather than surviving historic fabric.

The roof is replacement pitched artificial slate with cement verges. The rendered and profiled chimneystacks are replacements, set behind a lead-lined front parapet wall, and the rainwater goods to the rear are replacement cast iron. The walls are finished in ruled-and-lined cement render over a cut stone plinth course at basement level.

Window openings are square-headed with replacement moulded concrete sills. The front and side elevations have replacement multi-pane timber sash windows; the rear has multi-pane timber casement windows.

The symmetrical front elevation is five bays wide, with a pair of shallow full-height bows at either end. The central doorway has a round-headed opening fitted with a replacement tripartite timber doorcase, door, and spider-web fanlight. The door opens onto a concrete-paved perron bridging the basement area, reached by six swept-nosed concrete steps enclosed by replacement steel railings on a concrete plinth wall.

The north gabled side elevation has a roof that extends across a rear extension as a catslide at the same pitch, with two chimneystacks rising from the concrete verge. The fenestration here is irregular, with a mix of replacement timber sash and casement windows. Abutting this elevation is a two-storey rendered wing set at a 45-degree angle. The rear elevation has a central gabled section housing the staircase, with round-headed window openings, and a single-storey gabled addition at ground level. The ground-floor windows on the rear have been enlarged, and there are modern wall-head dormers to the right bay. The south gabled side elevation has a similar roof profile to the north, with an irregular fenestration pattern, and is abutted by a single-storey conservatory. A greenhouse that appeared on the south façade in the second Ordnance Survey edition of 1860 — and is identified in later valuation notes — has been replaced by this conservatory.

To the rear, a tarmacadam yard is enclosed by an L-shaped range of two-storey rendered outbuildings with replacement pitched concrete-tiled roofs and replacement sheeted timber doors. This outbuilding range corresponds to an L-shaped structure visible on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and appears to have survived to the present day. A long, winding tarmacadam avenue lined with mature trees leads from the road through replacement iron gates hung on a pair of rendered piers with low quadrant walls. These walls retain what appear to be original granite copings and possibly original cast-iron railings.

The house has a notable documentary history. During the period of unrest preceding the United Irishmen rebellion of 1798, firearms were stolen from a house near Mount Ida, though the occupier is not recorded. William Todd Jones was living here in 1811, and by 1822 the house was occupied by George Dowglass under a lease. The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records Thomas Dowglass Esquire as occupier. Dowglass was a well-known evangelical preacher and Brethren leader. At that time, the valuation recorded a house with basement and outshot together with six slated outbuildings, all valued at £28 15 shillings. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs describe Mount Ida as one of the gentlemen's seats of the area. In 1836 Dowglass moved away and the entire household contents were sold at auction, including rosewood, zebrawood, and French drawing-room chairs, telescope dining tables, dining-room chairs with Morocco leather seats, agricultural items, a strong pony, plough and harrow, and bean and turnip cutters, as reported in the Belfast Newsletter.

By 1841 the house was occupied by Captain John Watson Hull of the East India Company. After his death, his widow Martha continued to live there and is listed in Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 as occupier of the 77-acre estate. At that time the house was described as a two-and-a-half storey building with basement and six outbuildings, all valued at £40. After Martha Hull's death in 1877 the house was sold at auction for £2,846.

Abraham Walker Henderson took up residence in 1879 and appears to have lived as a country squire, with Mount Ida serving as a frequent venue for hunt meetings. At a hunt dinner for the County Down Staghounds in 1899, the bill of fare included "Sorbet à la Mount Ida." The valuation was subsequently reduced to £30, with the valuer noting that the former gentleman's residence was now occupied by a tenant farmer "for whom it is most unsuitable." The 1901 census records Henderson as a farmer of 58, living with his wife, four children — one son working as a collector of the poor rate and the others assisting on the farm — and a farm servant of 16. The ten-room house was designated first class.

By the first general revaluation of the 1930s, the farm was found to be in poor condition. The accommodation at that time comprised three unused attics, four bedrooms and a boxroom, three reception rooms, two kitchens in the basement, and an old bathroom. The property subsequently became derelict and was little more than a shell before being taken over by the current owners and reconstructed. Because so little original fabric survives, the building does not meet the threshold for statutory listing, and better-preserved comparable examples exist elsewhere in the area.