Farm Buildings, Hillsborough Road, Backnamullagh, Dromore, County Down

Farm Buildings, Hillsborough Road, Backnamullagh, Dromore

A detached pair of lofted outbuildings built during the late nineteenth century, though field research suggests the west range may date from as early as circa 1840. The two structures are set at right angles to each other, arranged around an informal agricultural yard accessed via a shared bitumac lane to the east of Hillsborough Road.

The south range is built of random coursed rubblestone walling and faces southeast. The west range has rough-cast rendered walling and faces northeast. Both have pitched natural slate roofs with black clay ridge tiles, iron skylights and replacement cast-iron rainwater goods.

The south range features square-headed window openings with masonry sills, decorative cast-iron fixed-pane windows, and an oculus to the west gable. Cast-iron wall plates run along both elevations, with replacement vertically-sheeted timber half-doors to the inner elevation. Granite steps with a quarter-pace landing and turning onto the east gable, fitted with a replacement iron handrail, abut the front elevation.

The west range has a redbrick eaves course and boarded shutters to the window openings. A central loading bay features a timber pulley, and segmental-headed carriage arch openings with vertically-sheeted timber doors are formed in redbrick to each elevation. A flight of granite steps leads to a sheeted timber door on the north gable.

Both structures are partly or wholly reconstructed using salvaged materials. The west range and stable block remain well preserved and in good repair. These buildings do not meet the criteria for listing, and their construction history is difficult to establish with certainty; they may have belonged to either the farm to the southwest or Grove Hill farm to the northeast. The current owner is unknown.