Magheradartin School, 82 Windmill Road, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT26 6NP

Magheradartin School is a detached, single-storey with attic-storey former schoolhouse, dated 1853 and built at the expense of the 5th Marquis of Downshire. The building is two bays wide, rectangular on plan, and constructed of random rubble snecked basalt walling with redbrick quoins, redbrick window and door surrounds, and cement pointing. It is situated on the south side of Windmill Road, facing north, near a country crossroads on the outskirts of Hillsborough, and first appears on Ordnance Survey maps after 1858, located beside Cabragh Bridge. It was extensively renovated around 1995 and again in 2010, and has since been converted to residential use.

The building is richly detailed in the Tudor style. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with roll-moulded ridge tiles. The chimneystack has been replaced in render but retains its original circular sandstone pots, and there is sandstone coping to either gable end. Rainwater goods consist of replacement cast-iron guttering on cast-iron brackets to a redbrick eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes. The window openings are square-headed and formed in redbrick, fitted with mostly original bipartite Gothic-arched latticed iron casement windows on splayed sandstone sills with sandstone hood mouldings.

The two-bay front elevation facing north is three windows wide and features an off-centre gabled entrance porch. The porch gable has sandstone coping and a sandstone shield carved with a crown, the monogram 'D', the words 'MAGHERADARTIN SCHOOL', and the date '1853'. The door opening is Tudor-arched, formed in chamfered redbrick, and contains the original vertically-sheeted timber door with a sheeted panel above, opening onto two stone steps. Each cheek of the porch has a slender square-headed opening with a single Gothic-arched window in plain glazing. The east gable is now abutted by a modern circular-plan extension, which has a quatrefoil stone opening to its apex and a single lancet window below with a plain fixed pane and an arched hood moulding.

The two-bay south rear elevation is four windows wide and includes a gabled entrance porch to the left end and a lean-to conservatory. The central opening has double-leaf timber glazed doors leading into the conservatory. The rear entrance porch has a Tudor arch matching the front porch, fitted with a replacement vertically-sheeted door and over-panel, and opens onto three stone steps. The single-bay west gable has a square-headed window opening at each level, with a replacement bipartite pointed-arched window to the attic level.

Historically, the building was valued at £3 10s. during Griffith's Valuation, with the small school yard of 2 roods valued at ten shillings. Contemporary records from 1879 describe a stone and lime construction with a slate roof and attached privies, measuring 30 feet in length, 18 feet in breadth, and 14 feet in height. The single classroom was fully furnished for use by pupils and teacher, including a blackboard and a clock, and was used exclusively for lessons. A small teacher's residence was attached to the end of the schoolhouse, presumed to have been constructed at the same time as the main building in 1853.

The school was originally funded by the Church Education Society, but by June 1879 it was no longer connected to any society and was sustained through private donation and school fees, which ranged from 1s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. depending on the class of student and the circumstances of their parents. Pupils too poor to pay were admitted without charge by authority of the manager. The teacher's salary had until that point been provided at the pleasure of Lord Downshire. In 1871, the will of Joshua Harrison, a farmer from Magheradartin, records one John James Teuton as a school teacher at the school. After Teuton's tenure the school closed for a period until a new teacher, James Boyd, a 21-year-old Presbyterian, was appointed on 1 June 1879. Boyd immediately reorganised the school along the principles of the National School system and applied for a grant towards the payment of his salary and the supply of books. At that time, approximately 40 families lived within half a mile of the school, and the roll consisted of 33 males and 25 females — 58 pupils in total — with an average attendance in June and July 1879 of 22 males and 20 females. Boyd anticipated a further increase of around 20 pupils should the school receive aid, and requested approximately £33 from the National School Board.

The Manager of Magheradartin School at that time was Major Henry Stanley McClintock of Kilwarlin House, Hillsborough, Justice of the Peace for County Down and agent for Lord Downshire. Although the teacher was Presbyterian, the school was not connected to any religious establishment and no denominational symbols were displayed in the classroom except during religious instruction, in keeping with the principles of the National School system. In 1879 local Presbyterian clergy criticised the school on the grounds that it was unnecessary and that its establishment would intentionally injure the existing national schools at Ballykeel–Edenagonnell and Legacurry. This concern appeared well founded: of the 42 pupils attending Magheradartin in 1879, 9 had come from Ballykeel–Edenagonnell and 22 from Legacurry. The District Inspector recommended the application for aid be refused on the grounds that the school was not needed and that its pupils could conveniently attend existing national schools. Nevertheless, the application was accepted and Boyd was granted an annual salary of £38, likely owing to the school's connection with the Marquis of Downshire and the building's good general repair and suitability.

The value of the schoolhouse remained at £3 10s. until 1907, when it was reduced to £2 5s. on account of the building being described as 'very old and bad.' Valuation records indicate that before 1907 a Mary Payne owned the building, and that after 1907 it passed to her son Hamilton Payne, recorded as an agricultural labourer. The 1901 Census return for Mary Hamilton shows she was living in Magheradartin but not in the old school building itself, which is described in that return as a national school that was 'not used.' By 1901 the Marquis of Downshire is listed as landholder, though by 1911 the property had passed into other hands. Hamilton Payne continued to be listed as lessor in the valuation records until they end in 1929, with the building's value unchanged throughout. The building is reported to have lain derelict for some time before the current occupant acquired it in 1993, at which point it was restored and refurbished, with the floor level raised and a second floor added. The old schoolmaster's residence was converted for use as a kitchen. In 2009, a large extension was added to the house, used as a garage with bedrooms on the upper floor.

Despite the loss of much original interior fabric during the renovations of around 1995 and 2010, the building retains much of its overall external composition and character. The setting remains largely intact, with an enclosed front garden bounded by a low rubblestone wall and a pedestrian gate to Windmill Road. A laneway to the west provides rear access to a cobblelock yard, enclosed to the east by a multi-bay two-storey rendered double garage with residential accommodation incorporated, built around 2010. Situated near a country crossroads on the outskirts of Hillsborough with its original enclosed front lawn, the building retains its rural setting and makes an important contribution to the heritage of the area.