Walled garden and shell house, Hillsborough Castle, The Square, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT26 6AG

Quadrilateral-plan walled garden divided into two sections with brick structures to the North West end of the garden and a semi-octagonal single-storey former shell house on the East wall. Built c1830, as part of Hillsborough Castle, the walled garden is now in use by 'Praxis Care' as a care centre and garden centre. The south, and west walls of the garden are 9-10ft high constructed of rubble stone set in lime mortar. The internal walls are generally handmade redbrick, generally laid in Flemish bond with lime mortar and brick or cement coping. Some repairs to the walling have been carried out at various times and buttresses added to the centre part of the north wall after part of the wall collapsed. There are 3 gates; a rectangular opening with a replacement timber door to the East wall; a segmental-arched opening to the north wall with a replacement double gate and a rectangular opening with timber replacement door to the south wall. There are existing remains of the heated wall of the pinery and two of the original garden structures, although these have been altered as stores and a childcare centre. The most intact structure is the 'shell house' on the East wall originally used as an entrance to the garden. It is a semi-octagonal redbrick building with hipped natural slate roof, slated ridges and cast-iron guttering on iron brackets. Handmade redbrick walling laid in Flemish bond with lime pointing. Square-headed door and window openings with red sandstone hood moulding and sills having original bipartite ogee-headed fixed-pane timber windows. Replacement vertically-sheeted timber door and red sandstone step. A shallow elliptical dressed stone/rubble stone arch forms a formal entrance to the garden from the estate. It is located outside the gate on the East wall and remains in ownership of the Hillsborough Estate. Setting Located to the southwest of Hillsborough Castle and accessed via Moira Road, forming part of the greater Hillsborough Castle Demesne. Garden wallling: Generally rubble stone and redbrick 'Shell House' Roof: Natural slate RWG: Cast-iron Walling : Redbrick Windows: Bipartite ogee-headed timber