Knockrath, 5 Forthill, Lisburn, County Antrim, BT28 3BB

Knockrath is a well-preserved three-bay two-storey detached red-brick house built around 1920, located on a large mature site in Fort Hill, north of Lisburn town centre. It is a good representative of the homes built by the professional classes during Lisburn's expansion in the early 20th century, with much of its architectural detailing intact and the internal floor-plan largely preserved. The house has group value with Ardfoyle, a similar adjacent property also built by the same owner. It retains its original garage and makes a significant contribution to the heritage of the Fort Hill district, an area largely unspoiled by development.

The building is an asymmetrical three-bay two-storey detached structure with a rectangular main block and two two-storey returns to the rear (the eastern return is longer and has a hipped roof). Two-storey canted bay windows project to the south and west elevations. A single-storey extension with conservatory was added to the rear in 2002.

The pitched and hipped roof is covered in natural slate with decorative terracotta ridge tiles and finials. Red-brick chimneystacks have sandstone plinths and clay pots. Decorative bargeboards and finials ornament the gables. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods run along the overhanging eaves.

The walling is English garden wall-bonded red-brick on a chamfered plinth, with a decorative brick string course above the ground floor windows and a sandstone string course between the floors. Windows are predominantly bipartite or tripartite 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash windows with horns and projecting sandstone sills, set in segmental-headed reveals and mostly featuring decorative sandstone keyblocks. The canted bays have paired windows to their central sections and dentilled eaves.

The principal elevation faces south and is two openings wide to the left, with a gablet above the first floor window and a single-storey slated open porch abutting a projecting gabled bay to the right. The gabled bay contains a two-storey canted bay window. The porch is partially glazed with decorative timber struts resting on a brick and sandstone plinth, accessed via three terrazzo steps. The entrance door has two raised-and-pointed panels with a decorative carved panel below a corbelled sill, side lights, and a segmental-headed transom light, finished with brass door furniture.

The west elevation is a window wide to the left (bipartite at first floor and tripartite at ground floor), with a gabled bay to the right containing a two-storey canted bay window. The rear (north) elevation is abutted by a hipped return at the left and a gabled return at the right, which is further abutted by the single-storey extension with conservatory opening to the west. The gabled return has a bipartite window at first floor left; the hipped return has a single window to the ground floor and two windows at first floor on its west elevation. The east elevation features a projecting square bay to centre with a leaded and stained glass stairwell window above a diminutive window. The right section is three openings wide with an entrance door at the left. This entrance comprises a half-panelled timber door surmounted by a transom light and a decorative timber canopy with exposed rafter ends and brackets terminating in drop finials. The left section is blank with a projecting chimney flue (the chimney has been removed).

The house is set on an elevated site in mature grounds with lawned and shrubbed garden to all sides, enclosed by a mature hedgerow. Steps to the southeast and southwest have sandstone parapet walls with red-brick piers. A tarmacadamed driveway to the southeast leads to a slated red-brick detached garage with original up-and-over door and timber-panelled bowed ceiling with lattice panels. The entrance features two tall red-brick square gate piers with sandstone caps, supporting replacement timber gates.

The house, known as Knockrath, does not appear on historic map editions up to 1921 and is recorded as having been built around 1920. Knockrath and its neighbour Lisnabreena were built by William Lindsay Woods, a linen manufacturer, who later lived at number 2 until at least 1943. His 1911 census return unusually records both himself and his wife as linen manufacturers, possibly of the firm 'Fiddes, Woods and Co', linen and handkerchief manufacturers and bleachers with premises in James Street South in Belfast. According to available records, there is a brick kiln located within the grounds, giving the property industrial archaeological interest.