Kilwarlin House, 129 Moira Road, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT26 6JW

Kilwarlin House

A detached symmetrical two-storey redbrick house built around 1860, located on the south side of Moira Road at its junction with Artifinny Road, Hillsborough. The house faces north and is T-shaped in plan, comprising a three-bay principal block with a lower gable-ended two-storey redbrick return and pair of lean-to additions to the rear. This is a sophisticated example of a mid-nineteenth-century farmhouse set within its original rural context.

The main structure is built of redbrick laid in Flemish bond with lime pointing. It has a hipped natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and lead to the hips, pitched to the return. Two redbrick chimneystacks rise through the roof. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets runs along the redbrick eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes.

The symmetrical north-facing principal elevation is five windows wide. All window openings are square-headed with rendered reveals and painted sandstone sills, containing 2/2 timber sash windows with horizontal glazing and some cylinder glass. The centrepiece is an elliptical-headed door opening with rendered reveals, containing a tripartite wood-grained timber doorcase. The timber panelled door has six flat panels and off-centre iron door furniture, flanked by a pair of plain sidelights. These are flanked by slender panelled pilasters supporting a lintel cornice and a plain fanlight of three panes. The door opens onto a sandstone step to a front concrete area within the enclosed front garden.

The east side elevation is cement rendered with two windows to the ground floor and one to the first floor. The south rear elevation is abutted at its centre by the gable-ended return. A single-storey lean-to, dating to around 1950, extends from the east pitch, with a rear entrance porch to the west side. The west side elevation has a single window to each floor.

The return building features varied fenestration. To its east elevation is a single-pane timber sash window to the first floor with a brick sill, and a pair of early 6/6 timber sash windows to the ground floor. A further single-pane timber sash window serves the first floor of the gable end, abutted by a single-storey accretion with corrugated iron roof and steel windows. The west side of the return has an early 3/3 timber sash window to the first floor, a 6/3 to the ground floor, and a further horizontally-glazed 2/2 window adjacent to a glazed timber door. The rear entrance porch has a large timber casement window and a glazed hardwood panelled door. The interior is largely intact, retaining its original appearance including vernacular kitchen features.

The front garden is enclosed by decorative iron railings on a low rendered wall with matching pedestrian and vehicular gates, both set on redbrick piers, opening onto the driveway and road.

Setting and Outbuildings

The house is set within its original boundaries and retains a modest range of intact outbuildings forming a complete farm holding. A bitumac-paved yard to the rear opens from the entrance porch and contains a mature lime tree encased in a rendered wall. The yard is enclosed to the south by a 1½-storey redbrick outhouse with timber shutters and doors and a pitched natural slate roof, abutted by an open-fronted outbuilding with corrugated iron roof and redbrick lean-to to the rear. To the north of the yard stands the rear of a single-storey rendered range of holiday cottages built around 2000, arranged around an enclosed gravel forecourt and enclosed to the road by a rendered wall. This modern development adjoins the house and occupies the site of earlier settlement identified on the 1833 Ordnance Survey map.

Historical Development

The house does not appear on Ordnance Survey maps until 1902–03, but cartographic and documentary evidence indicates construction around 1865. The Annual Revisions records for 1866–1929 note that a new house on land occupied by John Wood was proposed in 1866, with a subsequent undated note describing the completed dwelling as a "Neat house, well built". The plot value of all buildings increased from £6 to £14 following the house's erection, reflecting its quality. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 identifies buildings on an adjacent plot occupied by John Wood, which may have originated from the early settlement and could relate to the present holiday cottages. John Wood occupied the house until it passed to William Wood in 1922. The house represents a good example of a complete mid-nineteenth-century farm holding of local interest, retaining its original external appearance, materials, fenestration, and setting.