Magherahinch House, Magherahinch, Moira, Craigavon, Co.Armagh, BT67 0LJ

Magherahinch House is a detached, five-bay, two-storey double-pile farmhouse built of stone and brick, facing east. The front block is dated 1838 and the rear block was built around 1720. The house sits within a working farm reached by a long lane to the south of Main Street, Moira, and is set within an enclosed front lawn with single-storey outhouses attached to either gable end and a large farmyard to the rear.

EXTERIOR

The roof is a double-pile pitched design clad in natural slate with rolled iron ridges, parged verges, and cement-rendered chimneystacks to all four gables, each topped with octagonal clay pots. Rainwater goods are replacement metal and the central valley is lead-lined. The walls are built in random-coursed basalt with squared stone quoins and red brick surrounds to the window and door openings. Window openings are square-headed with stone sills; most retain their original timber sash windows, though some have been replaced with hardwood casements.

The symmetrical five-bay, two-storey front elevation is finished in painted random-coursed stone. The quoins at the north end are painted and squared; those to the south are rubble. The original timber sash windows have no horns and retain their cylinder glass — three-over-six panes to the first floor and six-over-six to the ground floor. The central entrance has a three-centred brick arch containing a salvaged flat-panelled timber door flanked by replacement hardwood sidelights and an original webbed timber fanlight above. Above the door a carved stone plaque displays the Downshire coronet and the raised date "1838", with the last three digits inserted at a later time. The door opens onto a tiled step and concrete footpath through the front lawn.

The south side elevation is abutted by a modern reproduction single-storey rubble outhouse with a pitched natural slate roof, flush with the front facade. The side elevation shows two gables, with the rear gable stepped back behind the front pile; it is built of rubble stone with red brick to the chimney flues and squared tooled stone to the south-west corner.

The three-bay, two-storey rear elevation is built in random-coursed rubble with red brick window and door surrounds. There is a single six-over-six timber sash window to the stairhall, with hardwood casement windows elsewhere. A hardwood glazed door opens onto two large granite steps leading to the concrete-paved farmyard.

The north side elevation is abutted by a single-storey stone and brick outhouse, part of which has recently collapsed. As on the south side, the rear gable is stepped back behind the front pile and is built of rubble stone with red brick to the window openings and chimney flues. Some squared sandstone appears at the corners of the front pile.

The front lawn is enclosed toward the lane by a reproduction semicircular rubble wall. The lane continues and turns along the south side of the house before opening into a large concrete-paved farmyard. The farmyard is enclosed to the north and west by an L-plan range of two-storey stone outbuildings dated 1847, and to the south by a later range of concrete and iron sheds. The outbuildings have an uninterrupted hipped natural slate roof over rubblestone walls with red brick square-headed door and window openings and elliptical-arched carriage arch openings. A carriage arch to the west retains its original timber roof construction and a keystone inscribed "1847". Elevations of these outbuildings, drawn in 1847, may exist in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, though they are currently recorded as missing.

INTERIOR

The early 18th-century rear pile retains its original staircase and some early timber panelled doors, both of which survive intact and contribute significantly to the special interest of the house.

HISTORY

The townland of Magherahinch was granted to Sir George Rawdon in 1666 by Charles II, and may have been built upon at that time. The current house, dating from the early 18th century, is first mentioned in the will of John Bateman dated 1754, in which he leaves his "freehold estate in Magherahinch with my house and gardens thereon" to his "dear wife Dorcas" and thereafter to his son William Bateman. A travel account of 1786, Wilson's Post-chaise Companion, describes the house as follows: "Near Moira and on the west of it, is the seat of John Bateman Esq standing on an eminence and having a beautiful prospect of wood and the meanders of the river Lagan."

The house remained in the Bateman family for several generations, but financial difficulties led William Bateman to mortgage the property in both 1795 and 1801. The townland and property finally passed to the Marquess of Downshire in 1833, and in 1838 he improved the property by constructing the new front block, which bears his datestone and coronet. There is no evidence that Lord Downshire used the house himself; it appears to have been let as a farm from the time of his acquisition of it.

At the time of the Townland Valuation of 1834, the house was occupied by the representatives of Joseph Green and his brother, with the house and offices valued at £12 3s. The dimensions recorded in that fieldbook show that the new front block had not yet been built. By the time of Griffith's Valuation of 1862, the Greens were still in residence and the house had been remodelled, giving it a revised valuation of £22. The valuer noted "very old house — remodelled...offices all new." The outbuildings were rebuilt in 1847.

In 1868 the house passed to Adam Agar, a farmer, who leased the property from the Marquess of Downshire and obtained a reduction in the valuation to £20 10s. On his death in 1891, the house passed the following year to James Turner, also a farmer. Following a valuation appeal, notes dating from 1906 record the dimensions and a plan of the property. In 1913, under early 20th-century land acquisition legislation, James Turner became the owner in fee, and in 1929 the house was sold for £5,000 to Joseph H. Cresswell.