84 Dromara Road, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6PE

84 Dromara Road, Hillsborough, is a semi-detached single-storey stone house with attic, dated 1841, located on the south side of Dromara Road. Originally built as part of a pair with number 86, it was subsequently divided into two separate dwellings in 1919. The building displays Tudor styling favoured by estate owners of the period and has group value with its adjacent neighbour.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing north. It features a pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, two rebuilt redbrick chimneystacks with terracotta pots and plastic rainwater goods set beneath deep timber eaves. The west gable displays decorative timber bargeboard with a flat dormer on the front pitch. The external walls are constructed of snecked coursed rubblestone with cement pointing, rusticated ashlar quoins, and painted brick surrounds to all openings. Window openings have camber-headed reveals with painted masonry hood mouldings, painted masonry sills and replacement timber casement windows. The front elevation presents a symmetrical composition with a central square-headed door opening flanked by window openings, all featuring painted masonry hood mouldings. The original herring-bone sheeted timber door retains brass furniture and is topped by a painted stone plaque bearing the Downshire arms with raised lettering reading "1841". The door opens onto three semi-circular steps constructed with granite setts. The east side elevation is abutted by neighbouring house number 86. The gabled west elevation has a single window opening to each floor, with a hood moulding to the ground floor only.

A rendered single-storey with attic return was added to the rear circa 1970, with its own gable-ended profile. The setting includes a gravel front area and side parking area, with the front garden enclosed by a low stone wall and modern iron railing. To the rear stands a two-storey rendered former shed or outbuilding with pitched natural slate roof and uPVC windows.

Historical records show the building appeared on the 1859 Ordnance Survey map as a single dwelling situated on Dromara Road south of Large Park, with a small out office depicted to the rear. In 1861, Griffith's Valuation records the property occupied by Daniel Murray, tenant of the Marquis of Downshire, at £17 per annum. The property was classified as a 1B class house, offices and land, valued at £3 10 shillings. Successive occupants included Patrick Murray (from 1874) and John Patrick Hogg, a Roman Catholic farmer, who occupied the property from 1900. The 1901 Census records Hogg aged 24, living with his siblings Elizabeth (20) and William (12). By 1911, the property was recorded as a third class house of four inhabited rooms. The small rear out office, which may have housed a stable, cow house, piggery or fowl house according to 1911 census building returns, does not appear on the 1919-20 Ordnance Survey map, though remnants were later incorporated into a modern return built in the mid-twentieth century. Hogg purchased the house outright by 1913 and in 1919 divided it into two dwellings, intending to let one to lodgers at £3 per annum, though he remained recorded as occupant of both premises until 1929. By 1978, the building was described as a single-storey double cottage with attic and slated roof, with a newly installed dormer window noted. A rear extension and modern garage were constructed in the mid-twentieth century, with the extension shown on the 1972 Ordnance Survey map. The house was listed in March 1979. Since listing, the roof and windows have been renovated. A planning application for an extension was made in 1991 but does not appear to have been granted.