2 Inns Court, Park Lane, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6AQ

No. 2 Inns Court is a mid-terraced two-storey rubblestone house built around 1800, forming part of a terrace of four similar dwellings situated between Park Lane and Dromore Road in the historic centre of Hillsborough village. It is one of four identical houses (nos. 1–4 Inns Court) with significant group value, set within a historic cobbled cul-de-sac bounded by high rubblestone walls.

The building is square on plan, facing west onto the cobbled court. It has a pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles and two rooflights to the rear pitch. Replacement metal guttering sits on iron brackets at a brick eaves course. The walls are constructed of random rubblestone with redbrick surrounds to all openings. Window openings are square-headed, formed in redbrick with stone sills, and contain 2/2 timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes. The front elevation is two windows wide with a square-headed door opening formed in redbrick, fitted with a replacement vertically-sheeted timber door. The rear elevation has a single square-headed door opening with a replacement timber glazed door. The north elevation is abutted by adjoining house No. 1, and the south elevation is abutted by adjoining house No. 3.

The front door opens onto the cobbled cul-de-sac, which is enclosed to Dromore Road by a tall rubblestone wall with stone coping. The rear garden is shared with adjoining house No. 1 and is enclosed to Park Lane by tall rubblestone walls.

The terrace was constructed around 1800 when it first appears on an illustrated plan of Hillsborough that year, occupied by a Mr. Hanna. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and contemporary Townland Valuation (c.1830) depict No. 2 Inns Court as a square-shaped building on West Lane, a court off what was then known as Inns Lane (the former name of Park Lane). The Townland Valuation records that the house was valued at less than £3 and was therefore exempt from valuation.

Griffith's Valuation (1856–64) records the first named occupant as Samuel Burroughs, who rented the property from the Marquis of Downshire at a weekly rent of 9 pence in 1861. The property was described as a 1B class dwelling measuring 5½ by 4½ feet and valued at £2. Burroughs occupied the house until 1868, when it passed to John Wilson, who lived there for over a decade. In 1883, the house passed to Thomas McNamara; his son Hugh lived there until 1903. The 1901 Census records Hugh McNamara as a 35-year-old Roman Catholic store keeper, residing at No. 2 Barrack Court (as it was then known) with his 34-year-old wife Annie and their five young children. The Census Building Return described the dwelling as a 2nd class dwelling consisting of three rooms with no outbuildings. The house subsequently passed through several owners: Albert Johnston (1903), James McConway, a local carpenter (by 1911, resident until 1915), and finally Arthur Walker, the last recorded occupant from 1921 until the end of Annual Revisions in 1930.

The terrace was formerly known as Barrack Court. Architectural historian C. E. B. Brett suggested that the name may derive from the officers of the South Down Militia (whose headquarters were at No. 7 The Square) quartering their grooms, batmen, and other auxiliary staff in these houses. This theory is supported by a circa 1800 map of Hillsborough recording a Commissary yard to the south side of Barrack Court (where the Shambles now stands), used to store army provisions and possibly horses. Additionally, nos. 3–4 were formerly used as a store and office, though it remains unclear if this was for military purposes. An alternative theory suggests the name came from a former barracks situated in Moira Street to the west, which was closed around 1820 when the area was enclosed within Hillsborough Castle Grounds.

In 1974, Brett described nos. 1–4 Inns Court as "two-storey houses of stone with brick trim, most windows unhappily altered, the upper pair (nos. 1 and 2) very aggressively re-pointed."

No. 2 Inns Court has been internally remodelled and interconnected to adjoining house No. 1 (HB19/05/064A) on both ground and first floor levels to form an art gallery, which operated from these buildings around 1980. Despite this significant alteration to its original layout, the house retains some early fabric including a timber stair. The building currently functions primarily as a private dwelling, although the interconnection with No. 1 remains. Both houses are currently vacant but are in good state of preservation.

The house exhibits modest historic features and forms part of an intact terrace with group value alongside nos. 3 and 4 Inns Court. It is a good example of a Georgian utilitarian terrace building and is situated within the historic centre of Hillsborough village near the main Square, within a conservation area.