The Priory, 45 Lambeg Road, Lambeg, Lisburn, BT27 4QA

The Priory is a substantial two-storey house of possible mid-18th century construction, located on Lambeg Road at its junction with Bell's Lane, approximately 2.4 kilometres north-west of Lisburn city centre. Originally a detached property, it now sits at the end of a mixed terrace. Although the roof and window frames were replaced around the 1890s, its external appearance is otherwise largely unaltered. The interior has been substantially changed in the early 20th century, to the detriment of its character.

The building is relatively plain and gable-ended, roughly rectangular in plan. A later single-storey section is attached at an angle to the south gable, latterly used as a garage, and there is a shallow full-height projection to the rear, probably also largely dating from the 1890s. The walls are finished in painted roughcast. The pitched roof is covered with natural slate and has overhanging eaves with a timber fascia board and exposed rafter tails; the barges are also overhanging with continuous timber bargeboards. Rainwater goods appear to be cast iron. There is a plain rendered chimneystack to either side of the ridge.

The east-facing front façade is symmetrical, with five evenly spaced flat-headed window openings to the first floor and two similar openings either side of a central door opening to the ground floor. Window openings have smooth narrow rendered bands and cut-stone sills. The window frames are two-over-two timber sash with horizontal glazing bars. The door opening is flat-headed and surmounted by a bracketed, gabled open canopy. The opening is relatively wide, suggesting the frame may incorporate sidelights. The north gable is blank.

To the rear, the right side of the west façade is obscured by a mono-pitch full-height projection, the pitch of which rises awkwardly, creating an internal valley gutter to the south side and a high blank wall section at roof level on the south face. The window openings to the rear are flat-headed and informally arranged, including one one-over-one sash frame and one two-over-two frame; a third window opening and the door opening are boarded over. The south gable is blank and has a reducing chimneybreast to its centre. Attached to this gable is a single-storey garage with a flat roof and paired side-hung flush timber doors. The rear of the garage has a pedestrian door to the left, with the remainder of the rear wall obscured by undergrowth. The slated mono-pitch roof of the garage is partially collapsed. To the left of the garage is a mono-pitched corrugated roof covering a scullery, with single-skin rendered blockwork walls and a large window. To the left of this are two small external stores of similar construction, all of little architectural interest.

To the rear of the main house there is a long two-storey terrace, now divided into several separate properties, which fronts onto a private vehicular cul-de-sac. In a shorter, single-storey form predating around 1840, this appears to have served as an outbuilding range for the main house, and may contain the fabric of a late 17th century dwelling.

A building matching the size and orientation of the present block appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832. In the near-contemporary valuation of around 1834, it is recorded as a thatched dwelling described as "not new", occupied by a Miss Mary Craig, and measuring 38 feet by 21½ feet by 16 feet to the eaves, with a range of offices measuring 49 by 17 by 6 feet and a further office of 11½ by 13½ by 5 feet. The range of offices appears to correspond to the present long rear return. A photograph of 1880 shows the building with a relatively steeply pitched thatched roof, an open porch, and Georgian-paned sash frames without horns, suggesting early to mid-18th century construction. The current window frames with horizontal glazing bars and the overhanging slate roof indicate that major renovation took place in the decade or two following that photograph.

The age and origin of the name "The Priory" are not certain. According to the historian Grace Lawless Lee, a Huguenot blacksmith named René Bulmer, who fled just before the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, settled in Lambeg and resided at Priory House. Tradition holds that he repaired King William III's carriage there when the king was en route to the Boyne in 1690. René's name is believed to have been localised by his neighbours to "Rainey Boomer". Whether he built the present house is considered highly unlikely. However, the separate two-storey dwelling at the end of the rear return has two date stones set close to the eaves, one of which — appearing to be a keystone — bears the date 1676. As the mid-1830s valuation confirms this return was originally single-storey, the earlier date stone must either have been positioned much lower originally and moved upward when the building was raised in height after around 1834, or alternatively removed from an earlier building on or near this site. Given evidence that openings have been blocked on the front façade of the return, the former explanation appears more likely. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837, however, suggest the stone was taken from elsewhere and refers to the founding of the village of Lambeg itself. Regardless, there is reason to believe a house existed on this site in the late 17th century. There is no tradition of any religious foundation in the immediate vicinity to explain the name "The Priory", and although a small monastery is reputed to have been built in the 15th century on the site of Lambeg Church of Ireland parish church, that building is located more than half a kilometre away.

If part of the return was indeed built in 1676, it is likely that the present house was built to supersede it, with the older structure relegated to use as an outbuilding. This may have occurred before 1777, as Taylor's and Skinner's road map of that year indicates that the junction of what is now Lambeg Road and Bell's Lane had already been developed. The 1830s valuers also recorded the property as being more than 25 years old at that time.

Mary Craig, the occupant recorded in the 1834 valuation, may have died shortly afterwards; a will and probate of 3 March 1835 survives for a person of the same name described as being "of Lambeg". A later date stone on the attached property immediately to the rear, reading "Henry Bell Lambeg 1840", suggests the return was raised in height by that year and possibly separated from the main house and divided into separate concerns. Henry Bell was a linen merchant who had built Lambeg Cottage — described as a commodious double house, two storeys high and slated, set within its own grounds to the north — in 1815, and was probably the lessor of The Priory at this time.

The sequence of occupation and ownership during the later decades of the 19th century is difficult to establish with certainty, partly because the valuation map of the Lambeg area accompanying the second valuation of around 1860 is badly damaged, and partly because valuation books covering approximately 1898 to 1923 are missing. It appears possible that in the 1890s the house was occupied by a Nathaniel Barry, who may have been succeeded in 1898 by Robert Douglas. The four properties to the rear were at that time in the hands of Thomas Wolfenden, William McKinstry, Robert Bradley, and Robert Cooke respectively. The most north-westerly of these appears to have been added around this period and may have served as a coachman's residence, probably for Aberdelghy — the name given to the former Lambeg Cottage after it was extended and remodelled by Alexander Richardson around 1880.

By 1923 The Priory was the home of Robert McCullagh, with the rear terrace consisting of three houses occupied by Louisa Donaldson, Robert Hall, and Joseph Irvine, together with a Masonic Hall. John Herron succeeded Robert McCullagh in 1934, acquired the freehold in or just before 1961, and appears to have remained at the property until the early 2000s. The property is now vacant. The Masonic Hall to the rear was vacated around 1960 and was recorded as a Swiss embroidery factory in 1968.

The former offices at the rear have been substantially altered and do not contribute to the interest of the main building. The mono-pitched garage also detracts from the character of the property.