The Plough Inn, 3 and 4 The Square, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT26 6AG

The Plough Inn is a terraced pair of former houses, numbers 3 and 4, built around 1780. It stands on the east side of The Square in Hillsborough, facing west, adjacent to the gates of Hillsborough Fort. The building has been substantially altered and extended throughout its history, particularly during the twentieth century.

The structure is two storeys high with pitched natural slate roof fitted with black clay ridge tiles. The rendered chimneystack to the south gable is original; the one to the north has been rebuilt in brick. Both have terracotta pots. Cast-iron guttering sits on iron brackets at a moulded eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes. The walls are rendered with painted ruled and lined finish and a projecting plinth course.

The front elevation, four windows wide, displays square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills. The first floor windows are replacement tripartite timber sashes. The ground floor has been substantially modified to accommodate commercial use. To the left is a square-headed carriage arch opening. The centre bay features a glazed fascia with three shop display windows from around 1900, each topped with three small leaded coloured lights. Below the fascia is a former door opening with double-leaf glazed timber doors and two lights over. The right-hand bay has an early twentieth-century triple-arched shopfront window with fixed glazing and a square-headed door opening containing a replacement glazed timber door with rectangular overlight.

The north side elevation is abutted by the adjoining building number 2. The south gabled side elevation is blank, abutting the gate screen to Hillsborough Fort. The rear elevation includes several gabled and flat-roofed extensions dating from the late twentieth century, added to eaves level.

Historic records indicate no building occupied this site on an estate map of 1777, but by 1788 a schematic row of buildings is shown on the eastern side of the square. An estate map of around 1800 depicts a single rectangular building on this footprint with a small return and outbuildings to the rear, noted as the residence of Halliday. By the Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840, the property had been divided into two separate dwellings, numbers 3 and 4. At that time, number 3 was the residence of William Ellis, valued at £14. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 records Thomas Loughlin as occupier, leasing from Dr John Munroe, with the property then described as a public house valued at £15 and 15 shillings, later raised to £17. The valuation notes dimensions for a house, gateway and four outoffices.

An 1877 street directory lists the building as the Plough Hotel, run by Mrs Loughlin. Annual Revisions describe it as a house until 1891 when it reverted to public house status. It remained in the Loughlin family for some years before passing to James Crothers in 1891, then to Joseph Crothers in 1906. Subsequent occupiers included Thomas McManus (1907), Thomas McCabe (1908), William Brown (1909) and William Henry Loane (1923). It continued as a licensed premises throughout this period. In 2000, a second-floor flat was converted into a licensed area, and the building continues to operate as The Plough Inn.

The building contributes significantly to the character and scale of Hillsborough Conservation Area, despite extensive twentieth-century alteration. Its street frontage terminates the terrace at its north end, facing the former Market House and Hillsborough Castle, with a long rear plot retaining a rubblestone boundary wall to Hillsborough Forest Park.