Magheralave House, Magheralave Road, Thiepval Barracks, Lisburn, Co.Antrim, BT28 3NF

Magheralave House is a detached, multi-bay, two-storey redbrick Jacobethan house built around 1880 and set on an elevated site to the east of Duncan's Road in the northern suburbs of Lisburn. The building is irregular in plan, facing west, with a series of gabled projections and a projecting entrance porch. It was adapted for military use in the late 1930s and subsequently altered and extended during the 20th century to meet the changing needs of Thiepval Barracks, though it retains a wealth of original fabric internally despite significant external alterations.

The house is constructed of redbrick laid in English garden wall bond with a chamfered projecting plinth course. The pitched natural slate roofs have terracotta ridge tiles and several tall decorative redbrick chimneystacks set behind redbrick parapet walls. Curvilinear gables feature red sandstone coping and red sandstone pierced panels to the parapets. A continuous red sandstone cornice runs to the base of the parapet wall, with a further continuous projecting red sandstone course above the first floor. Original cast-iron and replacement metal downpipes remain.

Window openings are square-headed with stop-chamfered red sandstone surrounds, red sandstone sills, and uPVC windows. The west entrance elevation features a pair of full-height projecting bay windows to either end, surmounted by curvilinear gables with blind loop-holes formed in red sandstone. Window openings are quatrepartite to the first floor and tripartite to the ground floor. The central recessed bay is abutted by a flat-roofed entrance porch formed entirely in red sandstone ashlar, featuring a quatrefoil pierced parapet, deep moulded cornice, and plain frieze supported by engaged corner piers with diamond-pointed rusticated blocks. A square-headed window opening to the front of the porch has a lugged and kneed architrave surround. The original double-leaf oak doors with raised and fielded panels and brass furniture are retained, though a decorative modern entrance porch added around 2000 adjoins the south cheek.

The north elevation displays an off-centre two-storey gabled projection with paired window openings and a recessed three-storey bay to the east. The east elevation is surmounted by a pair of oversized brick chimneystacks rising from curvilinear gables with a random arrangement of window openings detailed as above. The north end is abutted by a single-storey L-plan redbrick wing with a decorative curvilinear gable. The south elevation is five windows wide with an off-centre two-storey bay surmounted by a curvilinear gable, abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed redbrick extension.

The building was originally the residence of Thomas Stannus, Rector of Lisburn Cathedral and son of Rev. James Stannus, land agent to the 4th Marquis of Hertford. Thomas Stannus constructed Magheralave House in 1893 and resided there until his death in 1907. The house was sold in 1907 to Thomas Gregory, who occupied it until the late 1930s. Gregory sold the house and its 100 acres to the War Department in June 1938. The estate was renamed Thiepval Barracks in memory of the Ulster Division's contribution to the Battle of the Somme and replaced Victoria Barracks in Belfast as the British Army's headquarters in Northern Ireland.

Since acquisition by the War Department, Magheralave House has served as an Officer's Mess. A modern entrance porch extension was added to the west side of the house around 2000, connecting it to an office wing added circa 1950. Two flat-roofed extensions were installed circa 1960, linking the house to eastern office wings constructed to its south and east sides. A single-storey flat-roofed two-storey redbrick wing was built circa 1960 to enclose a small yard to the east.

The building is set on a slightly elevated landscaped site within Thiepval Barracks. Cobblelock pathways encircle the building, with a bitmac forecourt to the front elevation and a pair of twentieth-century blocks to the west. The house continues to serve as headquarters for the British Army in Northern Ireland, though numerous alterations have resulted in the loss of some of its original Jacobethan character.