Ashgrove, 29 Upper Mealough Road, Carryduff, BELFAST, County Down, BT8 8LR

Ashgrove is a detached single-storey vernacular house built around 1800, located on Upper Mealough Road in Carryduff. It is accessed via a long avenue to the south of the main road and faces north. The building is rectangular in plan and comprises an original four-bay central section extended to either end.

The house retains most of its original fabric and detailing. It is white-washed over rough-cast rendered walling with a pitched natural slate roof fitted with black clay ridge tiles and four red-brick chimneystacks topped with modern terracotta pots. The square-headed window openings have painted masonry sills and contain a variety of timber sash and timber casement windows. The front elevation displays four windows spanning the width of the building, flanked by vehicular openings to either side. The central section, identifiable as the original part of the dwelling through roofing variations, features a central square-headed door opening with a replacement timber sheeted door and granite step. An early 3/6 timber sash window with exposed sash box sits to the east of the door, while to the west is a later 2/1 horizontally glazed timber sash window. The east extension includes an early 6/3 timber sash window, and the west extension contains a single-pane timber sash window. Both vehicular openings have replacement timber sheeted doors. The east gable end is abutted by a further structure with a slightly higher pitched natural slate roof and replacement timber sheeted door. The rear elevation has few window openings, with unpainted rough-cast rendered walling and some exposed rubblestone, whilst a lean-to with corrugated asbestos sheeted roof abuts the west gable.

Historical records show that a house stood on this site by the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, depicted as a rectangular structure reached by an incomplete laneway. The property likely belonged to John McGowan, who held a single-storey thatched dwelling of category C+ (old but in repair) with associated thatched and slated outbuildings, valued at £1 17s 9d. By Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, the house was occupied by Robert McGowan under landlord William Keown, with a holding of over 7 acres valued at £1 10s and paying yearly rent of £8 8s on a lease terminable at will. The Ordnance Survey map of 1858 shows evidence of extension having already taken place, with further enlargement documented by the third edition of 1901–2. The house had ceased to be thatched by this later period. Hugh McGowan became owner in fee in 1908 under land purchase legislation. The 1901 census records Hugh McGowan as a farmer living with his wife and five children aged four to fifteen; by 1911, three older children had left home and three more had been born.

To the west stand various single-storey outbuildings with rubblestone and massed concrete walls, corrugated asbestos sheeted roofs and timber sheeted doors. The building is no longer in use as a dwelling. Despite being vacant for over twenty years and having a modern dwelling built nearby, Ashgrove retains good external proportions consistent with its vernacular style and represents an increasingly rare example of a pre-1830 vernacular house.