Carnbane House, 264 Hillsborough Rd, Carnbane, Lisburn, County Down, BT27 5RJ

Carnbane House is a symmetrical three-bay two-storey rendered house with attic, built around 1820. It stands on an elevated site on the west side of Hillsborough Road north of Lisburn, accessed via a long bitumac avenue enclosed by wrought-iron estate railings that splits into two routes: one to the front lawn with matching wrought-iron gates on cast-iron posts, and another along the north side leading to a functioning farmyard.

The house is T-shaped in plan, facing east, with a lower two-storey return to the rear and farmyard beyond. The pitched natural slate roof is fitted with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and has a pair of rebuilt redbrick chimneystacks with concrete coping and terracotta pots. Plastic rainwater goods serve the front elevation and return, with cast-iron goods to the rear overhanging eaves.

The front east elevation features painted rough-cast rendered walling with three stepped square-headed window openings containing timber sash windows with painted masonry sills. The central opening is a tripartite composition with lower sidelights of 2/2 horizontally-glazed timber sash windows with fixed-pane sidelights and exposed sash boxes. A shallow breakfront projects beneath the eaves, containing a timber doorcase centred on the elevation. The door itself comprises six flat panels flanked by plain sidelights and slender panelled pilasters supporting a stepped lintel cornice and plain glazed fanlight. The door opens onto a concrete platform.

The north side and front elevations display painted rough-cast rendering, while the rear and south side elevations are finished in smooth cement render. The gabled south side elevation has a pair of diminutive square-headed window openings at attic level with replacement timber casement windows. The rear elevation is abutted by the lower two-storey return at its north end, featuring replacement uPVC windows and a single tripartite ground-floor window opening matching the front composition. A lean-to accretion adjoins the re-entrant angle, with an M-profile natural slate roof to the return. Replacement uPVC glazed French doors provide access from the return. The north gable contains a single first-floor window opening and a pair of diminutive attic-level windows. A replacement concrete block quadrant wall abuts the rear corner of the north gable, partly enclosing the rear yard.

Despite an interesting front elevation, the house has been substantially altered from its original design and is not of special architectural interest.

The property appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, depicted as an L-shaped building attached to an oblong outoffice. The 1843 Ulster Towns Directory records that James Cowan Moreland of H. Bradshaw & Company occupied Carnbane House. Moreland remained there until his death in 1858, when he left the house and effects valued at £12,000 to his widow Anne Moorhead. Griffith's Valuation of 1861 assessed the house and outoffices at £20. The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 shows no discernible change to the building or offices.

Anne Harrison Moreland lived at Carnbane House until her death in 1873, when she bequeathed the property and effects valued at £450 to her son Alexander Moreland. The 1901 Census records Alexander Moreland, a 70-year-old farmer, living at Carnbane with his wife Charlotte, aged 59. By 1901 the farm buildings comprised a stable, coach house, harness room, two cow houses, a calf house, piggery, fowl house, boiling house, and barn. In 1910 the property passed to D. Pedlow, a 73-year-old farmer, who occupied it with his wife Elizabeth, aged 58.

A local history pamphlet titled 'As it was' claims the earliest lease of Carnbane House was granted to John Leathern in 1756, but field research supports a construction date of around 1820. The chimneys were recently reconstructed by 1982 according to the First Survey record. The current owner has held the property since the 1980s.