Mullaghdrin House, 90 Hillsborough Road, Moydalgan TD, Dromara, Dromore, County Down, BT25 2AE

Mullaghdrin House is a symmetrical one-and-a-half-storey three-bay detached Victorian stucco house, formerly a manse, built circa 1860 and located on the west side of Hillsborough Road north of Dromara, County Down. It stands in an elevated position within large mature grounds accessed via a tree-lined driveway, commanding unspoiled views over the surrounding countryside.

The building is rectangular on plan with a two-storey projecting porch and two-storey and single-storey returns to the rear. It is constructed with painted ruled-and-lined render walling with raised quoins. The pitched natural slate roof features blue and black angled ridge tiles, painted render chimney stacks with four pots, and overhanging eaves to the gables. Rainwater goods are plastic.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged. A two-storey projecting gabled porch occupies the centre, opening to the east. To either side are paired mullioned 3/3 timber-framed sliding sash windows with horizontal glazing bars in moulded surrounds, with moulded box panels at first floor level. The porch itself contains paired windows to the ground floor and a single window (replacement) to the first floor. The exposed west section has a moulded box panel at first floor level. The exposed east section features a raised-and-fielded six-panelled timber door with brass door furniture, surmounted by a diminutive window and accessed by three stone steps enclosed by a low parapet wall.

The west elevation contains two windows to the second floor and a replacement glazed timber door at ground floor centre. The north elevation has single multi-paned openings at ground floor to the right and left, with a single-storey return to the far right. The exposed section to the left has two doors and a window; the exposed section to the right contains a single window. The central projecting porch has windows to first and ground floor levels; the exposed section to the left is blank, whilst the exposed section to the right has a replacement window to first floor and at ground floor. The east elevation has two windows to first floor and two windows to the far left and right at ground floor.

The house retains most of its internal and external features, with windows being a variety of segmental-headed timber-framed sliding sash having horizontal glazing bars.

The setting comprises large mature grounds enclosed by mature hedgerow and trees, with lawned areas on all sides. A modern double garage stands to the north.

Historical records indicate the manse was erected before 1903, though it does not appear in Griffith's Valuation of 1861. It first appears in the Annual Revisions in 1865, valued at £12 and let by the Marquis of Downshire as a residence for the Reverend William John Patton, minister of Second Dromara Presbyterian Church. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1903 records it as a manse on Hillsborough Road and depicts an oblong building with rear return and attached outbuilding; the fourth edition map of 1903-1920 shows no discernible alteration, and the house maintains this original layout today.

Patton occupied the manse until 1896, when the Reverend John Logan, also of Second Dromara Presbyterian, became occupant. The 1901 Census records Logan (born circa 1864) living in Mullaghdrin House with his wife Anna Mary (35) and two sons, noting the house as a second-class dwelling with 11 rooms. In 1909, the Reverend William J. Gregg took over the manse, and the 1911 Census lists him (30) with his newlywed wife Deborah (26). In that year, the manse possessed a number of outoffices including a stable, cow house, and barn housed in the rear outbuilding. Gregg remained until 1923 when the Reverend Samuel C. McConnell took over. The house was sold to its current owners in 1978. The outbuilding recorded on the Ordnance Survey maps has since been replaced with a modern garage, but few other alterations have been made to the interior. The building was listed in 1992.

Mullaghdrin House is exemplary of a style favoured by the Presbyterian Church for a generation and is remarkable as a former manse which survives with very few alterations, representing a good example of a late nineteenth-century middle-sized country manse.