Laurel Hill, 66 Drumbeg Road, Ballygowan, Dunmurry, Belfast, Co Down BT17 9LE

Laurel Hill, formerly the Rectory of St. Patrick's Parish Church, Drumbeg, is a detached three-bay two-storey redbrick former rectory dating from 1894. L-shaped on plan and facing west, it sits on an elevated site to the east of Lambeg Road, accessed via a long shared avenue and overlooking St. Patrick's Church of Ireland to the north. The building retains much of its original external detailing and overall character.

The roof is pitched natural slate with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and large rebuilt redbrick chimneystacks. Rainwater goods have been replaced with plastic box fascia, metal guttering and plastic downpipes. The walls are redbrick laid in English garden wall bond with a projecting brick plinth course and continuous decorative terracotta string courses at sill levels — a guilloche pattern at ground floor and fleurons at first floor. Window openings are segmental-headed with red sandstone sills and fitted with single-pane timber sash windows with ogee horns, though all windows to the front elevation have been replaced with double-glazed timber sash units.

The asymmetrical front elevation features an advanced full-height gable to the north and a central square-headed door opening with a timber lean-to porch set into the re-entrant angle. Shallow projecting bay windows to either side of the entrance have paired window openings beneath a dentilated frieze and egg-and-dart cornice to a parapet wall. The door surround is stop-chamfered, and the original flat-panelled timber door survives with bolection mouldings and brass door furniture. It opens onto a tiled platform within the lean-to porch, which has a natural slate lean-to roof and a timber-framed structure on a low redbrick wall with leaded glazing; entry is via two sandstone steps to the south.

The north side elevation has a further projecting bay window matching those on the front, along with randomly placed window openings including a large round-headed stairhall window with timber sash and margin lights. Below this is a further timber sash window also with coloured margin lights. A decorative rectangular terracotta panel sits below the eaves. The rear elevation comprises a three-storey gable to the north, a central bay, and a projecting two-storey wing to the south. The gable has a recently inserted square-headed door opening with a timber glazed door, while the central bay has square-headed window openings with timber sash windows with coloured margin lights. The south side elevation has an advanced single-bay two-storey gable to the west with a projecting bay window matching the others, and a three-bay two-storey elevation to the remainder with a recently inserted segmental-headed opening fitted with double-leaf timber glazed doors. A single-storey extension has been added to the rear, and a two-storey redbrick garage encloses a rear yard.

The property is approached via a long winding gravel drive opening onto Lambeg Road through a pair of decorative cast-iron gates with matching quadrant railings set on modern redbrick walls and piers. This entrance is shared with the replacement rectory at No. 64 Lambeg Road. Five original cast-iron lamp posts line the driveway.

The building was constructed in 1894 as a replacement for the incumbent minister of Drumbeg Parish, who had previously resided at Oak Hill in the townland of Hillhall. A datestone at the site confirms the 1894 construction date. According to Matthew Neill's history of Drumbeg Parish Church, the new rectory cost £1,800 to build: £700 was raised from the sale of the old rectory at Hillhall, with the remaining £1,100 gifted to the church by a Mrs. Stevenson and a Miss Charley of the parish. The building was completed in 1894 and first occupied on 21st January 1895 by the Reverend Alexander Ryder, who served as incumbent from 1888 to 1918. Census records indicate Ryder was unmarried and lived there with a small number of domestic servants. The 1901 census described the house as a first-class dwelling with 18 rooms, while the 1911 census records only 10 inhabited rooms — a discrepancy likely attributable to an error by the census enumerators, as the building appears unaltered between the third and fourth editions of the Ordnance Survey maps. By 1911 the property also included several outbuildings to the east of the house: a stable and coach house, a cow house, a barn, a store and a coal house.

The rectory first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–02, which shows it as a square-shaped building with an east-facing rear return and an oblong outbuilding to the east. The same map records a gate lodge, which had been demolished by some point after 1971. Reverend Ryder resigned in 1918 and died the following year. Subsequent incumbents included the Reverend C. Manning (1918–1920), the Reverend Samuel Hemphill (1920–1927), the Reverend S. R. McGarvey (1927–1953), and the Reverend Horace L. Uprichard (1953–1982). It was during Uprichard's tenure that the rectory was sold following five years of negotiations with the Diocesan Council, as the building was considered too large and expensive to heat and maintain. A new modern dwelling was subsequently constructed on the same plot, a short distance to the south. The former rectory passed into private ownership and was renamed Laurel Hill. It remains in residential use and retains its original character despite a number of minor alterations in recent years.

The building has group value with St. Patrick's Church of Ireland and social significance to the local community through its former function as a rectory.