Foley Hill, 16 Ballinderry Road, Aghalee, Craigavon, County Antrim, BT67 0DZ

Foley Hill is a symmetrical two-storey, three-bay Victorian country dwelling built around 1895–1898 to designs by Boyd & Sons, most likely the Belfast-based practice of James Boyd and Sons. It was constructed for the Lurgan Union Board of Governors at an estimated cost of £909, serving as both a local dispensary and a residence for the district doctor. It sits on an elevated rural site approximately one mile south of Lower Ballinderry, with extensive views northward towards Portmore Lough.

The building has a square plan form with an adjoining rear return. The principal elevation faces west and is symmetrically arranged, with the original front door centrally placed and flanked by single windows at ground floor level, and three first-floor windows directly above. The roof is hipped and clad in natural slate with clay ridge and hip tiles. Rainwater goods are cast-iron throughout, with ogee-moulded gutters fixed to a moulded corbel course at eaves level and circular downpipes. The chimneys are cement rendered with corbelled upper courses and terracotta pots. External walling is finished in ruled-and-lined smooth render.

Windows are 1-over-1 double-glazed timber sliding sash with horns, set within large rectangular painted masonry cills with chamfered reveals and heads. The original principal door is a timber panelled door with margin pane glazing bars to the upper panel and a single raised-and-fielded lower panel. It is flanked by sidelights and surmounted by an elliptical-arched fanlight with moulded plaster surrounds. This entrance has been obscured by a large modern masonry and timber conservatory abutting the ground floor. The current front entrance, now located to the side, is a projected flat-roofed porch with a square-headed opening, fitted with a modern double-leaf timber panelled door with overlight, and embraced by uPVC moulded details. A single modern rooflight is also present on the roof slope.

The north elevation is symmetrically arranged with a centrally projected box bay containing a tripartite window, and two first-floor windows above. The south elevation is symmetrically arranged with two windows at both ground and first-floor level. The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged. To the right-hand side, a single-storey lean-to addition abuts the main building, with a blank north face and a single timber casement window to the east cheek. A two-storey flat-roofed return also abuts the right-hand side of the rear, with two small first-floor windows to the north cheek, a single first-floor window to the south cheek, and a projected flat-roofed entrance porch at ground floor. The east cheek of this return has a single timber casement window and is further abutted by a single-storey, hipped-roofed annex — the former doctor's surgery — which matches the main building in detailing. A modern lean-to abuts the north cheek of this annex, and a modern flat-roofed garage is attached beyond it.

The building was first recorded on the third-edition Ordnance Survey map for the Aghalee area (1900–01), where it appeared as a square building labelled 'Aghalee Dispensary' with an attached single-storey extension to the east and an L-shaped outbuilding to the north-east. Annual Revision records confirm it was built around 1898 as both a dispensary and a residence for Dr. William W. Duff, with the dwelling valued at £22 5s and the adjoining dispensary at £5. The Irish Builder recorded the commission in 1897. The 1901 Census described the house as a first-class dwelling of 14 rooms, occupied by Dr. Duff (then aged 37), his wife Jane, and their three children, all of Presbyterian denomination. By 1911, the property also included a stable, coach house, cow house, fowl house, and several sheds within the L-shaped outbuilding. Dr. Duff and his family continued in occupation until at least 1928, the end of the surviving Annual Revision records. The 1966 Ordnance Survey map shows no discernible changes to the site at that date, when the house was recorded under its current name, Foley Hill.

More recently, alterations include the addition of the conservatory over the original front entrance, a modern garage attached to the former dispensary, and the conversion of the L-shaped outbuilding to the north-east into a separate apartment.

The site is bounded by hedgerows and trees, with gardens to the south, west, and north. Immediately to the west of the house is a converted two-storey rendered outbuilding and an enclosed rear yard. Access from the Aghalee Road is through cast-iron gates hung from robust rendered square piers with pyramidal copings, flanked by curved walls, with a cattle grid at the entrance.

A local tradition holds that the elevated site on which the house stands was used by a garrison stationed at Soldierstown since the early 17th century to fire upon an ancient church in the nearby townland of Trummery, which was occupied by Confederate troops during the Confederate War of 1641–1653. This tradition cannot be verified, though the Ordnance Survey Memoirs confirm that the church was bombarded and set alight by Cromwellian forces during that period. Brennan, in his church history of Aghalee, states that the local garrison fired artillery from the surrounding hills for target practice and was responsible for the destruction of Trummery Church.

Although of local historical interest — particularly as a former dispensary — and retaining much of its original external fabric and interior character, the building is not considered to meet the criteria for statutory listing. The addition of the conservatory over the former front entrance, the creation of a new principal entrance to the side, and alterations to the internal layout have cumulatively detracted from the building's overall character, proportions, and original plan form.