Ballyaghlis Lodge, 238 Ballylesson Road, Drumbo, Lisburn, Co. Down

Ballyaghlis Lodge (formerly known as Belvedere Cottage) is a one-and-a-half-storey, multi-bay Georgian farmhouse built in the early 19th century, pre-dating 1834, with a range of adjoining rear outbuildings added at various stages during the mid to late 19th century that eventually came to enclose an internal courtyard. The house sits within the historic Belvedere estate, immediately southwest of Belvedere House, and is elevated within open rural landscape northeast of the crossroads leading to Drumbo, Drumbeg and Hillhall. It is accessed directly from Ballylesson Road.

The principal elevation faces west and is symmetrically arranged across three bays. The front door is centrally positioned, flanked by 8-over-8 Georgian timber sliding sash windows with no horns, moulded stucco surrounds and extended sills. The front door itself is a modern timber design with side panels and an elliptical batwing fanlight set into an arched opening with a moulded surround. Above, a central wallhead dormer contains a diminished round-headed arched window. Throughout the rest of the building, sliding sash windows have horns and no moulded surrounds.

The roof is pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles, with hipped and gabled roofing to the rear outbuildings. Overhanging eaves and verges are finished with timber-boarded soffits and bargeboards, cast-iron moulded gutters and circular downpipes to the front, and semicircular cast-iron gutters to the rear. The chimneystacks are modest, rendered smooth and painted black, with octagonal pots. External walling is roughcast render painted white.

The north-facing left gable has a single 6-over-6 sliding sash window to the right of the ground floor and a pair of matching windows centrally positioned at first floor. The left side of the ground floor is abutted by a single-storey lean-to extension added around 1990, and a double-storey hipped outbuilding enclosing the courtyard was added around 1885. Two gabled modern additions on the northwest face, also added around 1990, are separated by a modern concrete external stair with mild steel handrail giving access to separate first-floor accommodation via a modern timber door, with sliding sash windows to either side.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged with various openings and a centrally positioned oriel bay accommodating the half-landing of the principal staircase. At ground level, within the concrete hardstanding below this oriel window, the footprint of a former projecting bay is still visible. The southwest-facing right gable is also asymmetrically arranged, with a single first-floor window and two ground-floor windows. It is abutted on the right by a two-storey hipped secondary accommodation enclosing the southwest portion of the courtyard, and at the far right by a projecting gabled double-height outbuilding that was modernised around 2005. The majority of windows throughout are 6-over-6 timber sliding sash, with several glazed doors at ground-floor level.

The outbuildings are plain and simple in rural character and, though modernised, retain a number of pegged roof trusses. They are complementary to the main house in appearance. To the rear courtyard the general arrangement comprises a small lean-to shed to the right of a coach entrance leading into the internal courtyard, a long ramped access leading to a timber door on the left, and a small modern greenhouse immediately to the left of the top of the ramp. A number of simple cast-iron gates and corresponding pillars remain, giving access to the rear courtyard and the garden path to the southeast of the house.

The interior retains good examples of historic detailing consistent with the building's age and style.

The building is set within its own grounds behind a gated entrance directly adjoining Ballylesson Road, where two sets of Ulster pillars mark the approach. A short stone driveway leads to the front of the house, with access continuing to the side and rear. Large mature trees screen the house from the main road, and well-maintained lawn and garden beds surround it, with open rural landscape beyond.

The building was first recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 under the name Belvedere Cottage, at which time it already comprised the principal house with adjoining outbuildings to the right and rear. The Townland Valuations of 1828 to 1840 record the occupier as Henry Hardman, with the house and outbuildings valued at £14 16s. By the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, additions had been made to the outbuildings on the right, and by the Griffith's Valuation of 1861 the value had risen to £18 10s. At that stage the occupier was William Higgins, with Andrew Durham — who also lived in Belvedere House — as lessor. Annual Revisions from 1862 to 1923 record numerous subsequent occupiers, though the valuation remained unchanged at £18 throughout. Additions to the left-hand side, carried out by W. R. Watters in 1884, completed the enclosure of the central courtyard, and the building as shown on the 1901 Ordnance Survey map closely resembles its present form. The name Ballyaughlis Lodge does not appear until the 1938 Ordnance Survey edition. This name change is associated with Edward S. Clarke, who moved into the house in 1926. Clarke was the Managing Director of the Island Spinning Mill in Lisburn, giving the property its connection with the local linen industry. His family remained in the house until his daughter, Mary B. Clarke, died in 1982.

Late 20th century additions, though not wholly sympathetic, do not significantly detract from the overall character of the building.