Guardhouse, Hillsborough Castle, 10 The Square, Hillsborough, Co. Down, BT26 6AG

Guardhouse at Hillsborough Castle

A detached U-plan range of rendered two-storey former guard houses, built around 1780. The complex comprises a south block fronting onto The Square as No. 10, a central east block, and a north block, with screen walls extending from the west gables to enclose a courtyard.

The roofs are hipped, covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles. Cast-iron guttering on iron brackets runs to the stepped eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes. Panelled sandstone chimneystacks sit on sandstone ashlar parapet walls at both west gables, though the south elevation features an off-centre rebuilt redbrick chimneystack.

Walling consists of painted ruled and lined rendered surfaces to the courtyard elevations with a projecting plinth course, while the south elevation facing The Square has rough-cast render. Rusticated sandstone quoins mark both west gables. Window openings are square-headed with painted masonry sills. Original timber sash windows survive on the first floor (6/3 lights with exposed sash boxes) and ground floor (6/6 lights), though many have been replaced with 6/6 and 6/3 timber sashes featuring ogee horns and some with concrete sills.

The south elevation is nine windows wide, with part of the ground floor set below the level of The Square. It is abutted by the Gate Lodge to its western end. An off-centre square-headed door opens onto a concrete platform with seven concrete steps enclosed by a replacement iron rail. The front garden area is enclosed to The Square by spear-headed iron railing on a low cement-rendered redbrick wall, with a matching pedestrian gate and decorative iron lamp incorporated into the railings.

The blank west elevation of the south block extends as a screen wall northward to the courtyard and southward as a corridor to the gate lodge. The north inner elevation of the south block is seven windows wide with a centrally placed square-headed door opening containing double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber doors and a rectangular overlight. To the left is an elliptical-headed opening with replacement timber doorcase, double-leaf sheeted doors, and sidelights.

The east block presents a symmetrical west elevation, five windows wide, with a centrally positioned elliptical-headed door opening containing replacement double-leaf sheeted and glazed doors flanked by sidelights and surmounted by an original webbed fanlight.

The north block's south elevation is seven windows wide with solar panels to the roof. Five square-headed vehicular openings sit under a single timber fascia, fitted with replacement vertically-sheeted garage doors divided by rendered panels. Replacement 6/3 timber sash windows occupy the first floor. An elliptical-headed door opening in the inner right bay contains a replacement doorcase matching that of the south block. The blank west elevation extends as a screen wall southward to the courtyard and as the side elevation to a lean-to section on the north elevation, which features an equilateral-headed window opening.

The north elevation of the lean-to section is obscured by later additions, though a narrow passageway reveals square-headed window openings with hood mouldings, equilateral-headed windows, and an equilateral-headed arch with hood moulding.

The U-plan range encloses a bitumac courtyard on the grounds of Hillsborough Castle. The south block's south elevation fronts onto The Square in line with the north terrace, designated No. 10, and abuts No. 11.