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, originally built as a stable yard around 1780 and remodelled during the 19th century. The building forms an integral part of the demesne of Hillsborough Castle, situated to its north and terminating an important terrace to the south of The Square. It has significant group value with the other listed structures at Hillsborough Castle.

The range comprises a south block fronting 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 exterior retains much of its original fabric, though the interior has been modernised.

The roofs are finished in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, supported on cast-iron guttering on iron brackets to stepped eaves course, with cast-iron downpipes. Panelled sandstone chimneystack sits on sandstone ashlar parapet walls to both west gables. The walling is painted ruled and lined rendered to the courtyard elevations with projecting plinth course, whilst the south elevation facing The Square is rendered in rough-cast. Rusticated sandstone quoins detail both west gables.

Windows throughout are square-headed with painted masonry sills and original timber sash windows. The south elevation originally featured 6/3 sash windows with exposed sash boxes to the first floor and 6/6 to the ground floor. This elevation is nine windows wide; part of the ground floor sits below the level of The Square. The south block is abutted at its western end by Gate Lodge.

The south block has a blank west elevation serving as a screen wall to the courtyard to the north and as a corridor to the gate lodge to the south. The north inner elevation to this block is seven windows wide with a square-headed door opening at the centre containing double-leaf vertically-sheeted timber doors and rectangular overlight. To the left bay is an elliptical-headed opening with a replacement timber doorcase, double-leaf sheeted doors and sidelights.

The east block presents a symmetrical west elevation five windows wide with an elliptical-headed door opening at the centre. This opening contains replacement double-leaf sheeted and glazed doors flanked by sidelights and surmounted by an original webbed fanlight.

The north block has a south elevation seven windows wide with five square-headed vehicular openings under a single timber fascia. Solar panels are mounted to the roof. An elliptical-headed door opening in the inner right bay contains a replacement doorcase matching that of the south block. The west elevation is blank, extending as a screen wall to the courtyard to the south and as the side elevation to a lean-to section on the north elevation. This lean-to has an equilateral-headed window opening. The north elevation of the lean-to 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.

Modern alterations include off-centre rebuilt redbrick chimneystack and largely replacement 6/6 timber sash windows with part exposed sash boxes, ogee horns and concrete sills to the south block. The south elevation's off-centre square-headed door opening has a replacement timber panelled door and rectangular overlight, opening onto a concrete platform with seven concrete steps enclosed by 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 matching pedestrian gate and decorative iron lamp incorporated into the railing.

Historical Development

The building was originally constructed as a stable yard, appearing together with a farm yard to the north as a pair of interconnecting U-shaped ranges on an estate map of 1788. An 1803 map captioned the building 'stable yard'. Drawings by Robert Furze Brettingham dating from around 1795, prepared as part of his plans for the major remodelling of Hillsborough Castle, show plans and elevations of the stable yard, though the buildings depicted differ markedly from those surviving today. The building is listed in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) for Hillsborough as the Marquis of Downshire's stables, other offices and yard, valued at £28. After this date, the stable yard no longer appeared in valuation records, becoming part of Small Park townland and included in the valuation for the Hillsborough Castle estate.

When Hillsborough Castle was sold to the government in 1922, the stables were converted for use by a guard of 'A' Specials, whose duties were to protect the Governor of Northern Ireland from assassination. The 'A' Specials were disbanded in 1935, but the Governor retained a Guard consisting of an officer, two sergeants and sixteen constables, which continued until the Duke retired in 1945. The guardhouse was listed in 1976. In 1994 the building was restored and upgraded for use by the RUC. Further renovations and restorations took place in 2007.

Setting

The U-plan range of former guard houses encloses a bitumac courtyard on the grounds of Hillsborough Castle. The south elevation to the south block fronts onto The Square, in line with the north terrace of the square as No. 10, abutting No. 11. The building is located within a conservation area.