Farm Outbuildings and Horsewalk, Greenhill, 156 Magheraconluce Road, Ballylintagh, Hillsborough, County Down, BT26 6BJ

Greenhill Farm Outbuildings and Horsewalk

This is a group of traditional rubble stone farm buildings dating from the early to mid-19th century, located at the end of a long lane west of Magheraconluce Road in Anahilt. The farm is depicted on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1835, and the two principal surviving structures — a former barn in the east block and a store in the west block — date from this period. The group is owned by the National Trust.

The buildings are constructed in rubble stone and roofed in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles. Rainwater goods are plastic.

The west block is single storey and rectangular in plan. Its principal elevation faces southeast and features two square-headed timber-sheeted doors with cast-iron hinges, positioned right of centre. The southwest gable is blank. Abutting the northeast gable is a 20th-century cement-rendered extension of little architectural interest. To the rear of this block is a small single-storey rectangular outbuilding, partially concealed, with a blank north elevation.

To the east stands a one-and-a-half storey barn, also rectangular in plan, with a single-storey return to the northeast; this return is roofed in corrugated metal. The barn's southeast elevation features a diminutive window to either side of a segmental-headed carriage entrance, which has a red-brick lintel and timber-sheeted double-leaf doors with cast-iron hinges. The northwest gable has a diminutive window at attic level, with a timber-sheeted door with cast-iron hinges at ground floor. On the northeast elevation, to the far left, is a timber-sheeted replacement door and a 6-over-6 sliding sash window with horns; the single-storey return abuts to the right, with a blank northeast gable; the northwest elevation of the return has a recessed replacement timber-sheeted door and a diminutive window; and the southeast elevation of the return has three regularly spaced diminutive openings at the very top. The southeast gable of the barn's main block has a blind window at attic level.

The only conventional windows in the group are on the east block: a 6-over-6 timber-framed sliding sash with horns on the northeast elevation, with the remainder being single-pane diminutive windows.

Adjacent to the outbuildings is the original horsewalk mechanism, with a thresher and wheel to the south. An early rubble stone boundary wall is attached right of centre to the east barn. To the south, a recently constructed stone wall marks the site of the former farmhouse, which was demolished in 1979; a modern timber farm gate opens to the south and a tubular farm gate to the southwest. The buildings are enclosed to the north and east by mature trees. To the south and west stand two 20th-century farmhouses.

The farm has a well-documented history of continuous occupation. It appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1835 and in the Townland Valuation of around 1830, at which time it was occupied by William Irvine (born c.1781) and valued at £3 12s., with five single-storey outbuildings recorded. William Irvine died in 1836, after which the farm passed to his daughter Sarah and her husband James Matthews (1816–1900). Matthews held the farm on lease from the Marquis of Downshire at a total rent of £24 5s. He and Sarah had ten children and remained at Greenhill until their respective deaths in 1900 and 1905. The 1901 census records Sarah Matthews, then aged 82, living at the farm with her youngest son Abram (1863–1944), a retired shirt manufacturer, and her daughter Sarah (1849–1934). The census out-office return for that year lists the farm buildings as housing a stable, cow house, calf house, two piggeries, a fowl house, a boiling house and a barn.

Mrs Matthews died in 1905 leaving the farm to her daughter Sarah, who lived there until her own death in 1934. The 1911 census records Sarah living with her sisters Elizabeth (1853–1932) and Margaret (1850–1944). Sarah had purchased the farm outright by 1913, when it was recorded as "in fee" in the Annual Revisions. On her death in 1934 the property passed to Abram and Margaret, who remained there until their deaths in 1944. The farm then came into the possession of Oonagh Matthews (1903–1992), a granddaughter of James and Sarah Matthews, who had been living in England. Oonagh demolished the original farmhouse and began construction of a new dwelling shortly after the end of the Second World War, though she did not move in until around 1979 when she and her sister Ruth (1904–2000) retired and returned from England. Neither Oonagh nor Ruth married or had children, and upon their deaths Greenhill passed to the National Trust; Oonagh's will bequeathed it to the organisation "for the particular benefit of the trust's Northern Ireland region."

The National Trust has maintained the buildings well, and the group retains much of its original character, including the timber-sheeted barn doors, timber-framed windows, and the horsewalk and threshing machinery. However, alterations include a modern concrete garage extension to the west block with a corrugated metal roof (originally used as a pig sty within the barn's northeast-facing return), and modern replacement windows to both the west block and the barn. Although the loss of the original farmhouse was considered sufficient reason not to list the buildings formally, the structures are historically significant as a well-preserved vernacular farm complex occupied by the same family for well over 150 years.