Fort Marian, 4 Station Road, Ballinderry, Lisburn, Co. Antrim

Fort Marian is a detached, symmetrical three-bay two-storey farmhouse built in rubblestone and redbrick around 1850, set at the end of a long lane to the west of Glenavy Road (A26) and north of Station Road, in Ballyscolly townland near Ballinderry. A two-storey gable-ended return was added to the rear around 1990. The house is an intact example of a prosperous 19th-century farm holding, retaining a wealth of original fabric and good-quality detailing both externally and internally, and significantly enhanced by an unspoiled rural setting, together with the outbuildings to the west and the gate screen marking the entrance to the east.

The building is rectangular on plan, facing east. The roof is pitched natural slate with a lead ridge and four profiled rendered chimneystacks fitted with octagonal clay pots. Rainwater goods are cast iron on iron brackets. The walls are random rubblestone with squared stone quoins, and redbrick linings to all openings. Window openings are square-headed with replacement 6/6 timber sash windows and sandstone sills.

The symmetrical three-bay east front elevation is the principal façade. At its centre is an elliptical-headed door opening with a redbrick surround and a replacement tripartite timber doorcase. The doorcase comprises a four-panelled timber door flanked by a pair of fixed-pane arched sidelights, flat-panelled pilasters with scrolled console brackets supporting a lintel cornice, and an original spoked timber fanlight above. The south gable has a single window opening to the ground floor and two to the first floor, with exposed rubblestone and redbrick walling surmounted by a rendered profiled chimneystack. The rear elevation is abutted by the off-centre gable-ended two-storey return of around 1990. The rear walling is rubblestone with redbrick linings to randomly placed window openings, some timber lintels surviving from previous fenestration, and a replacement bipartite timber sash window to the ground floor with a timber lintel and concrete sill. The north gable has two first-floor window openings, with exposed rubblestone and redbrick walling surmounted by a rendered profiled chimneystack.

The setting is a valley approached via a long lane off Legatarrif Road, formerly accessed off Station Road. A tarmac avenue approaches the house from the east, running alongside a small front garden with a concrete-paved footpath and a cast-iron pedestrian gate on a pair of yellow brick piers. To the rear of the house, set parallel to it, is a lofted rubblestone outbuilding with a pitched natural slate roof, external stone steps, and a single-storey projection to the south end forming a small rear yard. This outbuilding has largely sheeted timber doors, a further redbrick projection to the north end, and cement-rendered walling to the north and west elevations. Further modern corrugated iron agricultural structures stand to the west.

The history of the site is well documented. A dwelling first appears on the Ordnance Survey map for Ballyscolly townland in 1832, depicted as an oblong building with a large office range abutting its north gable and smaller outbuildings to the north-west and north. The Townland Valuation of the 1830s records the farmstead as occupied by a Mr Thomas Thompson. At that time the house was described as a 2b+ class dwelling measuring 48 by 20 feet, single-storey at 12 feet in height, valued at £4 18s. 6d., with out offices including a store, turf house, stable, kiln, and a number of further offices, giving a total farmstead value of £8.

By 1859, Griffith's Valuation records that the property had passed to a Mr William Wright, who held it under lease from the Marquis of Hertford. The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1857 shows a significantly altered site: the office range abutting the north gable had been taken down, as had the two north-western outbuildings, and the large farm building currently standing at the rear of the house had by then been constructed. The site value had increased slightly to £9 by 1859, consistent with the field evidence that the present two-storey house was built in the mid-19th century.

By 1863 a new occupant, Mr John Green, had taken over the property, and its value had risen to £16. However, the valuation was subsequently reduced, falling to a low of £10 15s. in 1880 and again in 1884, after Mr Green complained that the assessed value was too high. In March 1889 the Lisburn Herald reported that John Green of Ballyscolly had been elected to the Lisburn Board of Guardians. John Green died on 20th October 1892, leaving effects of £1,181 to William Robert Green (presumably his son), who became the new occupant. William Robert Green purchased the house outright from the Marquis of Hertford by 1906 and continued to reside at the farm through to the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929.

By the third edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1900–01, additional outbuildings had been constructed to the west, and the house was recorded for the first time under the name 'Hareview'. The 1911 Census records William Robert Green (aged 53), a farmer of Anglican faith, living at Hareview with his wife Annie and two farm servants. The 1911 Census Building Return describes Hareview as a second-class dwelling with six inhabited rooms and six out offices: a stable, cow house, piggery, barn, potato house, and shed. The Lisburn Standard of 1924 records that Annie W. Green had been widowed and was residing at Hareview alone. The 1966 Ordnance Survey map shows little change to the site since the fourth edition of 1920–21, and records the house under its current name of Fort Marian. The house was listed at category B1 in 1983. In recent years a number of the westernmost outbuildings have been demolished, and around 1990 the two-storey return was added to the rear.