Donaghenry Rectory, 90 Donaghendry Road, Stewartstown, Dungannon, BT71 5PW

Donaghenry Rectory is an attractive and well-proportioned late Georgian house built in 1811 as a rectory. It stands in a pleasant rural setting within its own carefully maintained gardens and is of considerable local interest both as an example of domestic building of its period and as a former rectory associated with a local parish.

The building is a three-storey slated and gabled roughcast house with attics, four windows wide to the upper floors. The basement storey is partially exposed at the front but fully exposed at the rear. The main entrance faces west. The house stands well back from the public road within its own grounds.

The west elevation comprises three storeys above ground rising from a basement storey partially exposed within a basement well. The roof is of Bangor blue slates in diminishing courses. Two chimneys, one on each gable, are smooth cement rendered with a moulded cornice. The walling is roughcast with a plain projecting sandstone eaves course. Rainwater goods are of metal, comprising moulded guttering which returns back to a circular downpipe on the north gable. Windows are rectangular timber vertically hung sliding sashes without horns, set in smooth rendered reveals with projecting stone cills. They are glazed 6 over 6 to the ground floor and first floor, 3 over 3 to the second floor. A single 3 over 3 window with horns is set to the left hand end of the basement. The second window from the right on both upper floors are blind windows. The main entrance consists of a new rectangular timber 6-panelled door surmounted by a semi-circular fanlight with fanned glazing in thick bars, and flanked to each side by narrow 3-pane side lights, all recessed in smooth rendered reveals. It is approached by an arching bridge constructed of curved iron girders paved with small concrete setts and bordered by iron railings of nineteenth-century style.

The north gable rises through four storeys with walling similar to the front, the basement being completely exposed. A downpipe is positioned at each extremity with guttering returning from the front and rear elevations. Windows are rectangular timber sashes: two to the basement and one to each of the other storeys, all sashed 2 over 2 with horns except the top one which is 3 over 3 without horns. A doorway in the basement comprises a semi-circular arched timber boarded door containing three glazed panels, set in an arched opening with plain reveals.

The east or rear elevation is four windows wide, of three-storey height with the basement storey completely exposed. Roofing, walling and rainwater goods are as on the front elevation. Windows are all sashed as on the ground floor of the entrance front. The second opening from the left in the basement storey is a doorway comprising a rectangular glazed and panelled timber door set in plain reveals.

The south gable is similar to the north except there are no downpipes and only two windows. The one in the attic storey is sashed 3 over 3 without horns, while the one in the ground floor is sashed 1 over 1 with horns.

The house is approached by a driveway which leads to a gravelled area in front of the main entrance bordered by hedges and lawns. The driveway continues past the house through an archway in a rendered screen wall to a yard on the north side which is partially enclosed by an L-shaped two-storey rendered outbuilding. To the north-west of the house is a walled garden with both derelict and restored sections of rubble walling, one portion of which, nearest to the house, terminates in a tall bellcote tower constructed of cut sandstone. Immediately around the house are well-kept gardens. The main entrance gateway comprises a set of chamfered stone piers with curved screen walls and railings but missing their vehicular gates.

Built in 1811 as the glebehouse for Donaghenry Church of Ireland parish, with aid of a gift of £100 and a loan of £825 from the Board of First Fruits, the building ceased to be a rectory around 1996 when it was purchased by the present owners as a private house. The single-storey flat-roofed porch that had previously projected from the front wall was removed by the present owners, who also excavated the basement well across the front of the building to expose the basement and allow light into it through windows where previously there was solid ground. They created the bridge which spans the basement well to give access from the forecourt to the new front entrance.