40 Bryansford village, Ballyhafry, Newcastle, Co Down, BT33 0PT

40 Bryansford Village, Ballyhafry, Newcastle, Co Down

A relatively simple single storey dwelling of probable pre-1834 origin, set on the south-east side of the road passing through Bryansford village. The building is positioned behind a fairly old whitewashed rubble wall, now topped with a hedge, and once served in part as a dispensary.

The front façade faces north-west. A small gabled porch with a modern glazed door to the south-west face and a small multi-pane window to the north-east (gable) face sits slightly left of centre. To the left of the porch is a small, squat window with a modern eight-pane frame. To the right of the porch are two further small windows with similar frame styles. Where the rightmost of these windows is located there was once a doorway serving the dispensary section; this doorway was blocked up around 1953, though the doorstep remains visible. Both main gables are blank. The façade is finished in roughcast and painted. The roof is covered in natural slate with a Velux window to the rear, has a slight overhang with exposed rafter ends and barges featuring simple piercings, and is topped by two brick chimney stacks with simple corbelling. Modern PVC and cast iron rainwater goods are present.

To the rear, there is a relatively recent lean-to extension (post-1953) with modern windows and door. On the main rear façade to the left of this extension is a small window matching the front fenestration, and to the right is a pair of modern patio doors. The low whitewashed rubble wall to the front is punctuated by a wrought iron gate, possibly of 19th-century date.

The property was shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and on all subsequent maps. On the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1859 it is marked as 'Dispensary', and is listed as such in the valuation returns of 1863. According to local residents and the present owner, the building remained in use as a dispensary until the 1940s, then became vacant around 1948 and fell into dereliction until acquired by the present owner's family from the Roden estate in 1953. Dr S. Clarendon is recorded as resident in the dispensary in 1877, and during the early 1900s Dr Robert Magill was resident there for an extended period. The building is stated by the owner to have remained thatched well into the 20th century, though it may have been slate-roofed prior to the 1953 renovation.

The property was substantially renovated around 1953, when the former dispensary doorway was converted to a window and the rear lean-to extension was added. It is currently used as holiday accommodation.