6 Derryneill Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT31 9DX

A two-storey three-bay house built around 1873 in the townland of Gargarry, located at the end of a lane off Derryneill Road, Banbridge. The building stands in rural surroundings with views across the surrounding landscape and is a good example of modest traditional construction of a type increasingly rare in the area.

The house has an asymmetrical plan with a rectangular footprint and a single-storey kitchen extension to the left gable. The pitched roof is natural slate with three cement rendered chimneystacks topped with moulded caps; metal gutters are set to corbelled eaves. The principal north-facing elevation is painted roughcast with smooth rendered rusticated contrasting quoins and plinth course. Three irregularly-spaced openings appear on each floor, aligned vertically, with the left bay notably narrow. Windows are original timber 6/6 sashes with single glazing and small horns, set in rusticated long and short render surrounds with keyblock detail; sash boxes are exposed with contrasting frames and painted stone cills. A mid-twentieth-century timber door with multi-pane glazed panel over three vertical panels serves the left bay, reached by a stone step.

The left gable facing east is painted ruled-and-lined cement render and is abutted by a gabled kitchen extension with slated roof and gutters on drive-in brackets. This extension has ruled and lined rendered front elevation and exposed masonry to its remaining sides, lit by casement windows to north and south. The rear south elevation shows vestigial lime render over rubble stone and overlooks a narrow grassed passage bounded by a steep bank and hedgerow. It contains two windows to each floor: timber casement and 6/6 sashes to the ground floor, and 2/2 and six-pane fixed light with slate cill to the first floor. The right gable facing west is blank, unpainted cement rendered, and is abutted by a gabled garage of little architectural interest.

The house contains an unusual plan form, with a taller upper storey and enclosed stairs accessed from the porch to the extreme left bay. Much original fabric and detailing survive throughout.

The site is accessed by a long tarmac lane from Derryneill Road and opens onto a tarmac forecourt. It is bounded by a rubble stone retaining wall to the north with views over rural landscape; a steep tree-lined backdrop lies to the rear. The property contains three early to mid-twentieth-century fuel pumps of varied designs facing the house with adjacent storage containers, which are of architectural interest. A stone-lined well formed in roughly dressed cut stone with a large stone lintel and whitewashed finish stands directly to the rear. A two-storey rubble stone outbuilding sits to the west of the site, now overgrown and built up with twentieth-century additions.

Historically, structures are shown on the site on the first and second editions of the Ordnance Survey maps (1834 and 1859), but the earlier building appears to be oriented and located slightly differently from the current house. Valuation records suggest the present farmhouse was constructed around 1873. The earlier dwelling did not reach the valuation threshold for inclusion in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40. Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 records a small farm of around seven acres with buildings valued at five shillings, the lowest valuation given to built structures. The farm was then held by Patrick Small with James Cleland as the landholder, to whom rent of £4 4s was paid.

The farm passed through several tenants until 1873, when it was taken over by David Craig, who constructed the present farmhouse. The building was valued at £3 10s in the same year. The 1901 census records David Craig resident with his wife and four children. Unusually for this rural area, Craig's primary occupation was shoemaking rather than farming, and his three adult daughters worked in the clothing industry as dressmakers and hemstitchers. The five-room house was designated second-class. By the 1911 census, Craig listed his occupation as farmer, with his son working as a farm labourer and his daughters assisting at home. The house remained in the Craig family until at least the 1930s, when valuer's notes recorded a plan and dimensions showing accommodation comprising a reception, bedroom, kitchen and pantry on the ground floor and two bedrooms upstairs. In 1949, an attempt was made to work a granite quarry to the south of the house, but the stone proved too hard to work easily and the quarry was abandoned. The farmhouse continues in use as a domestic dwelling.