The Stable, Mary Brook, 11 Raleagh Road, Drummaconagher, Crossgar, Downpatrick, Co. Down, BT30 9JG

Extensive and largely complete, small scale ‘Georgian vernacular’ rural milling complex dating from the 18th and early 19th centuries, with water powered two storey corn and flax mills and single storey stable block- all probably mid to late 1700s, a two storey miller’s house of 1837, and subsidiary structures, including a small cottage and storehouse of c.1840s. The grouping was abandoned in the 1950s and lay largely derelict until the early 1970s. Since then it has been restored with the corn mill still operating up until the late 1990s. To the rear of the house are large two and single storey wings a section of which appears to have originally been a barn. The whole grouping has a uniform appearance with harled and whitewashed facades, slated roofs and Georgian paned sash windows and timber sheeted doors, an appearance complimented by the abundance of traditional wrought iron farm gates, stone walling and simple gate pillars. The complex is picturesquely set at the end of a lane to the W of Raleagh Road, roughly 2½ miles E of Ballynahinch. To the immediate W is the Ballynahinch River, with mill pond to the S. THE STABLE The stable is a long single storey gabled building which lies to the N of the house and S of the flax mill. It has a mainly harled, whitewashed façade and a corrugated iron roof (whose charcoal colour gives the impression of slate). Rendered parapets. To the N façade there are four timber sheeted stable doors and two windows (both largely boarded). The E gable is blank. To the W gable there is a lean-to with stable door (as before) to N face with a late 19th century looking pump fitting to the right of this. To the W façade are two squat ‘window’ openings with timber sheeted coverings. The lean-to has a slated roof. There is a tiny window opening high on the W gable of the main stable building. The S façade of the stable is blank and largely covered in creeping plant growth (as is this side of the roof). *For the sake of simplicity only the 4 main compass points have been used.