82 Glen Road Newry Co.Down BT34 1TA

Glen House is a one-and-a-half-storey formalised vernacular farmhouse with associated outbuildings, predating the first Ordnance Survey map of 1834, located down a long farm lane off Glen Road approximately 9.5 kilometres north of Newry, County Down. The property sits within the townland of Ballylough. It is not listed, having been assessed as a record-only entry on the grounds that it does not retain sufficient original historic fabric to meet the legislative test for listing, with better-preserved examples of vernacular dwellings existing elsewhere. The house underwent a remodelling in around the 1870s and had a front porch added in around the 1930s.

The house has a natural slate pitched roof with three cement-rendered rectangular-section chimneys — one on each gable and one centrally positioned. A single-storey extension abuts the rear elevation.

The front elevation (facing north-west) presents an asymmetrical three-bay façade finished in lined and ruled sand-cement render. To the right of centre is a porch with a corrugated asbestos-sheeted pitched roof, a 10-pane metal-framed window to its north-west face, and a replacement timber and glazed door on its south-west face. On either side of the porch is a window opening with exposed sash boxes and stone cills: the left opening contains a large 6/6 timber sliding sash window, and the right a smaller 4/4 timber sliding sash window.

The south-west side elevation is finished in lined and ruled cement render and has a single ground-floor window matching the left-hand window of the front elevation, along with a narrow boarded-over opening at first-floor level. The rear elevation (south-east) is fully abutted by the single-storey lean-to extension, which has a corrugated asbestos-sheeted roof; vegetation at the time of survey obscured the openings. The north-east side elevation is lime-rendered with portions of exposed rubblestone and has a single first-floor window with a two-pane timber casement.

There are no rainwater goods recorded. Windows across the building combine timber sliding sash, metal casement, and timber casement types. Walls are a mix of lined and ruled cement render and lime render over rubblestone construction.

The house and its outbuildings are arranged informally around a courtyard, surrounded by farmland and accessed via a long farm lane — an isolated rural setting.

Four outbuildings are associated with the property. Outbuilding 1, to the south-west, is partially derelict: only the north-west portion survives, with single-storey cement-rendered stone walls under a pitched corrugated iron roof, and a rubblestone wall to the south-west. Outbuilding 2 is a tall corrugated iron barrel-roofed hay shed. Outbuilding 3 is a single-storey cement-rendered outbuilding with a corrugated iron roof and a concrete block lean-to extension on its north-east side. Outbuilding 4 is accessed via tall wrought iron gates and is a single-storey concrete block store with a corrugated iron roof.

The historical record of the property is well documented. Glen House predates the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834, on which it appears as two structures corresponding to a dwelling and an outbuilding. The contemporary Townland Valuation records the dwelling as the residence of Widow Margaret McKelvey, with the house and outbuildings valued at £3 8s. Dimensions recorded at the time — 35½ by 19 by 9 feet for the slated single-storey house — correspond roughly to the present building. Two outbuildings are also recorded, with a combined length corresponding to present-day Outbuilding 1, now roofless and partially collapsed. In the 1830s, 59 feet of this outbuilding was thatched, and its walls were noted as 'inferior' and not constructed with lime mortar, hinting at possible mud construction or earth mortar, though the surviving remnants are of rubblestone and mortar.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1861, the house and outbuildings were leased by Samuel Stephenson (also recorded as Stevenson) from local landlord Arthur C. Innes of Dromantine House, and were valued at £4 10s. Samuel Stephenson appeared several times in local newspapers during the 1860s and 1870s in connection with disputes with his servants. A maid servant, Sarah McGivern, and farm servants Bernard and Owen Callaghan — the latter having been hired at Newry market — left his employment: Owen because he was 'lonesome' and his brother because 'the stirabout was not good'. Stephenson brought them to court; the Callaghan brothers were ordered to return to their master, with costs deducted from their wages, as reported in the Newry Telegraph and the Newry Reporter.

Outbuilding 3 had been added to the site by the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860. Valuation records show that improvements to the house in 1870 raised its valuation to £5 10s. The footprint on the third and fourth edition maps of 1903–18 shows the addition of the single-storey lean-to to the rear, which may have formed part of the 1870 remodelling. The overall footprint of the house nonetheless remains much as it was in 1834, and given the proportions and fenestration of the dwelling today it appears likely that the remodelling retained much of the original fabric and plan form.

Samuel Stephenson died in March 1874, and his wife Agnes subsequently took over the house. Agnes divided it into two separate lettings, sub-letting to Robert Sterrett and Eliza Smith in the early 1890s and thereafter to a succession of tenants. The valuation of the house and outbuildings was drastically reduced at this time — to £1 and £1 10s respectively — suggesting the buildings may have fallen into disrepair. At the time of the 1911 census, the occupant was Charles Small, an agricultural labourer living there with his wife and four young children. The house was recorded as slated, with two windows to the front elevation as today, and three rooms internally. Local farmer John O'Hare was letting the house to Small, and also used the outbuildings for his own purposes, though part of Outbuilding 1 was already shown as roofless on the 1903–18 large-scale map.

By 1933, valuation records show John O'Hare as the outright owner. At that time the one-and-a-half-storey house contained a sitting room, kitchen, scullery, and pantry on the ground floor, and two bedrooms on the first floor. Outbuilding 1 was in use as a stable and byre, and Outbuilding 3 as a barn. The valuer's notebook of 1933–57 shows a small porch at the front elevation for the first time, and also records that Outbuilding 1 was extended with concrete block and corrugated tin during that period. New outbuildings were added to the site in 1951, which may correspond to Outbuildings 2 and 4, both of which first appear on the large-scale map of 1974.