Currraghard Lodge, 109 Tullybrannigan Road, Tullybrannigan, Newcastle, Co Down, BT33 0PW

Curraghard Lodge is a Regency style villa of around 1835–40, largely single storey with a hipped roof, return wings forming a U-shaped plan, and a gabled entrance porch. One of the wings had an additional storey added to it in the 1930s. The house sits at the end of a tarmac drive on the western outskirts of Newcastle, to the north of Tullybrannigan Road. Originally the property had substantial grounds, but the Tullybrannigan Road was redirected at some point after 1859 and now passes close to the rear of the house. The U-shaped plan of the wings creates a small courtyard to the front, and to the rear (west) of this courtyard the ground rises, with single storey outbuildings on that side.

The principal façade faces roughly east and is symmetrical. At its centre stands a relatively large gabled porch with plain corner pilasters and a plain tympanum. The north face of the porch carries the timber panelled entrance door with a semicircular fanlight containing Georgian tracery, the door panels themselves merely outlined rather than raised. Three stone steps lead up to the doorway. On the east (gabled) face of the porch there is a semicircular arched sash window with Georgian panes — six over six, with three panes to the arch head — set within a moulded surround. The south face of the porch has a similar window, though with less pronounced moulding. The porch has a bevelled base, and its roof has a slight overhang resting on a bracketed eaves course. Both the bevelled base and the bracketed eaves course continue around all the outer façades of the building. To either side of the porch on the main front façade are two flat arched sash windows with Georgian panes.

The south elevation is largely formed by the face of the south return wing, which has four windows matching those of the main front. At the far left this façade merges with a slightly lower utility room section. The north elevation is largely formed by the north return wing, which was raised in height in the 1930s, though where it adjoins the main front section at the far left it remains single storey. At ground floor level this north façade has four unevenly spaced windows matching those of the main front, with a blind window between the second and third. At upper level there are three windows of the same character but smaller. At the far right the façade ends in a set-back flat-roofed portion, possibly added after the 1930s, which contains one upper level window. Where the raised north return wing rises above the single storey main front section, a small east-facing section of wall contains a very small four-pane window.

The south face of the north wing has two widely spaced ground floor windows as before, and near the centre a taller semicircular stairwell window similar to those on the porch but without a surround. At upper level, far right, there is a small window matching those of the upper north façade, and to the far right the façade is recessed. The two storey flat-roofed section occupies the west end of this elevation and has a ground floor window matching the rest. On the exposed west face of the north wing there are semicircular headed windows at both ground and upper floor, similar to the other semicircular headed windows elsewhere, except that the upper floor one is fixed rather than a sash. The short exposed west face of the main front section of the house has a central semicircular headed window, as those on the porch but without a surround.

On the south wing, the north façade has a partly glazed doorway of around the 1930s at ground floor level. To the right of this is the north face of the attached utility room section, which has a timber sheeted stable door and two small sash windows of four panes over two.

The outer façades are finished in lined render with bevelled quoins, and carry the bevelled base and bracketed eaves course throughout. The inner courtyard-facing façades are in plain render and have neither the base nor the eaves course. The entire exterior is painted. The roof is hipped and covered in natural slate. Four relatively tall rendered chimney stacks have bevelled bases, copings and matching pots. Rainwater goods are cast iron.

To the west of the courtyard the ground rises and steps lead up to a farmyard enclosed by single storey hipped roof rubble-built outbuildings to the south and west, and a high wall with gateway to the north. The larger outbuilding to the north has various window and door openings including two very large vehicle openings with timber sheeted doors. The smaller outbuilding to the south appears to have been designed as a piggery and has three arched doorways to the north, a walled-off former sty, and a smaller hipped roof structure to its east side. All these outbuildings are whitewashed. The high wall is roughcast rendered, and the gateway has simple square gate pillars with pyramidal caps and timber sheeted gates. Immediately to the north-east of the gateway is a small game store, a rubble and brick single storey shed with a hipped slated roof and a timber sheeted doorway to the west.

The house dates from between 1834 and 1846 and is shown much as it appears today on the Ordnance Survey map of 1859. It may have been built by a Mr Shackleton, who is listed as resident on a Roden Estate map that appears to date from around 1840. Shackleton did not remain long, however, as a William Waring is recorded as owner in Slater's Directory for 1846. Waring stayed until at least 1873, after which the property does not appear in directories for some years, suggesting it may have been vacant or rented out for much of that period. By 1895 a Mr Samuel Bradshaw is recorded as resident, followed by a Miss Andrews in 1901, Miss Atkinson in 1905, and a Miss Hatchill in 1915, again with gaps in the directory records. Local memory suggests the house may have served as a convalescent home during the early 1900s, in which case these women may have been nurses. In around the 1920s Curraghard was acquired by the Kirkpatrick family, and it was Mrs Kirkpatrick who extended the property in the 1930s by adding the extra storey to the north return wing. The current owner purchased the house from the Kirkpatricks in 1984.