Glebe House, Buskhill Road, Donaghmore, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1SD

Glebe House is a former Church of Ireland rectory built in 1786, set prominently on a hillside overlooking St Bartholomew's churchyard on the east side of Buskhill Road, Donaghmore. It stands in a mature garden with a working yard and outbuildings to the rear. According to Samuel Lewis, the house was erected that year by the congregation of St Bartholomew's Parish Church at a total cost of £538 19s ½d, of which £100 was contributed by the Board of First Fruits. A datestone recording this date is said to survive on the west gable, though it is now concealed beneath cement render. The building is shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey six-inch map and is described as a rectory in the 1836 Valuation Book, which records its measurements as 42 feet by 21 feet 6 inches by 23 feet, with a 7-foot-high basement and a 12-foot by 13-foot by 8-foot return. These dimensions are repeated in the 1862 Valuation Book, and the valuation remained unchanged between that date and 1929.

The house is two and a half storeys tall over a semi-basement and is three bays wide, facing south. The roof is pitched and covered in artificial slate with 20th-century timber bargeboards and eaves. There is a red brick chimney at each end gable and half-round plastic rainwater goods. The walls of the main block are smooth cement rendered. Although the front glazing bars have been removed, the house is otherwise largely unaltered and retains a well-furnished interior with a formal plan, a good staircase, and all window shutters and linings.

At the centre of the front elevation at ground floor level, a small porch projects forward. It has five dressed granite steps enclosed by dwarf walls with stout cylindrical piers, and rests on an arched vault over the basement passage below. The porch has a shallow hipped natural slate roof with overhanging eaves and exposed decorative rafter tails, and its walls are dashed. The front wall of the porch contains a pair of Georgian three-panelled storm doors with a plain transom above. Below the porch, at basement level, is a mid-20th-century glazed door. The remaining bays on each floor each contain a 1-over-1 sliding sash window; those at basement level are small, and those at ground floor are taller than those at first floor. All windows are notably small in relation to the surrounding wall area. The left gable has a 1-over-1 window opening at ground floor left and two small window openings in the attic.

The rear elevation is also smooth cement rendered. At basement level centre it is abutted by a small single-storey bathroom return, and to the right by a derelict laundry. There is a small metal-framed basement window in the left and right bays; in the centre bay, to the left of the bathroom return, is a narrow window that was formerly 2-by-3 paned. At ground floor there is a single boarded-up window in the left and right bays. Between ground and first floor on the central bay is a 6-over-6 sash window. At first floor, the left and right bays each have a 4-over-2 sash window. Between first floor and attic level on the central bay is a 6-over-3 sash window. The right gable has two small window openings in the attic. No basement passage is present on this side; the true ground level applies to both the rear and the right gable. The right gable is abutted to the ground floor right by a small single-storey study return, which has a pitched natural slate roof and harled rubble stone walls. Its end gable has a doorway on the right side, its rear wall is blank and abutted by a derelict lean-to shed, and its front wall has a single window opening. This study was erected by the Reverend Marshall Mee and was complete by 15 February 1826.

The rear yard is enclosed to the south by the house, to the south-west by a single-storey, one-bay outbuilding, and to the west by a linear single-storey block. The north side of the yard is enclosed by a pair of two-storey outbuildings, between which is the yard access gate. The east side of the yard has a linear block, and there are two sheds in the south-east corner.

The south-west block is aligned west to east and has a pitched natural slate roof and rubble stone walls. Its south elevation faces into the front garden and is blank. Its west external gable is blank. Its east yard-facing gable partially abuts the west gable of the house and has a doorway on the remaining part. Its north elevation is abutted by the east block.

The east block is single storey and linear, with a mono-pitched modern corrugated roof aligned north to south. Its west external elevation is rubble stone and blank. Its east yard-facing wall is cement dashed and has modern openings. Its north gable is abutted by the north-west two-storey block.

The north-west two-storey block has a pitched natural slate roof aligned west to east and harled rubble stone walls. It is roughly three bays wide. Its south yard-facing elevation is abutted to the left by the east block, and its remaining elevation has a tongue-and-groove sheeted loading door on each floor, with the first-floor door diminished in height. Its west external gable is blank. Its north external elevation is blank to the left, has a window opening and an external stair at centre, and a window opening to the right, with a door at first floor centre at the head of the stairs. Its east gable has been rebuilt in concrete blockwork and has a doorway on each floor. It fronts the yard gateway and faces the west gable of the north-east outbuilding.

The north-east outbuilding is two storeys with a pitched natural slate roof aligned west to east and harled rubble stone walls. Its west gable has a ground-floor doorway, fronts the yard gateway, and faces the east gable of the north-west outbuilding. Its south yard-facing elevation has a wide corrugated iron door at ground floor right and two window openings at first floor. Its east gable has an external stair and a loading door at first floor. Its north external elevation is blank and abutted to the left by a lower two-storey return. This return has a pitched natural slate roof and harled rubble stone walls. Its left east cheek is abutted by modern lean-to sheds. Its north gable has an external stair and a first-floor door. Its right west cheek has a central tongue-and-groove sheeted door flanked by 6-over-6 sashes at ground floor and two 6-over-3 sashes at first floor.

The outbuilding enclosing the east side of the yard is single storey and linear, with a modern corrugated mono-pitched roof. Its north gable and east external wall are both corrugated. Its west and south elevations are rubble stone; the west yard-facing elevation has three small windows at eaves level. Its south-west corner incorporates a cylindrical gate pier. The two sheds in the south-east corner of the yard have corrugated metal roofs and are of little interest.

The small front garden contains some mature trees and shrubs. A dashed gate screen and a wrought metal pedestrian gate are early 20th-century in character.

Rectors known to have occupied the house include: Reverend Brabazon Smith from 1786, Reverend John Mountgarrett from 1816, Marshall Joseph Mee from 1824, John Campbell Quinn from 1857, and J. D. Cowan from 1882. On the death of Reverend Cowan in 1925, the parish came under the auspices of St Mary's Parish Church, Newry, and the Glebe House was sold. The McMaster family occupied it until the present owner purchased the farm around 1960. The house was occupied for a short while thereafter but has been vacant since the 1970s.

Repairs were undertaken in 1816 at a cost of £46 15s 10d. The house is of special architectural and historic interest for its age, its virtually unaltered state, and the quality and survival of its interior. It is particularly notable in this part of County Down for its proximity to St Bartholomew's Church and the former parish school, making it unusual to find an 18th-century church, its glebe house, and an early 19th-century school in such close proximity and in a setting of such prominence and picturesque effect.