Macs Corner Bar and House, Dromara Road, Leitrim, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 9SH

Mac's Corner Bar and House is a detached, multi-bay, two-storey rendered building containing a public house, shop units and dwelling, built around 1850 on the site of an earlier structure, and located on a prominent corner site at the crossroads in the centre of Leitrim village, County Down, at the junction of Ballydrumman Road and Dromara Road.

The building is rectangular on plan, facing east, and presents a substantial mid-Victorian character that combines formal architectural solidity with irregular features reflecting its long evolution and vernacular origins. The roof is an M-profile natural slate construction with black clay ridge tiles and several rendered, profiled chimneystacks topped with octagonal clay pots. Replacement steel rainwater goods serve the rendered eaves. The rear pitch of the rear pile retains earlier shaped slating.

The external walls are painted in a ruled-and-lined render finish with rusticated rendered quoins. Window openings are square-headed throughout the principal elevations, with moulded sills and rendered architrave surrounds fitted with replacement hardwood sash windows. The front elevation is five bays wide. The northern half carries a replacement hardwood shopfront with a timber fascia incorporating the bar to the north bay. A cast-iron post-box is mounted within the wall. There is a segmental-headed door opening with a rendered architrave surround and a replacement tripartite timber doorcase, as well as a further square-headed door opening to the bar with a rendered architrave surround and replacement hardwood panelled doors. Replacement granite sills are fitted to the ground floor shop and bar openings only.

The south side elevation is double-gabled and fronts directly onto the road, with a chimneystack rising from both gables. Window openings are square-headed and irregularly placed, fitted with replacement multi-pane timber casement windows, granite sills and some replacement concrete lintels. To the west gable, a single 6-over-6 timber sash window at first floor level was inserted around 2011.

The rear elevation is seven bays wide and is abutted by a flat-roofed single-storey extension. The south end exposes rubblestone walling with redbrick linings to the window openings, while the remainder is cement rendered. Camber-headed window openings to the north end have granite sills and early 20th-century horizontally-glazed 2-over-2 timber sash windows. To the south end at first floor level is a single early 6-over-6 timber sash window, with recent 6-over-6 timber sash windows and replacement granite sills to the remainder.

The north side elevation comprises two gables, the rear pile extending further north, each with a rendered chimneystack at the apex. The front gable is abutted by a lean-to single-storey extension with a shaped natural slate roof and recent skylights. This north elevation fronts onto the grounds of St Mary's Roman Catholic Church.

The building's origins predate the first Ordnance Survey of 1834, and buildings corresponding to the present bar and house are shown on the first edition map of that year. The Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840 records James Savage as tenant of the public house, describing it as a single-storey thatched pub with a slated annexe and two single-storey outbuildings, one slated and one thatched, the whole valued at £8. By the time of Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864, the buildings were valued at £11. By this point Patrick Murphy was leasing over 20 acres of land and the buildings from the Earl of Annesley, and the house — now recorded with dimensions of 64 by 25 by 17 feet — had been raised to two storeys in the mid-19th century. Annual revisions subsequently brought the valuation up to £20 10s, suggesting further additions or improvements in the mid-1860s.

Michael McCartan took over the farmland and buildings in 1884, and in 1885 a new outbuilding was added to the rear of the pub, as shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901. McCartan died on 24th December 1897, leaving a fortune of nearly £18,000. He bequeathed £500 to his brother, a parish priest of Seagoe, for the support of poor priests in Ireland, and left the remainder equally to his two brothers, including Owen McCartan, who became landlord. Owen McCartan is recorded in the 1901 census as a spirit merchant and Irish speaker aged 64, living in the house with six servants — three grocer's assistants (including a 15-year-old boy), one farm servant, and two general domestic women. The public house at that time had 16 rooms and was classified as first class, with 16 outbuildings including two stables, a coach house, a harness room and numerous agricultural buildings. By 1911 Owen McCartan described himself as a general merchant and employed a live-in shop manager, two shop assistants and two female domestic servants. He died on 7th January 1912, leaving a fortune of over £9,000, apparently to his brother the priest.

Edward McAnulty then purchased the premises in 1912 for £4,060, which included the licence, goodwill and 20 acres of land near Leitrim station. In 1915 the designation "shop" was formally added to the description and the valuation was raised to £30, indicating improvements at that time. In 1920 a second pile was added to the rear of the pub and house, raising the valuation again to £37. A petrol pump was added to the site in 1929, bringing about a further moderate rise in valuation. Valuer's notes from the 1930s show a plan of the pub and outbuildings with the house and shop to the south and the bar and cellar to the north, arranged much as they are today. The lean-to extension to the north elevation was used as a flour store at this time, with a hardware store to the rear of the bar. A 500-gallon petrol pump stood near the south elevation at the crossroads. The owner of the pub in the 1930s ran his own electric plant and supplied electricity to the parish priest's house and the chapel.

The building continues in use as a bar and shop, while the domestic spaces are undergoing renovation. The enclosed rear yard, recently paved, is partially in use as a beer garden. Directly opposite, to the south side of the road, stands the associated two-storey barn which together with Mac's Corner forms a traditional grouping of a village pub and shop with its outbuildings — a combination that is becoming increasingly rare. Together they form a group of notable historic and architectural interest.