39 Hilltown Road, Derryleckagh, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2HJ

39 Hilltown Road, Derryleckagh

This modest but attractive gate lodge marks the entrance to an architecturally and historically important complex that includes Templegowran House and Derryleckagh Mills. The lodge retains most of its original character.

The building is a two-storey, two-bay L-plan structure positioned on the south side of Hilltown Road at the entrance to the driveway leading to Templegowran House and the mills. Its pitched natural slate roof has its main ridge running west to east, with overhanging eaves featuring exposed rafter tails and plain timber bargeboards. A painted wet-dashed chimney stack rises from the centre of the main ridge. Half-round metal gutters run around the roof line. The walls are wet-dashed and painted.

The principal elevation faces south. The right bay advances forward as a gable. An open porch is set in the angle between the left bay and the advanced right bay, containing the main entrance. The porch has a monopitched natural slate roof with a timber lattice screen on either side of the opening. The front door is four-panelled; the bottom two panels are raised and fielded with bolection mouldings, while the upper two panels are glazed. A two-paned transom sits above. The rest of the left bay is blank except for a small 2/2 sliding sash window with horns and concrete cill at first-floor level on the right. The left cheek of the advanced right bay is blank. The right bay gable contains a 6/6 sliding sash window with horns and concrete cill to each floor. All other windows follow this pattern unless stated otherwise.

The west elevation features a canted bay window at ground-floor level with a natural slate roof and half-round metal rainwater goods (missing in places). Each face of the bay has a 6/6 sliding sash window. The north (rear) elevation fronts the main road and has a small 2/2 sash window at ground-floor level to the left. The east elevation faces a small garden. Its right bay is gabled, with a new kitchen entrance door to the right and a 2/2 sash window to its left. The first floor centre has two similar windows.

A pair of strap-pointed granite rubble gate piers with shallow granite copings frames the entrance from the road. These carry plain wrought iron gates with ramping top rails and scrolled sides. The small garden to the east of the house is enclosed by a rubble wall to the road (north) and a low wall to the south with a small flat iron gate.

Cartographic evidence and historical records show that an original one-storey rectangular lodge occupied the site during the 1830s and 1860s. The present L-plan structure first appears on the 1902-03 Ordnance Survey map. Although no explicit mention of rebuilding appears in the Valuation revision books, the transformation may have occurred around 1877 when Samuel Cooper took over the estate and mills. One source dates the current lodge to circa 1910, though the precise evidence for this dating is unclear.