Forkhill House, 22 Captains Road, Forkhill, Co Armagh, BT35 9RS

Forkhill House is a late 18th-century three-storey, two-bay house built around 1780 for Richard Jackson, who endowed several schools in the area. It is situated in extensive grounds at the foot of Tievecrom Mountain within the Ring of Gullion Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The house was once part of a larger building which was burnt during the troubles in the 1920s and subsequently demolished. Together with its farmyard, gate lodge and screen wall, it forms an important group of buildings.

The house is aligned north-west to south-east, with its principal elevation facing south-west and overlooking mature grounds accessed by a long sweeping driveway. The walls are lime-rendered brick with rubble (to the gables), with a pitched natural slate roof topped by a machined brick chimney at each gable end. The eaves are overhanging with exposed rafter tails and no rainwater goods.

The principal south-west elevation is three windows wide across two bays. At ground floor are three windows arranged left to right: a 2/2 fixed-pane window, a wider 2/2 sliding sash with horns, and a 4/4 sliding sash with horns (these replaced the original central entrance door and flanking niches). Above at first and second floors are pairs of 2x4 side-hung Gothic casements with tracery heads. All windows have granite cills. The left gable contains a timber-sheeted door with a two-pane transom at its extreme left end, with a 2/2 sliding sash window with horns to its right. Above the door, both first and second floors have modern 3x4 top-hung casements mimicking sashes.

The rear elevation is abutted on its left end by a two-and-a-half storey return with a natural slate catslide roof. This return has two modern casements at ground floor and two Gothic-headed windows at first floor level. The right side of the main block is blank, with a single-storey shed abutting its ground floor, featuring a monopitched natural slate roof, lime-rendered walls, two fixed windows to its front and one to its gable. The right gable has been truncated due to demolition of the later house. A later one-storey lime-rendered brick entrance porch is abutted to the right gable, creating the current house entrance with a modern timber door and sidelights to its south-west face. The porch's south-east face contains a 6/6 sliding sash window without horns, and the north-east cheek has an infilled door opening.

According to the 1836 Valuation book, the house was then occupied by John Foxhall and measured 52 feet by 42 feet 6 inches by 29 feet in height, with an 8 feet 6 inches high cellar underneath. Writing in 1888, George Bassett recorded that Captain Granville Alexander, "an extensive property owner here, has lately spent from £6000 to £7000 improving his fine residence, Forkhill House. The demesne is open to the public, and is much frequented by excursion and picnic parties. A trout lake, containing between eight and ten acres, romantically situated, affords good sport for angler." This investment likely relates to a hip-roof annex built onto the left front of the original house, shown in a photograph in Brett's book, which was the section burnt during the troubles in the 1920s and subsequently demolished.