Former Roden Arms, 75 Bryansford village, Aghacullion, Newcastle, Co Down, BT33 0PT

Former Roden Arms

A long, two-storey gabled former hotel of probable late 18th century construction, situated on the north side of the main road running through Bryansford village, near the junction of Upper Burren Road. The building has been much altered in the late 1990s and now contains five private dwellings. The former outbuildings to the immediate west have also been converted to dwellings, and the once open ground to the northwest is currently being developed with many houses nearing completion. The building is set on a slight slope running southwest to northeast.

The former front façade faces southwest but is now actually the rear. It is asymmetrical with no overall unity of composition. To the far left on the ground floor is a semicircular headed window with modern frame, followed by a doorway with glazed double doors and fanlight. Next is a single storey canted bay with flat roof acting as a balcony, featuring a large window with modern frame to the outer sides and a pair of French doors to the front. French doors open to the above balcony. To the right of the bay is a broad elliptical arched doorway with French doors, then a large picture window with modern frame and a semicircular headed window matching that to the far left. To the far left this façade merges with a tall rendered wall. To the right of this window is a two storey canted bay with hipped slated roof, with windows to all sides on the first floor and outer sides of the ground floor with modern frames, and French doors to the front side of the ground floor. To the right of the bay is a broad doorway with French doors and large sidelights. To the right of this is a large lean-to section added to the northeast gable, with a similar large doorway to its southwest face. The first floor has six windows in various sizes and shapes, all with modern frames except for the far left which retains a sash frame. Some window cills to this floor have small bracket details. The balcony sits under a gable with shaped barges, a finial and superfluous tie beams. The southwest gable has two windows to the first floor with modern frames and one to the ground floor, merging to the left with a rear return which has a window. A small two storey gabled section that was formerly attached to this end was demolished in the late 1990s. The northeast gable has a large lean-to attached which appears wholly modern, with modern windows and doors to the northeast face, merging with a wholly modern single storey house to the northeast.

What was once the rear (northwest) façade is now the front. To the far left is a full height gabled bay with barges and tie beam as front, with a modern door and window to the ground floor and two similar windows to the first floor. All windows to this façade have modern frames. To the right is another similar window, followed by a projecting single storey gabled porch with modern door and smaller window. To the right is another window and door as before, then a broader window. To the far right is a large double gabled bay generally matching the far left bay but doubled. The first (left) gable has a doorway with a porch hood over and a window, with two similar windows to the first floor. The right bay has two more first floor windows and a doorway to the ground floor as before. Between the end bays on the first floor are six windows of various size and shape. The whole façade is finished in recently applied rough cast. The roof is covered in natural slate. There are four unevenly spaced rendered chimney stacks, reduced from five at the time of renovation. Metal rainwater goods. A low rendered wall is present to the roadside at what is now the rear.

To the southwest of the main building is a two storey hipped roof building originally the servants' quarters and stores, recently converted to a dwelling with various sized window openings with modern frames and door openings. It is finished in rough cast rendering as the main building. To the north of this is a long two storey gabled range, probably originally stables and associated buildings, which has also been recently converted to dwellings. To the north of these buildings are newly built ranges of houses arranged in court formation.