Masonic Hall, 197 Newcastle Road, Seaforde, Naghan, Downpatrick, Co Down, BT30 8NU

Single storey former school house built in 1816 with canted bays and porch to front, now serving as a Masonic Hall. The building is located on the west side of Newcastle Road in the small village of Seaforde, and has group value with other Seaforde estate buildings.

The front façade faces east and is symmetrical. To the centre is a small gabled porch with a Georgian paned fixed light window to the front (gabled) face, above which is a small ledge with a blank narrow panel. To the south face of the porch is a recess which originally housed the main entrance door but is now blocked. To either side of the porch is a canted bay with hipped slated roof and Georgian paned sash windows. Evidence suggests these bays were added around 1836. The south façade has a small projecting flat roofed porch with a plain sheeted door to the east face. To the west this small porch abuts a hipped roof rear extension with a small two pane window to its south face; the remaining faces of this extension appear blank. The north and rear façades are blank, though indications suggest two windows to the rear have been blocked up. The front, north and south elevations are finished in painted lined render, whilst the rear elevation is in unpainted rough cast. The main roof and extension roof are both hipped and slated with overhangs. The main roof has two rendered chimney stacks and a small central ventilation finial.

To the front of the building is a lawn with central pathway, enclosed to the east by a low rubble wall with a broad central wrought iron gate of farm-like character, set between square piers with concave pyramidal granite caps.

The building was originally built as a school house in 1816 with the assistance of Lady Harriet Forde. The 1836 valuation returns record it as a "female school" which also incorporated a residence for the mistress. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of December 1836 note the building was "undergoing repair" at that point, possibly referring to the addition of the canted bays, which appear on the valuation plan of circa 1838 but were not listed in the 1836 dimensions. The Memoirs record that 75 girls of all denominations attended the school where they were taught English and "plain needlework". By circa 1860, the building was referred to as the Church Education Society's female school. The school appears to have closed sometime prior to 1925, as it is not listed in the Belfast and Ulster street directory for that year. The building now serves as a Masonic Hall.