Bryansford Cottage, 31 Burrenreagh Road, Bryansford village, Aghacullion, Castlewellan, Co Down, BT31 9HH

Bryansford Cottage is a substantial one-and-a-half-storey picturesque house with gabled dormers, a porch, a veranda, and tall chimney stacks. It presents as a mid-19th-century building, probably dating from around 1850, though it is likely a remodelling of an earlier dwelling that was already standing on this site before 1834. The property sits on the west side of Burrenreagh Road, just north of Bryansford village, approximately two miles south of Castlewellan. The east side of the building comes right to the roadside.

The front, south-facing elevation is made up of two sections. To the centre and right is the main house; set back to the left is a lower one-and-a-half-storey return section. The main section is broadly symmetrical, centred on a relatively large single-storey porch. The entrance doorway, set into the east face of the porch, is a panelled timber door. To the south gable of the porch is a sash window with Georgian panes, eight over eight. To either side of the porch, a lean-to veranda roof extends, supported on slim tree-trunks in the cottage orné manner. Beneath this veranda, to either side of the porch, is a large four-light French door/window. At first-floor level there are three half-dormers with steeply pitched gabled roofs with overhangs, each fitted with a modern window frame with Georgian-style panes.

To the right of the main front façade, attached to the east gable, is a single-storey section with a hipped roof, containing a sash window matching those on the porch. Its east wall runs right to the roadside, and at its south end it merges with a garden wall which has an arched pedestrian gate.

The far left-hand side of the front elevation is more complex. To the west gable there is a single-storey hipped-roof section, similar to its counterpart on the east gable. It has a sash window to its south face and a panelled timber door to its west face. To the north, this section connects to a two-storey gabled wing, which has a ground-floor sash window matching those described above. Directly above this is a gabled half-dormer with a window frame matching the other half-dormers on the main front. To the right of this is a very small window with a two-pane casement frame. Immediately to the right of that small window, the façade steps back slightly and rises above the main roofline — a consequence of the pitch of the single-storey hipped-roof section's roof cutting across the façade at this point. This portion of the façade contains a narrow six-pane window.

The west elevation is double-pile. There are two sash windows matching those on the front at ground-floor level, and another on the first floor to the left.

The rear, north-facing elevation has a complex, accretive appearance. To the far left, the single-storey hipped-roof section attached to the east gable wraps around to the rear and contains two windows with modern frames. This connects to a larger single-storey lean-to section that projects further forward, its roof running straight into the main house roof, though at a slightly shallower pitch. This section contains, from left to right, a modern casement window, a modern glazed door, and a large modern square bay window. To the immediate right, this lean-to connects to a large two-storey gabled return. At ground-floor level this has a large modern window to the left and a modern doorway with a hood porch. At first-floor level there are two modern windows. To both the east and west sides of this gable, timber-constructed additions were made in the 1970s, rising above the original eaves line into flat-roofed dormers. The eastern addition turns at a right angle to form a timber dormer over the neighbouring single-storey lean-to, and contains three modern windows. The western addition connects straight into the double-pile wing forming the west elevation. At the far right of the gabled return, a single-storey section leans against the east face of the double-pile wing.

Throughout, the external walls are finished in roughcast render and painted. The roof is covered in natural slate with a slight overhang and pierced bargeboards. There are four evenly spaced brick chimney stacks to the main roof, each with coping and matching octagonal pots. A similar stack with a single short pot rises from the gable of the return. At the north end of the double-pile wing there is a tall rendered stack with tall, mismatched pots. There is a small cast-iron rooflight to the rear, and rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

To the rear of the property is a yard. On its north side stands a two-storey gabled outbuilding, rubble-built with a slated roof. Its south-facing front has various window and door openings, some of which appear modern. To the right-hand side, the façade projects and has a gabled half-dormer with a timber-sheeted loft door. The outbuilding roof is of uneven pitch, and when seen from the north the building reads as single storey. On the north side there are three doors and three windows, the leftmost window being a large modern projecting oriel window. To the east, the yard is enclosed by a high rubble wall with square gate pillars and timber gates. A further, largely open, yard lies to the north. There is a large garden to the front.

The site is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 with a building that corresponds in size to the main part of the present house, though the contemporary valuation survey records for this site are missing, leaving the building's dimensions, occupant, and estimated age at that date unknown. By the time of the revised map of 1859, the building appears much as it does today and is marked "Bryansford Cottage." Slater's Directory of 1846 lists Bryansford Cottage as the home of a Captain Hill, which suggests that the house had already taken on its present general form by that date, since the adoption of a name may indicate a property had been refurbished or remodelled. However, survey notes from 1972 record that one of the gables carried a date panel — no longer visible — marked 1858. Captain Hill was still resident in 1856. By the time of the revaluation in 1863 the house was occupied by the Honourable John Jocelyn, who appears to have been a half-brother of the 3rd Earl of Roden. By 1870 the property was occupied by a C.V. Darcy, Justice of the Peace, who remained there until at least 1877. He was followed by a J.B. Kingscote, and then around 1885 by another Justice of the Peace, a C.E.S. Stronge. By 1890 a C. Brownlow was in residence, followed around 1901 by Mr Stronge again, and during the 1920s and 1930s, and possibly earlier, by yet another Justice of the Peace, Alexander Dobbin. The number of Justices of the Peace among its occupants supports the local belief that the property once served as the residence of Lord Roden's chief land agent. With the break-up of much of the Roden Estate in the mid-20th century, Bryansford Cottage was sold and became a straightforwardly private residence. In the 1970s a Mr Railton, then the occupant, extended the building at the rear and added much of the present detailing. The current owner has been told that the house was once thatched, which would be consistent with the cottage orné character of the veranda.