Burrenwood Cottage, 32 Burrenwood Road, Burrenreagh, Castlewellan, Co Down, BT31 9DR

Burrenwood Cottage is a one-and-a-half-storey, rubble-built cottage orné of around 1820, set within its own extensively wooded grounds to the north-east of Burrenwood Road, roughly one mile south of Castlewellan. The building is J-shaped in plan, comprising a main front section to the north, a very long gabled return wing to the east, and a shorter gabled return wing to the west that merges with outbuildings. The original thatch has been removed and replaced with corrugated iron and asbestos.

The front, north-facing façade is roughly symmetrical and built in random rubble with brick dressings to most openings. At its centre is a narrow, one-and-a-half-storey projecting porch with a steep gable, containing a panelled timber door with a three-pane fanlight at ground floor level and a small four-pane window within the gable above, now boarded up. To either side of the porch is a large square window opening: that to the right is now blocked, while that to the left retains the remains of a segmentally projecting timber bay frame set within a similar opening, also now blocked. Both openings have smooth stone dressings. The main front section has a hipped roof with a large overhang to the north, east, and west façades, supported on roughly hewn tree trunks, some of which are now missing. Two chimney stacks are symmetrically placed at 45 degrees at the centre of the ridge line. To the east and west hips are small gabled dormer windows, all fitted with sash windows with Georgian panes in a nine-over-three configuration.

The west façade of the main front section has one timber-sheeted door to the right, with a three-pane fanlight over, and a section of roof extending southwards to shelter the doorway. The face is otherwise blank. The east façade of the main front section is also blank.

The shorter, one-and-a-half-storey gabled west return wing merges with the right side of the west façade of the main front section and projects well forward. Its largely exposed north gable contains one sash window with Georgian panes at an intermediate level, lighting the stair. The main west façade of this wing has one large window opening to the right, similar in character to those on the main front façade and now boarded over, with a small roof overhang above it. The roof to this section is finished in corrugated iron. There is one chimney stack to the left of centre of the ridge line, and a wall merges with the far right of the face. To the south gable of this wing, at first-floor level, is a sash window with Georgian panes in a six-over-three configuration. A small lean-to extension occupies the ground floor of this section, with the remains of a timber-sheeted door to its east face. A tall brick chimney stack rises from a further small lean-to to the east face of the west return wing. To the south of the west return wing are some small single-storey outbuildings.

The very long east return wing extends from the east side of the rear of the main front section. Its east façade has seven small sash windows with Georgian panes — window number six in a six-over-three configuration, and all remaining ones in a four-over-two configuration. To the left side of the roof are four gabled dormers matching those on the main section. There are five quite tall chimney stacks: the first from the left is traditionally shaped, while the rest are set at 45 degrees; all are in facing brick. To the south, this return wing incorporates an outbuilding or outbuildings. The west side of the east return wing has three small sash windows to the left and a sheeted door to the right. The exposed south face of the east return has one small four-pane window. The right portion of this south façade is set back and contains one small four-pane fixed window to the left at first-floor level and one larger four-pane window to the right. At ground-floor level, to the left of centre, is a wide opening for a small carriage; to the right of this are two sheeted timber doors with three-pane fanlights over.

To the rear, south of the main front section and sandwiched between the two return wings, the building is wholly single storey, the roof being longer on this side. Here there is a small four-pane window to the right and a single-storey lean-to bathroom extension to the left.

To Burrenwood Road, to the west of the house, stands a set of decorative cast-iron entrance gates with simple octagonal granite gate posts and a pass gate. The gates and side screen form a gentle curve.

The property has a notable history. In the mid-18th century the land belonged to Sir John Hawkins Magill of Gill Hall, near Dromore, and on his death passed to his daughter Theodosia, who married Sir John Meade, later Earl of Clanwilliam, in 1776. Local folk memory records that around 1790, while travelling from Dromore to Newry to board a ship for England, Theodosia received word of a smallpox outbreak at Rathfriland, where she customarily broke her journey, and instead had a house hastily built on her lands at Burren Wood. This original structure, reputed to have been built within six weeks, is believed to correspond to the east return wing of the present building. Theodosia, 1st Countess Clanwilliam, died in 1817, leaving her personal estate to her second son, General Robert Meade. Robert is believed to have extended the original house around 1820, adding the new cottage orné front section and the west wing, and increasing the planting around the house. The extended Burrenwood Cottage is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 and recorded in contemporary valuation records with a rateable value of £28-5-10. General Meade lived principally in London, using Burrenwood as a summer residence. After his death in 1852, the Meade family largely abandoned the property, leaving it in the care of trusted tenants. Between approximately 1850 and 1934 it was largely vacant and maintained by caretakers, which accounts for its having remained relatively unaltered. A Meade descendant reoccupied the house in 1934 and during the Second World War removed the thatch for safety reasons. The house appears to have remained in occupation until approximately the 1980s and at the time of recording was vacant and in poor repair.