214 Hillhall Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An asymmetrical three-bay two-storey vernacular house with outbuildings, built c.1800 and located south of the Hillhall Road near Lisburn. Rectangular on plan with two-storey roughcast rendered return to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and four rendered chimneystacks having terracotta pots. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods. Walling is painted smooth render with chamfered plinth and quoins. Windows are original 2/2 timber-framed sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars, in moulded surrounds with masonry sills.

The principal elevation faces northwest and is asymmetrically arranged being five openings wide. To centre at ground floor is a four-panelled timber door with transom light in architrave.

The northeast gable has a 6/6 window to at first floor and a timber-sheeted door to left at ground floor.

The southeast elevation has a 1/1 window to right at first floor and two windows to ground floor, each with small metal frame and glass surrounds. To right is the two-storey return; the northeast elevation has a window to first floor right and two timber-sheeted openings to first floor left. Ground floor has two 1/1 windows to right and a metal casement window and timber-sheeted door to left; southwest elevation has a 1/1 window over a small double-leaf half timber-sheeted door with brass knob, surrounded by metal frame conservatory; to left almost under eaves is a metal casement window.

The southwest gable has a window to right at first floor.

The adjoining outbuilding is slated roughcast render and faces a yard to northeast; large timber garage door to southeast gable; two metal-framed windows to southwest elevation; northeast elevation has two timber-sheeted doors to right. To northeast of the yard is a slated roughcast render linear range with various timber-framed window openings and timber-sheeted doors. To south is a small single-storey outbuilding with timber-sheeted door to right and window to left; to the rear of this is a rubble-stone ruin. I front of the outbuilding is a fine example of a cow tail cast iron water pump inscriped 'DUGAN PLUMBER LISBURN'
Setting:
Road-facing, set back from the road with low roughcast rendered wall surmounted by hedgerow, enclosing small garden; to centre is a cast-iron latch gate on round cast-iron piers with caps. Entrance at northeast to yard via square painted smooth render gate piers with pointed caps supporting decorative cast-iron gate. Enclosed garden to rear leads to small-holding with hen pen and piggery, overlooking unspoiled farmland to rear. Wrought-iron gates to rear of yard on square roughcast rendered gate piers with pointed caps.

Roof: Pitched natural slate
Walling: Smooth roughcast render
Windows: Timber-framed sash
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

A two-storey farmhouse first appearing on the first edition Ordnance Survey map for the Townland of Ballymullan in 1834. It is depicted as an L-shaped building possessing a large south-east facing rear return, situated along the modern Hillhall road; the map also shows that the house possessed a small outbuilding to its south-east side. Freeholder’s records dating from the early 19th century state that a Mr. Richard Murdoch occupied the site in 1818 although his will later records that Murdoch died in 1827 leaving the farm to his family. Sometime after 1834 the south-eastern outbuilding had been taken down and replaced with two outbuildings to the north-east of the farmhouse which can be seen from the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map of 1859. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation indicates that the house was occupied by a Richard Murdoch in 1861 although his relationship to the previous occupant is not known. The valuer records that the farmhouse was let to Murdoch by the Marquis of Hertford and was valued at £10 10s.

Richard Murdoch resided at the farm in Ballymullan until his death in January 1892 at which time his widow Sarah and son William John Murdoch were granted Ballymullan House and effects of £1,486 17s. 4d. Murdoch’s will tells us that he had lived at the farm with Sarah, William and also his three daughters (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 9 January 1892). Sarah Murdoch followed her husband in 1895 leaving the farm in the sole possession of William John Murdoch; Sarah’s will also indicates that she had a second son named Richard although he had emigrated to New Zealand some years prior to her death (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 17 December 1895).

The 1901 Census records that ‘Wills’ John Murdoch, a 44 year old Presbyterian farmer resided at the house with his wife Louisa (29, originally born in New Zealand) along with their two daughters and son Wills John Hughes Murdoch (10, also born in New Zealand). The 1901 Census Building Returns describe the farmhouse as a 2nd class dwelling which possessed five rooms and a number of out offices. The majority of these farm buildings were housed in the outbuilding situated to the north-east (which had been extended since 1859) and a separate outbuilding to the south-east of the house; these outbuildings included a stable, two cow houses, a piggery and a barn. The extended north-east office range and the new outbuilding are first shown on the fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey map of 1919-20 but are likely to have been constructed earlier (the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map c. 1900 was not available).

Peter Conradi states that Wills John Murdoch followed his brother Richard to New Zealand in the 1880s to establish a sheep rearing farm. It was in New Zealand that Murdoch met and married his wife Louisa with whom he had his son Wills John Hughes in 1890. When Murdoch’s father Richard died in January 1892 Wills and his young family returned to Ireland and took over the farm for a number of years (Conradi). Wills Murdoch was forced to sell the farm in 1902 due to spiralling debts; he then took up an address in Belfast although in 1903 at the age of 45 he died leaving effects of £1,274 to his widow and son, Wills John Hughes (PRONI Wills Catalogue – 1 December 1903). The decision to sell Ballymullan was likely to have been difficult as Conradi tells us it was home to seven generations of the Murdoch family who first came to Ireland in the 17th century. The Murdochs were known as a staunchly Protestant Scots-Irish family who had a number of outspoken and distinguished descendants; Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), the only daughter of Wills John Hughes Murdoch, is recognised as a famous writer and philosopher who went on to win the 1978 booker prize for her work The Sea, The Sea (Conradi).

It is not clear who occupied Ballymullan house after Murdoch sold the property in 1902. A photograph of Ballymullan House in the possession of a descendant of the Murdoch family contains a note that the house passed to the Gillespie family; the 1911 Census records that a William Gillespie came into possession of a house in Ballymullan between 1901 and 1911, however this house appears to be much grander than that mentioned in 1901 being a 1st class dwelling possessing at least 15 rooms.

It is uncertain when Ballymullan House was originally built as there is no evidence which records a construction date. Field research would suggest that the current two-storey farmhouse was constructed c. 1800 and may have originated from an earlier vernacular dwelling; this is likely as the Murdoch family believe that at least seven generations of their family have resided on the site since first arriving in Ireland in the 17th century. The current owner claims that Ballymullan House has been occupied by members of her family for a number of generations.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/15/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/15/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/15/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1919-20
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/25C – Griffiths Valuation 1861
5. PRONI Freeholders Catalogue (1818)
6. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1827, 1892, 1895, 1903)
7. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911

Secondary Sources

1. Conradi, P. J., ‘Iris Murdoch: A life’ (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 2001)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Ballymullan House is a well-preserved asymmetrical three-bay two-storey vernacular house with outbuildings, built c.1800 and in an unspoiled rural setting south of the Hillhall Road near Lisburn. Architectural detailing is largely intact, the proportions and asymmetrical fenestration illustrating the likely development of the house from an earlier dwelling. The associated farm buildings are equally well-preserved and together with the house, cast iron water pump and wrougth iron gates make an important an increasingly rare rural group. This is a well-preserved example of a medium-sized farmhouse, representative of the attempts of a wealthy farmer to emulate the more formal Georgian houses of the time.

General comments

This record was completed without access to original source material held by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.