24 Killaughey Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Neat one and a half storey gabled house of c.1840, whose rubble facade and gabled half dormers are of Scottish flavour. The house is situated at the NE end of a terrace on the SW side of the Killaughey Road.

Front NW facade is symmetrical. In the centre is a panelled door with two stone steps and a fanlight with margin tracery. To either side of the doorway are two sliding sash windows with Georgian panes. The first floor has two gabled half dormers with decorative barge boards. Each contains a sliding sash window as ground floor. The front facade is unrendered showing rubble construction.

Attached to the NE gable is a single storey lean to with a tiny four pane window to the centre of the NE face with a timber sheeted door to the right of this. To the short SE face is another timber sheeted door. The NW short face of the lean-to is flush with the front facade and consists of a tall curving rough-cast wall which culminates with a sturdy rendered gate post. There is a similar gate post across from this and there are timber gates.

The exposed section of the NE gable is finished in lined render.

The rear of the house has a complex layout. In the centre of the rear is a two storey gabled return. The ground floor level to the rear of this return is completely open, except for the SW side, where a single storey return (with high parapet), is attached. To the left on the first floor of the NE side are two windows as front but with narrow smooth render surrounds. To the left on the SW face of the return is a similar window.

The SE wall within the open area of the ground floor of the return contains a timber sheeted door, and the NE wall within this area (which is also the NE facade of the single storey extension) has a window as before. There are two similar windows to the to the SE face of the single storey return.

To the right side of the rear of the main house is a window (as before) to the ground floor, and two similar, but smaller windows to the fist floor. The rear facade and the returns are all finished in rough cast and unpainted.

All roofs are gabled apart from that to the single storey return which appears to be flat. The gabled roofs have Bangor blue slates. Two rendered chimney stacks to main roof. Cast iron rw goods.

Historical information

Though this house, with its gabled dormers and decorative barge boards, has something of a mid Victorian look, its (apparent) appearance on the 1834 OS Map and its Georgian sash windows suggest that it could well be c.1830. Oddly, however, it is listed as one of ‘twenty-two houses under [rateable] value’ in the c.1836 valuation records, which seems strange given that by 1830s standards this would have been quite a desirable residence. Thus this house may be post c.1836, perhaps c.1840s. However, it could also be argued that the facade’s appearance should be more properly described as ‘Scottish influenced’ (especially given Donaghadee’s connections with Portpatrick) rather than ‘Victorian’ and as such could well, like many similar Scottish dwellings, be of c.1830.

The returns to the rear may have been altered (?or extended) at some point.

References- Primary sources

1. PRONI VAL 1B/32 p.3 1st valuation, Donaghadee parish, Donaghadee., c.1836. [See also accompanying town plan.]
2. PRONI OS Maps 1st rev. 1858-60, Co. Down 3.
3. PRONI 2nd (‘Griffith’s’) valuation Donaghadee parish, Donaghadee, 1863. [The town plan for the 2nd valuation is not available at PRONI and therefore it is difficult to match the properties listed in the valuation with actual buildings.]

Secondary sources

1. Hugh Dixon et al Historic buildings, groups of buildings, buildings of architectural importance in Donaghadee and Portpatrick (UAHS 1977), p.27. [The authors of the UAHS survey believed this house to be of c.1830.]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Attractive, Scottish influenced, one and a half storey house, perhaps of c.1830-40, with rubble facade and gabled half dormers.