5 Reagh Island, Comber, Newtownards, BT23 6EN

A small, single-storey detached house of the 1850s, sited on the eastern shoreline of Reagh Island on the western side of Strangford Lough, approximately 4.5 kilometres north of Killinchy and 7.5 kilometres south-east of Comber. The building is a good example of a formally designed mid-nineteenth-century cottage, with an interesting interior from the Edwardian era.

The house is rectangular in plan and presents a blank gable to the road, facing the narrow causeway that links Reagh Island to Cross Island. It is constructed in random rubble field stone with a sawtooth brick eaves course and has a hipped roof with natural slate covering and grey fireclay ridge tiles with decorative pots. The north front is almost symmetrical and serves as the main elevation, with a central flat-arched door opening containing a timber-sheeted part-glazed door and a shallow plain fanlight above. To the left is a flat-arched window opening with a 4/4 timber sash frame, the opening roughly dressed with red clay facing brick. The south façade is symmetrical, with a central flat-arched door opening beneath a bracketed slated canopy, similar to that on the north elevation. On either side are paired window arrangements, each resting on a common stone sill with brick dressings and timber sash frames. The west façade features a lean-to boiler house to the left and a uPVC oil tank to the right, but is otherwise blank. The east façade is blank. Two rendered chimneystacks with two corbelled brick courses sit at the centre of the roof ridge.

The interior is distinguished by tongue and groove timber sheeting to walls and ceilings, which has a nautical character. Internal detailing suggests the building underwent major renovation in the very late nineteenth century or early twentieth century, possibly as late as 1920. The combination of this timber detailing with the island setting has led to speculation that a local boat fitter may have been responsible for the work.

A building is recorded on this site on the 1859 Ordnance Survey map, though the plan appears somewhat more square than the present house. Near-contemporary valuation records of around 1861 list the property as a house and garden. The occupant at that time was Samuel Robinson, with Samuel Murland as the immediate lessor. Subsequent occupants and owners are recorded through the twentieth century, including Rev. Canon Manning (owner in 1936), Richard Chamberlain (1937), Hugh Chambers (1945), Samuel McKee (1946), Emily E. Johnston (lessee from 1956), and Arthur Hanna (occupant from 1965). The house appears to have been vacant from 1923 until the early 1930s. The building's location beside the ford leading to Cross Island suggests it may have served a particular role, possibly as a gamekeeper's lodge, though no evidence has been found to support this.

To the north of the house is a former outbuilding that was converted to a dwelling in the late twentieth century. This outbuilding does not appear on the 1859 map and is of late nineteenth-century date. To the north-west corner of the site stands a small corrugated-iron garage and a pre-fabricated summerhouse. A gravelled area between the main house and the converted outbuilding serves as a communal car park.

The delightful setting on the shoreline of an island within Strangford Lough remains untouched by modern development. However, the addition of a uPVC porch at the south elevation, uPVC eaves boards to all sides, rendered chimney stacks, and replacement of the rear door with a half-glazed type with a cat flap have detracted from the building's architectural interest.