60-62 Mountstewart Road, Ballycastle, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2AX

This is a picturesque pair of single-storey estate workers’ dwellings, built around the 1860s, and now combined into a single property. They are located on the north side of Mountstewart Road, near the northern edge of the Mount Stewart demesne, approximately three miles northwest of Greyabbey. The buildings are constructed of rubble stone and are characterised by gabled porches with decorative barge boards and moulded dripstones. The main roof has a significant overhang at the gable ends. The original roofs were covered in Bangor blue slates, a material now also used on the porches and a modern extension to the rear. Two Velux windows are visible on the front of the main roof, and two on the extension roof; some PVC window frames are present.

The front elevation features a centrally positioned, shallow gabled porch with unusual, possibly granite, quoins, decorative barge boards, and a finial. The porch front gable contains a timber-sheeted door with a brick-filled semicircular arched recess above, incorporating a rectangular stone plaque. To the left of the porch is a three-light casement window with an ogee-arched head and diamond-pattern leaded lights, with a plain label moulding and slate lintel. Two similar windows are situated to the right of the porch. To the right of these is another porch, similar in design, but with a small oriel window where the entrance to the former number 62 would have been. A further window sits to the right of this porch, matching the style of the others. Each gable end has a two-light casement attic window. The rear of the property includes a large, two-level pitched roof extension with large modern windows along with a modern PVC conservatory attached to the west side.

According to information from the owner of nearby numbers 48-50, the houses were constructed around the 1860s by the Mount Stewart estate, likely as dwellings for estate workers. It is unknown when the two properties were combined, but the large rear extension appears to have been added relatively recently, possibly around 1990.