The Rocks, 42 Comber Road, Ballyministragh, Killinchy, Co Down, BT23 6PB

The Rocks is a long single-storey dwelling situated at the end of a lane west of Comber Road, half a mile north-west of Killinchy, just north of the hamlet of Balloo, in County Down. The building has been completely modernised in recent times and is now, to all intents and purposes, a modern dwelling, though it is of considerable historical interest.

The structure was acquired by the current owners in late 1974, at which point it still retained much of its original character as a classic Irish linear dwelling, featuring a thatched roof, small sash windows, sheeted doors, and a whitewashed façade. Experts from the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum informed the owner that they believed the house to date from the early 1500s, when this area was part of the O'Neill Lordship of Clandeboy, though this assertion remains unverified and is now largely academic given the extent of modernisation undertaken.

The current building presents as follows: the front east-facing façade features a large lean-to-like projection (with roof pitch cutting into the main roof) to the right, containing a modern door on its south face and a large modern window on its east face. To the left of this porch are three similar modern windows, one of which is a bow window, with another similar window to the right of the porch. Both gables are blank. The rear is dominated by a lengthy projection similar in character to the front porch, which has three modern windows to its west façade and a similar window and modern door to the short north façade. The rear façade of the main house to the left contains a similar modern window. All façades are finished in roughcast and painted. The roof is gabled and covered in pan tiles, with a long wooden flat-roofed dormer to the rear and several Velux windows at both front and rear. There are two brick chimney stacks and PVC rainwater goods throughout. Outbuildings to the south-east and north-east have been largely untidily renovated.

Historical records indicate that a collection of buildings on this site, shown on Ordnance Survey maps of 1834 and 1859–60, was designated "The Rocks" by the 1920 OS map. Valuation records from circa 1835 record the dwelling as being in possession of a cotter named John Johnstone. By circa 1861, it was rented by Andrew Baillie, who leased the buildings and 34 acres surrounding them from the Londonderry estate. The Baillie family retained the property into the twentieth century. The 1901 census records Thomas Baillie living here with his three unmarried sisters, a niece, and a nephew; the house was then noted as a second-class dwelling with four windows in front and four rooms. Thomas acquired the freehold in or before 1906, and circa 1917 the house passed to his sisters Mary Jane and Maggie Baillie, who appear to have retained it into the 1930s. The building remained largely in its original state until 1974–75, when the current owner's parents undertook comprehensive modernisation and extension, removing the thatch and enlarging all window openings in the process.