Lorne, 30 Station Road, Craigavad, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 0BP

Lorne is a large two-storey dwelling with basement, built around 1870 in loose Jacobethan style. The house occupies a prominent elevated position overlooking Belfast Lough towards Carrickfergus, situated at the end of a tree-lined driveway on the north side of Station Road on the main Belfast to Bangor route.

The building displays a complex plan form comprising a rectangular main block with three conjoining two-storey returns and a four-stage circular tower. Extensive returns and outbuildings extend to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with angled clay ridge tiles, chamfered corbel course at eaves level, cast-iron ogee moulded gutters and circular downpipes. Tall clay Tudor chimney pots sit over brick and stone stacks.

The walling is yellow brick with irregular long-and-short sandstone, quoins and a projected plinth. Windows throughout are timber 1/1 sliding sash, varied between square and Tudor arched profiles. All windows have sandstone label and hood mouldings with moulded figured and foliated stops, chamfered jambs matching the head, large chamfered cills and long-and-short surrounds.

The principal northwest-facing elevation is symmetrically arranged. A central Dutch gable breakfront features paired Tudor arched windows at ground floor and a central buttress rising to a castellated oriel bay with a lancet arched arrowloop above. Single-storey canted bays flank either side, each with square moulded parapet panels and quatrefoil signature panels centred over, paired sash windows to the first floor.

The main entrance comprises a timber double door with paired long bolection moulded panels and fixed light over, set into a double scroll moulded Tudor arched opening with label moulding and foliated spandrels.

The northeast elevation comprises the left gable of the front block, the east elevation of the triple-pile return, and the tower at the re-entrant angle. The gable contains windows with label moulds to each floor. The tower has triple Tudor arched windows to the first and second stages; the third and fourth stages above eaves have diminished windows, square-headed to the third stage and Tudor-arched to the fourth, surmounted by a balustrade with lancet piercings.

The rear southeast elevation is abutted by three conjoined subservient two-storey returns with a profile of central Dutch gable flanked by two outer plain gables. The east cheek of the right return is dominated by a single-storey ashlar sandstone entrance porch on a stepped stone platform. The porch has three Tudor-arched openings divided by semi-engaged octagonal piers rising to panelled and crocketted pinnacles with quatrefoil balustrade. The principal entrance sits at the base of the tower; two ground floor windows and two first floor windows are also located within the porch.

Modern single-storey accommodation abuts the gable ends of the central and left return at ground floor level. The central Dutch gable is surmounted by a tall finial at the apex with shaped saddle coping falling to gable shoulders, and features triple square-headed windows with margin-paned stained glass, relieving arches and a central blank oculus above.

The west cheek of the left return is abutted at ground floor by a large single-storey solarium to the right of the gable end. This comprises an arcaded glazed cast-iron frame arranged as a semi-circular projection with glazed pitch roof rising to a finial; a door is located at the top of stone steps embedded into the landscape with modern hand rails, and single and bi-partite windows occupy the first floor. This gable is further abutted by a lower two-storey block with dormers and subdued detailing, renovated around 2008. A further two-storey steep-pitched hipped abutment and castellated wall enclose the courtyard. The southwest gable of the main house matches the northeast.

The site is accessed via modern timber gates fixed to stone piers with octagonal pinnacles. Mature plantings surround the elevated house.

Immediately to the rear is an enclosed former coach yard with associated outbuildings accessed through large timber gates with wrought-iron strap hinges and surrounds. The yard has been largely filled in by modern single-storey administrative accommodation constructed with sympathetic materials. A former two-storey stable block and servant's accommodation features a projecting single-storey timber-framed lean-to shelter on cast-iron columns. The external fabric of the two-storey accommodation matches the main house in detail, though modernised internally with double-glazed sash replica windows throughout. The southernmost part of the site contains a series of single-storey modern buildings.