Ardmore, 26 The Brae, Ballygowan, Co. Down, BT23 5TH

Ardmore is a large two-storey gabled gentleman's residence situated on a rise to the north of the Brae, overlooking the village of Ballygowan. The house is approached via a laneway with tall plain gate posts and tall decorative wrought iron gates at its entrance.

The building appears to have been constructed in two sections. The long two-storey rear return is probably the original pre-1834 dwelling, with the main section to the front added between 1834 and 1858.

The front façade, facing west, is almost symmetrical. Roughly at its centre on the ground floor is a gabled porch. On the south face of the porch is a sturdy timber panelled door reached via three steps. The doorway is encased with thick pilasters with simple moulded capitals and chamfered bases. Above the door is a frieze and cornice eaves course which continues around the whole porch. On the west (gabled) face of the porch is a sash window with margin panes. Below the window is a moulded panel, and to either side of the window at the edges of the face are double pilasters similar to those on the south face. In the tympanum of the gable is a small moulded roundel panel. The north face has a similar arrangement but with single pilasters. To the left and right of the porch is a single sash window with three similar but slightly smaller windows to the first floor.

The south façade consists of the south gable of the main front section and the south side of the long rear return. The gable has sash windows to the right on ground and first floors. The south façade of the return has house-like symmetry, reinforcing that this section was indeed an earlier dwelling. At its centre is a panelled and glazed door with plain fanlight and moulded surround with keystone. To the left and right of the doorway is a single sash window with three more similar but smaller windows to the first floor.

To the east gable of the return, which has a small single-pane attic window, is a single-storey section possibly originally a barn.

The north façade has a more complex arrangement. To the right is the north gable of the main front section, which has sash windows to the right on ground and first floors. To the left of this gable is a small flat-roofed single-storey extension with a modern window to the north. Behind this extension is a two-storey lean-to projection with a modern window to the north on the first floor. To the left of this lean-to, at the rear of the long return, is a first-floor sash window with margin panes. To the centre left of the rear of the long return projects a large full-height gabled section with a sash window to the first floor on its east face. To the north-facing gable of this section is a single-storey lean-to store extension, also attached to the flat-roofed single-storey extension to its right. To the first floor of the gable is a centrally placed sash window with margin panes and a smaller modern window to the right.

The rear elevation could not be observed by the authors.

The façade is finished in lined render with chamfered quoins to the front section and an eaves course to it and the long return. The roof, apart from the small flat-roofed portion, is covered in Bangor blue slates with parapets to the main front section and the return. Four rendered chimney stacks serve the building, two to the return and two to the front section. A cast-iron skylight is positioned to the rear of the return roof. The rainwater goods are mainly cast iron. Much of the front and south façades are covered in creeper growth. Outbuildings stand to the rear.