Ballywhite House, 19 Lough Shore Road, Ballywhite, Portaferry, Co Down, BT22 1PD

Ballywhite House is a large two-storey, double-pile gentleman's residence of rambling plan, dating chiefly from c.1860–70, though the rear returns may incorporate elements of a pre-1834 dwelling. The complex comprises a long rectangular double-gabled main block with a projecting Italianate porch to the front (south-west) and extensive servants' quarters in a large return to the rear (north-east). On the north-west side is a recently reconstructed Victorian hot house and conservatory in simplified form, which connects to a single-cell ballroom. The detailing is generally simple except for applied decoration to the projecting full-height front porch and the gables of the main front section.

The south-west front facade features a central projecting full-height porch with corner pilasters rising to a frieze below the first-floor window cill. The first floor has paired pilasters with floral caps and frieze supporting a broken entablature surmounted by acroteria—heavy square pinnacles to the corners and a stylised floral and leaf pattern to the apex. Above the first-floor windows is a carved cartouche. Two-pane PVC windows are set within the original openings. A triple opening with floral-capped columns as mullions occupies the ground floor, with a similar but shorter arrangement at first-floor level. Each side of the porch is identical. The first floor has a paired opening as the front, over double timber-glazed doors. Symmetrical wings flank either side of the porch. At ground floor the wings have two windows each, with projecting moulded cornices supported on moulded console brackets; first-floor windows are less tall and undecorated.

The south-east gable has at ground floor a three-window semi-circular flat-roofed bay with moulded cornice or cope. The first-floor centre window features a moulded triangular pediment on moulded console brackets, with identical windows to either side except for segmental arch pediments. The north-west gable windows follow the south-east arrangement at first-floor level.

The south gable is double-piled. Its left section has a semicircular central single-storey bay with three windows, each with projecting cornice or canopy on decorative console brackets. First-floor windows number three, each with projecting entablature on decorative console brackets—the centre entablature is triangular, those to left and right are segmental arched. All windows to this gable are PVC. The right gable projects slightly and has mullioned tripartite windows to both ground and first floors, the first-floor windows slightly shorter. The mullions are formed as pilasters with decorative capitals, and the windows are sashes without astragals or horns. To the far right is a large hipped-roof two-storey block of irregular shape forming the servants' quarters, constructed later with simple detailing and sash windows with vertical astragals.

A single-storey pitched-roof extension to the left of the front elevation leads to the hot house, recently reconstructed mainly in timber but re-using decorative cast-iron brackets and simple ceramic floor tiles. This connects to the ballroom on the north-east, a large single-cell hipped-roof hall with exposed cast-iron trusses internally. The hot house abuts the north gable (obscuring the ground floor), which is double-piled. The first floor of the main north gable has three equally spaced windows, each with projecting entablature on decorative console brackets—the centre is triangular, the outer two segmental arched. The ballroom is much obscured by plant growth but appears simply detailed with large windows of Georgian panes, which were replicated in 2002. The hall roof, covered with Bangor blue slate, is hipped.

The house and hall are generally finished in plain lined render with moulded base and cornice eaves course, Bangor blue slate roofing, yellow-brick chimneys, and cast-iron rain water goods. Most rain water goods to the main house are extruded aluminium.

To the east is a substantial collection of farm buildings of varying ages, ranging from the early nineteenth century to mid-twentieth century. Two buildings south-east of the house form an open-ended courtyard and are probably early nineteenth-century, both gabled and built of flat stone rubble. That closest to the house is whitewashed with slate pitched roof, contains original horse stalls and cast-iron manger, and has original cast-iron hopper windows inscribed 'Musgrave's Patent Belfast'. The adjoining barns are L-shaped with pitched roofs finished in corrugated iron. The whitewash has been substantially cleaned to reveal multi-coloured stone rubble. This building was recently renovated with new timber windows, double coach doors, and pass doors. Other nineteenth-century farm buildings and a farm house also stand within the Ballywhite House estate.