41 Rowreagh Road, Gransha, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 1AR

A substantial two-storey gabled farmhouse situated south of Kircubbin, set back from Rowreagh Road. The building is of probable early to mid-19th-century origin, with the front facade retaining much of its vernacular Georgian character, though later additions and alterations have affected other elevations.

The front south-east elevation features a central timber and glazed double door with four-pane sidelights and an elliptical arch radial fanlight, all enclosed with fluted pilasters and moulded arch (now obscured by ivy). Two sliding sash and case windows with horizontal and vertical astragals flank the door to the left, with two to the right and five similar windows evenly spaced to the first floor, the centre window being tripartite. The front and north-east gable are finished in lined render with chamfered quoins. The north-east gable is otherwise blank.

A small single-storey gabled extension is attached to the south-west gable, featuring a smallish mullioned window to its south-east side. This extension is rendered and brick-built, with a plain timber-sheeted door to its rear and a blocked-up fanlight above.

The rear elevation comprises a large full-height gabled return with three modern two-pane timber windows to the north-east side and four similar windows plus a plain timber-sheeted back door to the south-west side. The rear of the main house and return are finished in rough cast render. A small single-storey lean-to shed with corrugated asbestos roof is attached to the rear of the main house and north-east side of the return. Above this, aligned with the main house, is a window similar to those on the front but narrower. To the right of the return are two ground-floor windows matching the front style and two similar but narrower first-floor windows.

The roofs are gabled and pitched, covered with Bangor blue slates. Four rendered and potless chimney stacks rise from the main house, with another serving the return gable and one the south-west gable extension. Cast-iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

The 1834 Ordnance Survey map shows a building on this site much as it exists today but without the return and extension, and with adjacent farm buildings to the south-west. This evidence suggests the house dates from at least the early 1800s. However, an inscription of 1867 is said to appear on the cill of the first-floor central window (now obscured), which may indicate remodelling, reconstruction, renovation, or merely a window-cill replacement at that date. The most probable hypothesis is that the house was standing in the early 1800s but underwent renovation in the 1860s.

The large rear return was added in the 1940s according to the owner (as of 1997). The small single-storey extension to the south-west gable may date to the Edwardian period. The sash and case windows to the front and rear of the main house were replaced in 1993. Farm buildings to the south-west, some of which may have been contemporary with the house, have been demolished in recent years.

The window frames to the 1940s rear return and the small Edwardian extension are largely modern. Large sections of the front facade are now covered in ivy.