Ard View, 31 Ardview Road, Killinchy, [near Killinchy village], Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 6TG

Ard View is a large two-storey house of early to mid-18th century date, built by the Potter family and situated just north of the intersection of Killyleagh Road and Ardview Road, near Killinchy village. The house displays mild Palladian touches to its front facade and is set within its original wooded demesne with a collection of largely intact outhouses that add considerably to the site as a whole.

The building is constructed in brick and finished in rough cast render, with a roof of Bangor blue slates and cast iron rainwater goods. It stands over a sunken basement and features a large two-storey hipped roof return to the rear, added around 1920. The actual date of construction is uncertain, though the characters '1722' are said to be inscribed on the basement facade, and the house probably appears on Taylor's and Skinner's 1777 road map of the area marked 'Potter Esq.'. Local tradition suggests the residence may originally have been called Mount Potter.

The front south-east elevation is symmetrical and presents a central projecting bay (approximately 100mm projection) finished with a simple pediment. The central entrance comprises a panelled timber door surmounted by a rectangular fanlight with radial pattern, flanked by simple panelled pilasters which are in turn flanked with margin windows and shallow plasters. Above the door and margins is a plain entablature, with the inner pilasters supporting the pediment. Within the central bay are three evenly spaced first-floor sliding sash and case windows with Georgian panes. To either side of the door is a matching window set within a shallow recessed panel with a semi-circular head. The bay is crowned by a simple pediment containing one wide but squat window lighting the attic space within the tympanum. Either side of the projecting bay is one matching window to ground and first floors. The ground floor rests on a projecting string course, with a further string course extending either side of the pediment above the first floor. The windows to the sunken basement match those described above, are in line with windows above, but are shorter. A low rendered wall with decorative stone balusters guards the drop to the basement area and the sides of a short bridge giving access to the front door.

The gable parapets are finished with stone dressings and tall, centrally placed rendered chimney stacks, which may have been raised with large pots added in early Victorian times. The south-west gable has a French door to the left-hand side ground floor and one tall sliding sash and case window to the right. The first floor has two evenly spaced but shorter matching windows, and the attic floor has two similar but very short windows. This gable has no sunken basement. The north-east gable is identical at attic and first floors, though the ground floor has one blind window and the sunken basement continues along this face with no windows to the basement on this side.

The rear north-west facade has the sunken basement continuing to the left-hand side. Also to the left are two sliding sash and case windows at ground floor, with a shorter right-hand window due to a small projecting half-landing flat-roofed extension supported on a short rendered column. First floor has two similar windows. To the right side of the rear elevation is a two-storey hipped extension, constructed around 1920, which may have replaced an earlier single-storey return. This extension has a hipped roof with exposed rafter ends and windows generally matching those on the main house, although two first-floor windows on the south-west side are PVC. A small hipped-roof single-storey extension to the north-west of the main return contains the rear porch. To the south-west side of the return is a long single-storey pitched-roof wing added recently as a kitchen and dining area.

The rear courtyard is surrounded by outhouses largely used as stables (north and west sides) and a family den (south side). In the centre of the courtyard is a small hipped-roof pavilion formerly used as a milking parlour, its walls now obscured by ivy. A terrace to the immediate south of the den contains an open-air swimming pool. A dry closet stands a short distance to the east of the house.

The Potter family appears to have remained in possession of Ard View for most of the 19th century, with various family members listed in the 1835 and 1861 valuation returns. Alexander Knox's 1875 History of County Down refers to 'Ard View the residence of Mr. Potter'. By 1886 the building was in the possession of T.P. Millar and has witnessed a succession of residents during the 20th century. The current owner acquired the house in 1986 and has carried out extensive restoration work, particularly to the first-floor rooms and roof. Much internal restoration has been undertaken in recent times but the character of the house has generally been maintained. The circa 1920 hipped roof return is largely in keeping with the original structure.