Eden Vale, 130 Portaferry Road, Ballywatticock, Newtownards, Co Down, BT22 2AH

Eden Vale

A much extended and renovated two storey farm house, now operating as a guest house, situated at the end of a long lane approximately 2 miles south-west of Newtownards off Portaferry Road. The building presents a Georgian appearance, though its true date of origin remains uncertain. While the current owner believed the main south-west section to date from around 1780, documentary evidence suggests the present structure more likely dates from the latter half of the 19th century, probably between 1860 and 1879. The style of the south-west facade, though appearing Georgian, remained popular in rural areas well into the 1860s. Early Ordnance Survey maps from 1834 and 1860 show a building on the general site, but its shape corresponds more readily with the siting of the return section than with the current south-west section, indicating substantial rebuilding or reconfiguration over time.

The main south-west facade features a central elliptical arched doorway with a panelled timber door, framed by timber panelled narrow pilasters. On either side of the door are sidelights with margins and Victorian coloured glass, with panelled aprons below. Pilasters define the outer edges of the door screen, and a radial fanlight rises above. To the left and right of the doorway are single sash windows with Georgian panes and plain rendered narrow surrounds. The first floor has three evenly spaced similar windows set on a cill band.

The north-west gable has an attached shorter two storey section with two gabled half dormers fitted with modern timber windows with Georgian panes. The ground floor of this section includes a set of French doors with large sidelights. The right side of the north-west gable has a window to ground and first floors matching the front elevation. Both the north-west gable and the rear of the shorter gabled section are blank.

The south-east gable of the main house has a first floor window matching the front facade, and an odd narrow timber window with many panes on the ground floor to the left. To the right on the ground floor is a modern window resembling the front facade sash windows. This gable merges into a long two storey gabled return with three large modern windows to the first floor and two very large modern windows to the ground floor, between which sits a modern glazed door with large sidelight to the left. The north-east gable of the return has a small modern casement window to the first floor.

A two storey gabled projection adjoins the return, with a large modern window to the first floor and two glazed doors to the ground floor. The north-west gable of this projection has two modern windows to the ground floor. This merges with a two storey flat roofed infill section built in the space enclosed by the rear of the main house, return and projection. The infill has two modern first floor windows (the right one larger) and two modern ground floor windows (the left one significantly larger than the right).

The entire facade is finished in roughcast render and painted. The pitched roofs of the main house, return, back projection and small front section are covered with Bangor blue slates. Two rendered chimney stacks rise from the gables of the main house, with one each from the gables of the return and back projection. A mixture of cast iron and plastic rainwater goods serve the building. Large outbuildings stand to the north-east. Remains of the workings of a weighbridge survive in the garden wall to the south.