Hill Head, 77 Ballygowan Road, Ballyrush, Comber, Co. Down, BT23 6BL

Hill Head is a large two storey late Georgian gabled farm house of circa 1820, prominently set on a rise to the west of Ballygowan Road, approximately 1.5 miles north of Ballygowan. It comprises a main block with single storey side wings. To the rear is a large modern flat-roofed extension and a recently added PVC conservatory, but the front façade remains largely original with the interior layout mainly untouched and some original detailing surviving.

The front, or east, façade centres on a panelled door with an elliptical fanlight featuring 'spider's web' tracery. The door is flanked by fluted pilasters and set within an elliptical arch-headed opening with a narrow smooth render surround. To the left and right of the doorway are two sash windows with Georgian panes, with a further window to the front of each single storey side wing. The first floor has five similar but shorter windows. All front façade windows have narrow surrounds matching the door case. The north and south gables to the main block are blank. The roof is covered in Bangor blue slates, and the façade is mainly roughcast with smooth render to the gables, painted finish overall. The front has chamfered quoins and base.

To the centre rear is a large one and a half storey gabled return. The north face of the return has a ground floor window to the left, with evidence of a former blocked doorway to its left. To the right is a flight of steps leading to a plain timber sheeted loft door, with two small four pane windows just under the eaves. The gable of the return has two small ground floor sash windows with Georgian panes. The south face is now entirely covered by the modern single storey flat-roofed extension with modern windows and a glazed door. The main house has two rendered chimney stacks with Victorian octagonal pots. The side wings each have a smaller chimney stack to their gables, though these appear to be dummies. A tall stack serves the return and appears to be of recent construction. The rear façade of the main house has windows to ground and first floors, including two windows to the left of the ground floor and to the far right of the first floor.

Local tradition records that Hill Head was built circa 1820 by a man named Montgomery, supported by its appearance on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map and the listing of a James Montgomery in the valuation returns of that year. A James Montgomery also appears in the returns of circa 1863, at which time the rateable value had risen to £16 from £11-5-6 in 1834. By 1886 at least, the property had passed to the Patterson family. The current owner believes the rear return to be part of an earlier, 18th century dwelling. The windows were all replaced in 1988, at which time an unsuitable front porch was removed. Outbuildings to the north, partly attached to the north wing, stand nearby.