191 Killinchy Road, Comber, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 6AA

191 Killinchy Road, Comber, is a long, predominantly single-storey vernacular dwelling with a disused post office, of probable pre-1834 origin. It stands on the west side of Killinchy Road, approximately 3 miles north-west of Killinchy village, set slightly below road level.

The building comprises two distinct sections. The northern section is a long thatched gabled house. Its east-facing front façade contains five sash windows with single vertical glazing bars and four panes each; the two rightmost windows are slightly larger and set at a higher level. Between the first and second windows from the left is the entrance, fitted with a partly glazed door dating from around the 1950s. The southern section is two storeys tall, with a Bangor blue slate roof. Its front east façade has two ground-floor windows with modern three-light frames and two first-floor sash windows (matching those on the main house). The left-hand window and much of this section's left side are covered in creeping plant growth. The north gable is blank. The south gable features an upper-level doorway reached by a flight of steps and now heavily obscured by plant growth; to the right of the steps at ground level is a timber-sheeted door. A small opening in the face of the steps marks where the post box once was.

To the rear of the building is a lean-to structure in two sections. The southern section has a corrugated asbestos roof with a sheeted door and two-pane window to the rear west façade. The northern lean-to section has a corrugated iron roof set at a slightly lower pitch, with a modern glazed door and two sash windows to the rear façade. The south gable merges with the south face of the rear lean-to, which has a square multi-pane window. On the main rear façade is a sash window matching those at the front. To its immediate left is a recent flat-roofed return with large glazed sections and a corrugated iron roof. The entire façade is finished in roughcast. Four short rendered chimney stacks serve the building, with metal rainwater goods and a cast iron skylight to the rear of the slated roof. Modern railings line the roadside.

Historical records show a building on this site in the 1834 Ordnance Survey map. The contemporary valuation of around 1835 describes a single-storey thatched house measuring 49 feet by 17 feet by 6 feet high, occupied by William Maxwell, with thatched outbuildings measuring 44 by 16½ by 6 feet and 17½ by 16½ by 5 feet. The valuation notes the house as "not new", suggesting it was at least 20 to 25 years old or older at that date—meaning much of the structure possibly dates to the late 18th century or earlier.

By the 1861 valuation, Alexander Withers was listed as resident. The low rateable value of £2 at this time suggests the taller southern portion may not yet have been constructed or had not yet adopted its present two-storey form. By 1866, the valuers recorded two residents, with Withers subletting part of the property first to Elizabeth Breeze and then (from 1876) to James Cord. This additional dwelling, rated at merely ten shillings, does not appear to have resulted from subdividing the main house but rather from adapting one or more of the outbuildings. George Morrison took on the lease of the entire property by 1892.

The 1901 census records Morrison, a 59-year-old Presbyterian farmer, living here with his wife Eliza Jane and nine children. The house is noted as a third-class thatched structure with three rooms, three windows at the front, and four outbuildings. The smaller dwelling does not appear in the census, likely being vacant at that time. By 1904, Morrison had become the sole householder. The 1911 census shows the Morrison family had expanded to ten children, with Eliza Jane's mother, Ann Jane Donnan, also residing here. The children's recorded occupations included a dressmaker, bootmaker, two schoolteachers, a national telephone operator, and a clerk in a spinning mill. The house is noted as having two rooms at this census date.

The building assumed the role of the local post office at some point after around 1925, replacing an earlier post office located in a building further north on the opposite side of Killinchy Road. Changes to the structure, particularly the frontage window and door arrangement and alterations to the two-storey southern end, likely date from this period. The building remained occupied by Morrison family members until at least 1984 and was recorded as vacant during a second survey of historic buildings in August 1998. Around 2005 it was converted to a restaurant, with large extensions added to the rear.

Despite unsympathetic rear extensions and some modern window frames and doors, the building retains much of its original character both externally and internally and remains a good example of a simple vernacular dwelling with shop. It was listed in March 1977.