Carrowdore Castle, Abbey Road, Ballyrawer [ near Carrowdore], Millisle, Newtownards, Co Down, BT22 2JH

Carrowdore Castle is a large but relatively compact three-storey country house built in 1818–20 in a castellated rustic gothic style. It stands on a slight rise within partly wooded grounds at the north-eastern edge of the small village of Carrowdore, and the listing extends to the outbuildings, gazebo and connecting wall as a group.

The house is basically square in plan with a projecting tower to the north-west. It is constructed in rubble with dressings, corner turrets and parapets in red brick, and an open porch in sandstone. The roof is largely hipped and covered in Bangor blue slates. The building has a deep-set basement.

At the corners of the front (north-east) and south-east facades, the turrets are square in plan and built in rubble at basement and ground floor level, becoming octagonal and built in brick at the first and second floors. There are two additional central turrets to the front elevation. The turrets carry decorative recesses that vary by floor: Cross of Lorraine recesses with brick dressings at ground floor level, regular cross recesses at first floor level, and slit recesses at second floor level.

The front entrance sits centrally on the north-east facade. It consists of a large modern timber door with glazed panels of various shapes including quatrefoils and pointed arches, set within a large pointed arch opening. This opening has an intricately glazed fanlight and sidelights, and a simple moulded surround. Above the doorway is an open sandstone porch with pointed arch openings, buttressed piers, a castellated parapet and pyramidal pinnacles, approached by steps.

To the right on the north-west facade is a large round projecting tower. This tower itself has a shorter square two-storey projection to the south-west, which has a rubble-built castellated parapet. A high rubble wall extends from this shorter projection and connects to a three-storey rubble-built gatehouse tower to the south.

The windows throughout the main house are generally sash with Georgian panes, with the window openings decreasing in size on the upper storeys. The front facade has four windows to the upper floors, one to each side of the porch. The south-east facade has three windows to all floors, with the left-hand ground floor opening now converted to a door. The north-west facade has two windows to each floor, with three to each floor of the large round tower projection. The second floor windows on the tower are the largest and have pointed arch heads; one of these windows is partly blocked. The shorter south-west projection to the tower has a window to each floor. There is a cill course to the second floor openings on the front, south-east and north-west facades. The chimneys are rendered, and cast iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

The rear of the main house has been rendered at some stage. It has a central full-height gabled bay containing the stairwell. At first landing level within this gabled stairwell projection there is a tall pointed arch window of three lights with decorative tracery and stained glass. The basement level has a variety of openings, some of which have been blocked. The window openings to the rear are less regular overall.

Extending across the ground floor of the rear gabled bay and covering most of the left-hand side of the rear facade is a very large single-storey flat-roofed timber conservatory or sun room. This extension is largely semicircular in plan and completely glazed. To its right is a smaller curved conservatory. These extensions are of recent origin: the larger section dates from the early to mid 1970s and the smaller probably from the 1980s.

The interior is still largely intact. Some rooms to the rear of the house have been altered in recent times.

At the south end of the yard to the rear of the main house stands a three-storey gabled gatehouse tower. It is rubble and brick built, square in plan, and while it shares the same general rustic gothic character as the main house, it also has a slightly Jacobean feel. A ground floor gateway runs from west to east through a large pointed arch with brick dressings. Above this arch on both the east and west faces is a smallish pointed arch window, a roundel recess above that, and a smaller pointed arch window to the uppermost floor. The west face has square narrow castellated turrets at each side and a bellcote to the gable apex. A small plaque on this face reads 'Delacherois Crommelin 1690', though this does not appear to refer to the date of the tower itself. The tower was once finished in roughcast render, much of which has now fallen away. The north face of the tower appears to have once had a building attached to it, as traces of a fireplace and other openings remain visible on it.

Attached to the south face of the gatehouse tower is a long two-storey rubble-built gabled block of former servants' rooms and stores. These have been modernised and appear now to be used as holiday homes. Opposite this block to the east is a block of stables.

A short distance to the east of the main house, at the end of a high rubble wall, is a now ruinous rubble-built gazebo of roughly 3.5 metres square and three short storeys in height. It has the remains of a gabled roof set behind a castellated parapet, with openings at all levels that are now devoid of window frames or doors. An external stone stair against the south side of the boundary wall rises to a first floor doorway on the east face. Remains of timber floors survive inside. This small building is in very poor condition and partly overgrown.

Carrowdore Castle was built in 1818–20 by Nicholas de La Cherois-Crommelin, a descendant of a Huguenot family whose father had inherited land at Carrowdore on the death of a cousin. Before 1818 there had been a farmhouse on the site, which Nicholas's father had used only occasionally — principally as a place to collect rents from his tenants and as a summer residence. After its completion in 1820, Carrowdore Castle served as Nicholas's primary residence until 1847, when pressing financial concerns forced him to move to Cushendun and rent the house to his son Samuel. The de La Cherois-Crommelin male line came to an end with the death of Samuel's son Frederick in 1902. The contents of the house were sold that same year, and the building was subsequently leased to a number of tenants before being sold to a Mr McNeill in 1931. The present owner acquired Carrowdore Castle in 1972 and renovated some of the rooms to the rear, as well as adding the large sun room extension. Around 1992 a new dwelling was constructed a short distance to the south-west. Since that time the castle has remained largely vacant, with the exception of two ground floor rooms to the south-east which are leased to Strangford College, a recently founded integrated school. The outbuildings to the south have been renovated and appear to be used as holiday homes.