’Rocklands’, 48 Cook’s Brae, Fish Quarter, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2SG

Rocklands is a large two-storey farmhouse set on a steep rise at the intersection of Cook's Brae and Rubane Road, just south of Kircubbin. The building has an L-shaped plan with gabled ends and is largely Victorian in appearance, though it may originate from the early nineteenth century.

The front western elevation features a central full-height porch with a timber panel door to the right and a tripartite sliding sash and case window with horizontal astragals to the front. Above the porch is a timber hipped roof conservatory with decorative ridges. Either side of the porch are modern two-pane windows in original openings at ground and first floor. The south gable of the main house has two similar windows to the left. A large return, nearly flush with the south gable, contains three windows of the same type at both ground and first floor levels. The north gable of the main house is blank.

The rear of the main house shows a sliding sash and case window with horizontal astragals to the left at ground floor, and two smaller similar windows at first floor. A full-height lean-to extension with small modern windows at both levels occupies the left side of the rear at its intersection with the return. The rear north side of the return has a central timber back door with a three-pane semicircular arch fanlight, flanked by sliding sash and case windows with horizontal astragals at ground and first floor.

The main house is finished in lined render and has pitched gabled roofs with asbestos slates, four rendered chimney stacks, overhanging eaves, and decorative barge boards. The return is unrendered, exposing rubble construction with brick dressings to all openings, and has two chimney stacks. Outbuildings stand to the east of the house.

A building with the same plan form appears on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map. Whilst the house may date to the early 1800s, it has been substantially renovated in the late Victorian period, when the porch was probably added, the house re-roofed with its distinctive Victorian overhang and barges, chimney stacks lengthened, and windows replaced. The two-storey return may have been added in the mid to late nineteenth century, possibly built on the site of earlier outbuildings, though this cannot be determined with certainty.