Crawford House, Old Windmill Road, Crawfordsburn, Co Down, BT18 1XL

Crawford House is a substantial Scots Baronial style country house dating to 1906, now converted to apartments. It is a four-bay two-storey building with attic, rectangular on plan with varied gables and gabled dormers, situated on the shore-side east of Crawfordsburn village overlooking Belfast Lough within Crawfordsburn Country Park.

The building is constructed of uncoursed squared rock-faced Scrabo sandstone with honey-coloured sandstone dressings and plinth. The pitched roof is laid in Westmoreland slate with angled clay ridge tiles. Ashlar sandstone chimneystacks have moulded caps and multiple pots. Raised roll-topped saddleback fractables feature double-gableted ends. Rainwater goods comprise ogee cast iron on ashlar eaves cornice, with half round over exposed rafter tails to secondary elevations. Downpipes have box hoppers fixed with dated plate fixings inscribed 1906. Windows are primarily 1/1 horned timber sashes with chamfered ashlar surrounds, diminished to attic level. Doors are generally modern replacements.

The west elevation is asymmetrically arranged across four bays. Windows are arranged singly or paired, except for a triple window to ground floor right and a bowed bay with parapet also containing three windows. The second bay from the left projects slightly and is wider. It is fronted by a single-storey porch with a portico comprising two Composite columns and pilaster responds flanking the entrance, carrying a neo-Baroque styled scrolled pedimented entablature. The pediment bears ornate carved coat of arms with inscription reading "Durum / Patentia / Franco". The entrance door is segmental-headed with impost mouldings carrying a moulded stone head with carved keyblock. The current door is a modern six-panelled replacement with reconditioned stained glass sidelights, accessed by three granite steps with swept side walls. Porch cheeks each contain a round-headed window flanked by pilasters with Classical surround. Windows to first floor right of this bay corbel out over recessed ground floor openings. The attic gable bears a datestone inscribed A.D.1906.

The north (shore-facing) elevation is three bays wide and almost symmetrical, with gabled left and right bays. The centre bay is three openings wide to each floor, including a door at centre with tall transom light surmounted by a carved stone monogrammed plaque. The right bay features a bowed bay to ground floor. The left bay is dominated by a full-height canted Baronial style mullioned-and-transom window with leaded and stained glazing comprising 16 parts to the main face and 3 parts to each cant and cheek, surmounted by a parapet with carved stone panel.

The east elevation features projecting bays set to the extreme left and to the right of centre, with a single-storey quadrant bay lit by equally spaced windows at the north internal angle of the right bay. This is surmounted by a carved panel, and the wall head above supports a tall chimneystack fronted by a blank gable. The principal section comprises a series of smaller windows to ground and first floor and a door accessed by four stone steps with ramped side walls. Modern dormers occur to this elevation. Other openings are irregularly arranged.

The south elevation is partially abutted above ground floor level by a modern apartment wing. The elevation is L-shaped, consisting of a substantial ancillary projecting wing at right, opening onto an entry at ground floor and abutting the extension to upper floors, and the main block at left. Two canted bays occur to ground floor, with the usual irregular arrangement of gables and a modern dormer.

The house occupies a shore-side setting overlooking Belfast Lough with views out to sea, surrounded by the mature planted landscape of Crawfordsburn Country Park. An expanse of lawn to the east is terraced down to the northern boundary, which is hedge-lined. A tarmac car park lies to the west, beyond which is a development of new houses. A modern extension block, built to imitate aspects of the original, occupies the south-east portion of the site. A tarmac drive sweeps down from Windmill Lane, accessed by a pair of security gates on modern brick piers. A walled garden remains to the west, now closed off from the grounds and in separate ownership.