30 Mountain Road, Newtownards, County Down, BT23 4UL

30 Mountain Road, Newtownards is an unusual modernist house built around 1963 to designs by Robert McKinstry. It stands within a well-wooded, domestically scaled garden approximately 1.5 kilometres north of Newtownards town centre. The house and its separate garage are listed together.

The building is a single-storey detached structure combining elements of vernacular and modern design, influenced by Alvar Aalto's work. Its footprint comprises two rectangles: the smaller, southern rectangle is set back and houses the lounge, while the larger northern rectangle advances forward and contains all other accommodation. Each rectangle has a shallow pitch roof rising to the centre, creating south-facing gables; the resultant south gable contains the main entrance. The roofs, pitched at approximately 10 degrees, are felted. A rendered chimneystack rises through the middle of the ridge. Rainwater goods are uPVC. Walls are roughcast with fine concrete copings topping the gables; other walls have deep timber eaves fascias. At the south-west corner, underlying bedrock breaks through the ground and walls rise directly from it.

The fenestration is composed of openings of varying sizes arranged quite irregularly. All window and door openings are flat-headed with sills formed in fine, dark grey ceramic tiles. Window openings are mainly vertical in proportion, though high-level privacy windows to bathrooms and some bedrooms are horizontal. A French window opening to the patio rises full height with paired glazed doors surmounted by a timbered panel. Openings to the gables are topped with exposed concrete lintels with board-marked finish; other openings have concealed lintels and plain rendered heads. Window frames and doors are formed in stained timber.

The interior is well preserved in its original form. The cellular room layout creates an open-plan feel, with progression around the dwelling in one continuous direction returning to the starting point with minimal circulation space.

This small-scale dwelling is a rare survivor from this period, retaining all of its original design features within its well-preserved forested setting.