40-42 Ballywalter Road, Ballymacruise, Millisle, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2HS

Two storey gabled block consisting of two semi-detached houses, constructed in the 1890s and still largely intact. The building is situated on the west side of Ballywalter Road on the southern edge of Millisle.

The front eastern facade features a central single storey flat-roofed porch. The entrance to No. 42 is positioned on the south side of the porch, with a timber panelled door and plain fanlight set within a doorway with a segmental arch head and label moulding overhead. The entrance to No. 40 is on the north facade, similarly detailed but with a glazed PVC door. Two windows flank the porch, one serving each property, both with segmental arch heads and label moulding that is linked across. Both windows rest on a cill course that continues along the entire front facade. The porch window to No. 40 has a PVC frame, whilst No. 42's has a sash frame. The porch features a coping that continues as a first floor cill course, with a cornice-like course below it that runs along the gables as well as the front elevation.

To the left of the porch are two almost twinned windows with sash frames, set in openings with linked label moulding. Two windows occupy the first floor, the right-hand window having label moulding that links to the left first floor window of No. 40. The front facade of No. 40 is a mirror image of No. 42, but all windows have PVC frames. The south gable contains windows to the left on both ground and first floors, mirroring the arrangement of the front of No. 42. The north gable similarly has windows to the right on both levels, matching the front of No. 40.

Both houses share a large central gabled return. The north side of the return (serving No. 40) has two PVC windows to the left on the first floor, with a larger PVC window and PVC door to the ground floor. No. 42 is mirrored in arrangement but features sash frames and a small lean-to extension covering the rear doorway area. The rear of the return on No. 40's side contains a first floor PVC window and a large PVC kitchen window at ground floor level. No. 42 has a sash window to the first floor and a flat-roofed extension at ground floor level.

The entire facade is finished in plain render and painted. An eaves course and chamfered plinth run around the building. The main roof is pitched with Bangor blue slates and clay saw-tooth ridge tiles, with a slight overhang at the verge. Rendered chimney stacks rise from each main gable and from the return roof, which is also slated in Bangor blue. Cast iron rainwater goods are present throughout.

At the rear of No. 42 stands a small two storey gabled dwelling, possibly once used as a servant's house.

According to the owner of No. 40, the houses were built in the 1890s. He also reported a tradition that both dwellings were formerly rented by the gentry as summer homes, with the actual owners and their families residing temporarily in the small annexes at the rear (one of which survives at No. 42). However, this account may be apocryphal and the annexes may simply have been servants' quarters.