Greenmount, 205 Bangor Road, Ballygrainey, Holywood, Co Down, BT18 0JG

Greenmount is an asymmetrical two-storey house with attic, dating from the early nineteenth century but substantially remodelled in the mid-Victorian period. It stands on an elevated site overlooking Bangor Road in Craigavad, set within its own mature grounds.

The house is rectangular on plan with a central return to the rear. The pitched natural slate roof has angled ridge tiles, rendered gable chimneystacks with moulded caps and four pots, and painted masonry skews to the gables. Cast-iron rainwater goods with hopper heads are fitted throughout. The external walling is ruled-and-lined rendered over a chamfered plinth. Windows are generally 1/1 horned timber sashes in plain reveals with projecting masonry sills.

The principal north-facing elevation is the most architecturally significant. It comprises a central castellated entrance tower flanked by crow-stepped gabled side bays. A slender circular turret abuts at the north-east corner. The entrance itself is framed by a pair of masonry piers and consists of a six-panelled door with the top four panels raised and fielded with bolection moulding and the lower panels flush, fitted with a kick-board and bronze furniture. The door is flanked by fixed sidelights over timber aprons, separated by simple timber pilasters. Above is a spoked segmental fanlight with panelled spandrels and decorative frieze in shallow relief. Scrolled console brackets support a masonry canopy with decorative cast-iron anthemion parapet, approached by two bull-nosed sandstone steps. Above the entrance is a round-headed stained and leaded window in a moulded keyblocked surround, surmounted by a stucco cartouche.

The left bay contains two windows to each floor. The right bay is abutted by a two-storey canted bay with the traditional arrangement of three windows to each floor. The crow-stepped gables are each inset with a glazed roundel with hood mould. The turret comprises three stages, each delineated by a plain string course, with a conical roof over decorative eaves moulding. A single opening appears to the second stage, with a series of fixed-pane openings circumventing the third stage.

The left east gable is largely blank except for a ground-floor window set left of centre, and extends to the rear with a tall yard wall. The rear south elevation features a central two-storey return with irregular fenestration. The exposed left section is abutted at ground level by a single-storey castellated box bay, with a first-floor window above. To the rear, a lower L-shaped rubble stone outbuilding is built into the bank, with a hipped natural slate roof, cast-iron rainwater goods, and modern roof lights. The right west gable has a timber door flanked by a small window, with a first-floor window to the right and two fixed-light round-headed windows at attic level.

The house sits within sloping mature gardens with established tree and hedge boundaries, lawns, and informally terraced gardens. Access is via a steep tarmac driveway from Bangor Road, which also serves two twentieth-century houses. A pair of modern electric gates on stone piers with ball finials, flanked by fixed railings, mark the entrance to the immediate curtilage, beyond which a short gravel drive leads to the house.