Ballygowan House, 12 Prospect Road, Ballygowan, Co. Down, BT23 6LS

Ballygowan House is a substantial two-storey farmhouse of possible mid 18th-century origin, now used as offices for a building firm. The building has been greatly extended in recent years with a large flat-roofed porch addition to the front and a substantially enlarged rear return.

The front (south) façade is dominated by a recently added porch extension with a large elliptical arch-headed doorway. The doorway is flanked by two Tuscan columns supporting a projecting lintel hood with cornice. The door itself has a spoked fanlight and sidelights. A ramp provides access to the entrance. The south face of the extension features a Venetian window. On either side of the extension are sash windows with Georgian panes (8 over 8); the left-hand window is covered with a metal grille. The first floor has three similar sash windows. Window frames appear to have been recently replaced and most have modern concrete cills.

The east gable has a ground-floor window to the left, now covered with a grille, and a small four-pane window at attic level. The west gable has a similar arrangement, though these windows appear considerably older and the gable itself shows signs of deterioration. The centre of the rear façade features a very large two-storey gabled return with windows on all sides, finished in modern materials but designed to resemble the sash windows of the front. To the left of the return is a narrow first-floor sash window; to the right, a first-floor window has been blocked.

The front façade, east gable and return are finished in plain render and painted. The west gable and right side of the rear façade are mostly finished in rough cast, which has flaked in places. The gabled roof is covered in Bangor blue slates with two yellow brick chimney stacks topped with early to mid 19th-century octagonal pots. A builders' yard to the rear includes original outbuildings used as stores.

Historical records show a building on this site on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map which resembles the original plan of the present house before recent extensions. The same building is marked as 'Ballygowan House' on the 1858 revised map. The house may originally date to the early or mid 18th century and may have been built by the Reid family, linen drapers and bleachers who held much of the Ballygowan lands from at least the 1740s. James Reid's will of 1765 mentions Ballygowan House. United Irishmen leader Reverend William Steel Dickson recorded spending two nights at Ballygowan House, the seat of Robert Rollo Reid Esquire, in May 1798. Robert Rollo Reid died without issue in 1805, and his lands were subsequently purchased at auction by Lord Dufferin, who sold them to William Lowry. A 1819 rental notes Dufferin's land agent as living in Ballygowan House, described as a large three-storey house, though it is uncertain whether this was one of the Lowrys. Valuation returns of 1835 identify Samuel Orr as the lessee. By the second valuation (around 1863), it was again in the hands of a Lowry (Samuel). The Lowry family appear to have remained at Ballygowan House until at least 1886. For much of the 20th century the property was home to the Mageean family, one member of whom became Roman Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor. The building was acquired by the present owner's father in 1969 and is currently used as offices for a building firm.