’Swiss Cottage’, 23 Ballyblack Road, Ballyhaff, Newtownards, Co Down, BT22 2AP

Swiss Cottage is an attractive, picturesque late-Victorian house, dating from around 1870, situated on Ballyblack Road approximately two miles south-west of Newtownards. It is a one and a half storey gabled building constructed mainly in red brick with greyish-yellow brick quoins, eaves course, and decorative string courses between the ground and upper floors and above the upper level windows.

The north front facade is dominated by a timber arch-panelled door with panelled apron sidelights, above which is a four-centred arch fanlight with tracery. The entire doorway composition is enclosed by an archivolt and pilasters that rise the full height of the facade. Directly above the doorway are twin upper level sash windows with four-centred arch heads and horizontal glazing bars, set within a central gabled half dormer with decorative shaped barges. To the left and right of the doorway are slightly projecting square single storey bays topped with entablature and blocking course. Each bay contains twin sash windows without glazing bars, with moulded architraves and recessed panels below the cills, formed by three short pilasters rising from a chamfered base.

The east gable has a recently built single storey gabled kitchen extension that successfully repeats many of the main facade's features and blends harmoniously with the original house. The extension's front facade is flush with the main house and has a central timber and glazed double door with four-centred arch heads to the glazed panels and a segmental arch fanlight with greyish-yellow brick voussoirs. The doorway is similarly encased with pilasters rising to a gable with decorative barges. The extension is built in red brick with greyish-yellow brick quoins and eases course. The east gable above the extension is rendered and has two upper level sash windows with flat arch heads.

The west gable is finished in rough-cast render and has two upper level windows and a single centred ground floor window, all matching the upper level front windows. Both gables feature decorative moulded barges, including those on the extension gable, which is blank and rendered.

To the rear, attached to the right side of the main house, is a small two-level gabled projection finished in rough-cast render. Its south side has a centred upper level sash window and three small, evenly spaced ground floor single-light windows. The east gable of this projection has a small upper level sash window on the left side, with barges matching the main house. At the lower intersection of this gable with the rear of the kitchen extension is a brick-built three-sided hipped-roof porch with casement-like windows featuring four-centred arch heads to the lights. In the south-east corner is a timber panelled door with leaded panelled apron sidelights. To the right on the rear of the kitchen extension is a similar but smaller window. The exposed rear of the kitchen extension is rendered. The west gable of the projection has a small upper level sash window on the right, and built into its intersection with the rear of the main house is a decorative hipped-roof timber conservatory.

The main house and kitchen roofs are pitched with Bangor blue slates, some courses of which contain decorative slates with rounded ends. The porch roof has a similar slate combination, while the rear projection uses only plain slates. The main roof has two centred greyish-yellow brick chimney stacks with decorative corbelling, and a smaller matching stack serves the kitchen extension gable. Two small Velux windows are positioned to the rear of the main roof, with a larger example to the rear of the kitchen roof. Cast iron rainwater goods are present. Rubble-built outbuildings stand to the south.