Ballywalter Park House & garden walling, Ballywalter Park, Springvale, Ballywalter, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2PP

Ballywalter Park House is a large three-storey Italianate mansion with single-storey side wings and a port cochere, located within a substantial estate less than one mile south of Ballywalter, County Down. The house took its present form in the late 1840s when architect Charles Lanyon remodelled and extended an earlier house of early 18th-century origin, which had itself been remodelled around 1803.

The building is roughly rectangular in plan, consisting of a central three-storey block with large single-storey wings to the north and south, and two later wings to the far north side, including a three-storey service wing (partly) set within a low-level yard. Almost the entire structure is finished with painted render, incorporating a mixture of plain and vermiculated chamfered quoins. The central block is covered with a Bangor blue slated hipped roof. Tall rendered, panelled and bracketed chimney stacks with decorative cream clay pots project from the roof. The roof overhangs and is supported on a decorative modillion cornice.

The main central block features three storeys. At the centre of the ground-level east elevation is a large port cochere with a flat roof, twinned Doric columns, vermiculated corner piers and an ornate parapet. Within this sits a timber-panelled double entrance door, encased with panelled pilasters, a plain entablature and pediment on console brackets. To either side are stucco balustrades matching the port cochere parapet and enclosing a narrow area at the front.

The windows to the east and west facades of the main block are all sash windows with Georgian panes. Tripartite sash windows appear at the far right and far left on both ground and first floors of the east elevation. All ground and first-floor windows on both east and west facades have decorative surrounds including cornices on console brackets, with cill courses to all windows. First-floor windows on both elevations feature panelled aprons below. On the exposed second-floor section of the south facade, four small sash windows with simple surrounds serve as the second-floor front. The exposed north elevation has a similar window at each end, with the central portion broken by a large greenhouse-like glazed section stretching from the roof pitch. This glazed section covers a glass dome which lights the main stairwell.

Attached to the north and south sides of the large central block are single-storey wings, each with a hipped roof largely hidden behind a decorative balustrade. The east elevation of both wings contains a single tripartite sash window with Georgian panes, heavily decorated with Corinthian pilasters at each side and Corinthian columns in front of the mullions, all supporting a plain entablature and pediment with modillions. These windows rest on cill courses with plain aprons. A decorative balustrade continues at ground level from the central port cochere around the front of the east facades of both wings. The west facade of each wing consists of a curved bay with three sash windows (with panes as before) with simple panelled surround, entablature and modillioned pediment on console brackets, with cill courses and brackets to windows. The south elevation of the south wing has five similar windows, each with a cornice rather than a pediment. The middle window actually doubles as a doorway, encased with Corinthian pilasters with entablature, cornice and blocking course.

To the north side of the north wing, the ground level drops substantially, revealing that this wing actually has three levels with various sash windows, much as before but without surrounds. Attached to the east side of this wing, at a right angle to it, is a long three-storey wing added circa 1902 to designs by W.J. Fennell, which is considerably plainer than the main structure. Its east facade displays two storeys with sash windows with simple surrounds, rendered but unpainted, unlike the rest of the house. The west rear facade is largely informal with a large recessed section. This wing was originally twice its present length, but its northern half was demolished in the early 1960s due to poor condition. The remaining wing now has a plain gable end to the north with a small lean-to section at ground level.

To the west of this wing, attached to the west side of the main house's west wing, is an L-shaped section added largely around 1863. The south section of this L-shape, which houses a billiard room, is two-storey to the north and east but single-storey when viewed at higher ground level to the west and south. Its west facade is constructed of sandstone with a series of Corinthian pilasters flanking a series of arched recesses, with sash windows featuring Georgian panes in three of the arches. This section is topped with a decorative balustrade and is largely flat-roofed with a central raised skylight section. The north section of the L is an ornate sandstone conservatory with a semicircular projection in the centre of the south elevation, topped with a glazed ogee dome. The entire south and west elevations are glazed with sash windows between which are Corinthian pilasters, capped with a decorative balustrade and a hipped glazed roof.

To the rear (north and east sides) of the intersection of the L-shaped section is a two-storey hipped-roof section with an oriel window to the north, added circa 1902. The upper floor of this section, which is level with the billiard room and conservatory, was built as a smoking room, also serving as an internal link to the conservatory.

A decorative unpainted stucco balustrade surrounds the forecourt of the house and encloses a small area to the rear. To the north of the house is a long high rubble wall enclosing the stable yard. To the northwest of this is another long high brick wall enclosing a large garden with greenhouses.