Ballycran National School, 42 Blackstaff Road, Ballycran Beg, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 1A?

Ballycran National School, located in the small hamlet of Ballycran Beg near Kircubbin, Newtownards, was built in 1874 and designed by Belfast-based architect John O'Neill. The building is a single-story schoolhouse, roughly ‘T’ shaped in plan, set within wooded surroundings at the foot of a slight slope near St. Joseph’s Church. It is constructed of square snecked semi-coursed basalt rubble with yellow brick dressings, used for doors, windows, and quoins. Red sandstone is present for window cills and date stones. The gables feature projecting timber barge boards, and the roofs are pitched with Bangor blue slates, red fire clay ‘coxcomb’ ridge tiles, and cast iron rainwater goods. Two yellow brick chimneys rise from the ridge, while two others are situated along the southwest elevation. Windows are generally mullioned and transomed, with segmental arch heads, yellow brick ‘in/out’ ‘quoin’ dressings, and sandstone cills; door heads and reveals are similarly dressed. A plain rendered toilet block, dating from 1954, is attached to the northeast side of the school. A teacher's residence, built in a "Swiss cottage" style, is a short distance south of the school. The school originally comprised two classrooms, with a third added in a large gable in 1917. It closed in 1982 and is now owned by St. Joseph’s church, serving occasionally as a church hall. John O'Neill, with his assistant William Henry Byrne, also designed St. Joseph’s Church (completed 1876) and is believed to have been involved in the former teachers’ residence built in 1878.