Ballyobegan House, 10 Kircubbin Road, Ballyobegan (near Kircubbin), Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 2PH

Ballyobegan House is a large and imposing two-storey gentleman's residence of the early nineteenth century, constructed around 1820. The building stands within heavily wooded surroundings off the Kircubbin Road near Newtownards, County Down.

The house is distinguished by its hipped roof with valleys, projecting outer bays to the front, and a large double-gabled return to the rear. The front north-east elevation displays considerable architectural ambition, with two large projecting bays flanking a central recess. Within this recess sits a large front timber panel and glazed door topped by an elliptical arch radial fanlight with sidelights featuring decorative curving tracery. Above the door is a tripartite window comprising a large sliding sash and case central section with horizontal and vertical astragals, flanked by sidelights identical to those of the front door. A large flagpole is attached to the wall just below this window. Each of the projecting bays contains two sliding sash and case windows with horizontal and vertical astragals on both ground and first floors. The front facade is finished with a parapet bearing decorative finials at the inner corners of the projecting bays.

The south-east gable merges into the large double-gabled return at the rear and contains a painted window on the first floor to the right, with another tripartite stairway-level window at the centre, similar to that on the front facade. Above this tripartite window sits a curious semi-circular window with radial tracery, resembling a Georgian fanlight. To the ground floor left of this window grouping is a small lean-to extension with a modern three-pane timber window and a first-floor sliding sash and case window without astragals. The large double-gable rear elevation is largely blank, with only a single sliding sash and case window with astragals on the first floor to the right. To the ground floor rear of the main building sits a small three-sided timber conservatory with gabled roof and radial fanlight, currently in very poor condition, with a sliding sash and case window above and a very small four-pane window to the right. The north-west side of the return contains a mixture of sliding sash and case windows.

The front elevation and gables are finished in lined render and painted, whilst the rear remains unpainted. The roofs are hipped with Bangor blue slates and a mixture of rendered and brick chimney stacks. The eaves course is finished with cast-iron gutters and downspouts.

The house appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834, though without the projecting front bays visible on the current structure. Reverend A.P. Goudy resided here between 1831 and 1833 whilst serving as minister of Glastry Presbyterian Church. By the later 1830s, the house was owned by Alexander Allen Esq. and was described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as "a spacious and rather handsome house", though one which had "a bare appearance from the total absence of planting". Tradition holds that the former Lord Dunleath also resided in the house during the late 1840s, when Ballywalter House was undergoing reconstruction, though the Allen family remained in possession of Ballyobegan into the early 1870s. The Heron Family Papers held at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, dating from 1750 to 1940, are said to contain documents relating to the townland of Ballyobegan and possibly to this house, though this collection remains unlisted and currently unavailable.