’Rectory’, 8 Ballygelagh Road, Ardkeen, Kircubbin, Newtownards, Co. Down, BT22 1JQ

This is a large, two-storey glebe house dating to circa 1800, with a substantial modern return to the rear. The house is L-shaped in plan and situated off Ballygelagh Road, surrounded by woodland. The front facade has a central modern timber panelled door, topped with a segmental arch fanlight and a simple surround with keystone. Flanking the door are two-pane PVC windows, with three similar windows on the first floor. The east gable is blank, while the west gable has windows on both floors and connects to a long, gabled return to the rear, featuring a collection of modern windows and a door. A two-storey lean-to extension, also with modern windows, adjoins the rear (east) of the return. The main house is finished in lined render with chamfered stone quoins, while the return is finished in rough cast render and painted. The roof is pitched with Bangor blue slates, and features four brick chimney stacks (two to each gable of the main house and return) along with Velux windows on the east side of the return roof. PVC gutters and downspouts are present. Outbuildings are located within a walled yard to the rear.

The house appears on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map, largely as it stands today, and was then described in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as a “small plain house,” but the only gentlemen’s residence in the parish. It served as the rectory for the parish church of Ardkeen, near Castle Hill peninsula, a church of medieval origin restored by the Savage family in 1761, potentially when the property was built. The church was later abandoned following damage from a storm in 1839 and replaced by a new church in Kirkistown. When surveyed in 1970, the property was part of Fairbairn’s breeding and research farm. The house has undergone several recent renovations, and little original detailing remains.