Beech Bank, 5 Thorny Hill Road, Balloo, Killinchy, Co Down, BT23 6TB

Beech Bank is a large, well-maintained two-storey gabled house situated on a rise north of Thorny Hill Road, roughly half a mile west of Killinchy. Despite a substantial flat-roofed section added to the rear, the building retains strong Victorian character. The house appears to date from around 1870–1880, though it may represent a significant remodelling and extension of an earlier dwelling; a building is recorded on this site in Ordnance Survey maps of 1834 and 1859–60, and valuation records from around 1835 and 1861 both note a building here in possession of James Watson.

The front south-east facade is symmetrical. At the centre of the ground floor is a roughly elliptical arch recess with moulded archivolt, keystone, and thin column-like pilaster jambs featuring large decorative Egyptian lotus-like capitals. Within this recess sits a panelled door with an elliptical arch fanlight containing tracery and fluted pilaster jambs on each side of two pane sidelights with semicircular arch heads to the upper panes. To the left of the entrance is a sash window with horizontal glazing bars and a moulded keystone; a similar window sits to the right. Three further sash windows occupy the first floor, these with shallow segmental arch heads. All sash windows throughout the house feature horizontal glazing bars.

The north-east gable contains a first-floor window (matching the first-floor front fenestration) positioned to the right, and a ground-floor window to the right (matching the first-floor front pattern). This gable merges with the large two-storey flat-roofed rear section. The north-east facade of this section has a first-floor window. The south-west gable contains windows to ground and first floor on the left, following the pattern of the opposite gable. Attached partly to the left edge of the first floor of this gable, and mainly to the ground floor of the south-west facade of the flat-roofed rear section, is a flat porch section with a panelled door, fanlight, and sidelights facing south-east. To the south-west, this porch attaches to a small gabled outbuilding. The first floor of the south-west facade of the flat-roofed rear section features a window matching the first-floor main house pattern.

The rear facade contains irregularly positioned sash windows of varying sizes. The ground floor features a double sash window to the left, a partly glazed door, two narrow windows, and another similar narrow window to the rear of the porch at the far right. The first floor contains four windows of varying size; the window at the far right sits at a slightly lower level, corresponding with a recessed facade where the roof level is also lower. A large double sash window is positioned at stairwell level to the right of centre.

The entire facade is finished in lined render and painted. Chamfered quoins mark the front facade and gables. The main house has a plinth and eaves course to the front. The roof is gabled with an overhang to the verge, decorated with barge boards, and finished in Bangor blue slates. Two yellow brick chimney stacks rise from the gables. The rear flat-roofed section is concealed behind a parapet and features a tall rendered chimney stack on the north-east side.

A conservatory was added to the rear and noted at inspection in March 2005; this addition does not detract from the building's character. The current owner suggests that the right-hand side of the flat-roofed extension, which is recessed, may date from well into the twentieth century.