Ballykilbeg House, 22 Ballykilbeg Road, Ballykilbeg, Downpatrick, Co Down, BT30 8HL

Ballykilbeg House is a large, plain and cube-like two-storey gentleman's residence built around 1791, located at the end of a relatively short drive to the east of Ballykilbeg Road, approximately three miles south-west of Downpatrick. The house is a well-proportioned and relatively early example of its type, of special architectural and historic interest.

The building features a hipped roof with two central rendered chimney stacks topped with long rows of matching octagonal pots. A flat-roofed entrance porch was added in 1993-94, replacing an earlier Edwardian conservatory-like gabled example that rested on splayed steps belonging to the original doorway. The entire front, east and west façades are plain rendered and painted, and the building sits on a bevelled base. Low parapets exist to the front, and basement lightwells are positioned to the east and west.

The symmetrical front façade faces south. To the centre of the ground floor is the modern porch with a panelled door to the west and a sash window to the south. This window and all others throughout the building (unless stated otherwise) have horizontal glazing bars with two panes over two, the result of Georgian glazing bars being removed around 1880. The window to the east face of the porch is smaller with a fixed light frame. To the left of the porch are two windows matching the south face of the porch, with two further windows to the right. The first floor has five similar but slightly smaller windows, with that to the centre set in a shallow semicircular arch recess, which originally stretched to ground level but is now obscured by the modern porch. The shorter west façade has two windows to the centre and right on the ground floor as on the front, and three on the first floor. To the left on the ground floor is a modern partly glazed door with a simple hood over, an opening that does not appear original. The east façade has a similar arrangement to the west, with three windows to the ground floor, and with blind window-like recesses to the first floor.

The rear façade is actually three storeys, as a moat-like ditch to this side reveals the basement level. To the centre at basement level is a small hipped-roof porch with a timber-sheeted door and three-pane fanlight. The porch walls are rubble-constructed with remains of harling. To the right of the porch, evidence shows that a square window has been blocked. To the ground floor are four windows. That to the left matches the front pattern. That to the centre is similar but has retained its original Georgian panes (six over six) and is set in a shallow semicircular arched recess. To the right is a much smaller window with a modern frame; the broad sill some distance below suggests it was originally as large as those to its left. Further right is an even smaller window with a dilapidated modern frame. The first floor has three windows, as those on the first floor front but with Georgian panes (six over six) to those on the left and centre. Just to the right of centre, close to the eaves, is a tiny single-pane window. The rear façade is plain rendered but has not been painted for some years and is discoloured. A small hipped-roof dormer with sash frame (six over six) sits to the rear, with two similar dormers to the east. The rainwater goods appear to be mainly cast iron.

The building has retained its original footprint, and though a few openings to the rear have been altered, the façade is largely untouched. Sash windows had their original Georgian glazing bars removed around 1880. A doorway to the west façade and modern windows to the rear appear to have been inserted or altered in the 1950s-60s.

Ballykilbeg House was built around 1791 by the Johnston family and is recorded in the 1836 valuation with dimensions as today. Photographic evidence shows that most original Georgian glazing bars were removed around 1880 and that the conservatory-like porch was possibly added in the early 1900s. The house is probably remembered by many for the career of one of its former inhabitants, William Johnston MP, an important figure in Orangeism and County Down politics during the 1860s and 1870s.

Large groupings of two and single-storey rubble-built outbuildings stand to the rear.