Ballymote House, 84 Killough Road, Ballymote Lower, Downpatrick, BT30 8BJ

Ballymote House is a substantial two-storey farmhouse of circa 1835, built in the simple late Georgian style typical of its period. It is situated at the end of a drive to the east of Killough Road, approximately three kilometres south of Downpatrick.

The original main building features a painted rendered façade with moulded in-out quoins. The west front is asymmetrical. At the centre of the ground floor is a panelled timber door with decorative margins and an elliptical fanlight with oversized moulded in-out dressings and matching voussoirs. To the right are two sash windows with Georgian panes, and to the left, more widely spaced, are two similar windows. The first floor has five similar but slightly shorter sash windows. The south gable end is largely blank except for one sash window to the right of the ground floor and has moulded in-out quoins. The roof is covered with natural slate and carries four unevenly spaced pot-less chimney stacks set on the ridge.

A large full-height return was added to the rear in the 1990s, replacing a much smaller earlier return. This return is two storeys and positioned centrally to the rear façade. The original rear wall, to the left of the return, has sash windows to both floors. To the right of the return is a glazed doorway to the ground floor and a sash window to the first floor. The east face of the return has one sash window to the ground floor right and two similar windows to the first floor. The south face features an elliptical-headed panelled door with decorative margins and radial fanlight, with a sash window to its right, a large tripartite window (4/4, 6/6 and 4/4) to the first floor left, and a 6/6 window to the right. The north face has a tripartite window to the ground floor left, with the centre 6/6 sash functioning as a glazed door, and a 6/6 sash to the right. The first floor north face has three unevenly spaced 6/6 sash windows. One chimney stack rises from the middle of the return ridge. Metal rainwater goods are present throughout. Two-storey outbuildings stand to the south and west.

The gate screen, probably dating from the 1870s, is a relatively plain curved structure situated at the head of the drive on Killough Road. It features a central carriage gate with flanking pedestrian entrances. The low wall is finished in lined render with stone coping. The gate piers flanking the carriage entrance are thick square examples, rendered with arched panels to three faces, moulded cornice and base, and stone caps. Stone lion figures formerly topped each cap but have been removed. Both carriage and pedestrian gates are decorated iron work, though some decoration is broken. A cattle grid is fitted to the carriage entrance.

Historical records indicate that a building stood on this site in 1834 as shown on the Ordnance Survey map of that year, though its shape differed from the present structure. The current house appears to be that shown on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1858. The valuation returns of 1838 record the building as newly constructed (graded 'A+'), suggesting the earlier 1834 building was demolished shortly after and replaced. The resident listed in 1838 was Samuel Seeds, with William Seeds recorded in the second valuation of circa 1863, who leased the land from Lord Bangor. The property remained in the hands of the Byrne family for much of the 20th century but was largely abandoned after the late 1960s. The building was renovated by the present owner in the 1990s. The drive was originally located some metres to the north, as shown on the 1858 Ordnance Survey map, and the present gate screen's 1870s dating suggests the new drive was cut at that time.