Myrtle Cottage, 20 Church Road, Ballynahinch, Co. Down, BT24 8LP

Myrtle Cottage is a picturesque one and a half storey gabled house of around 1880, situated to the north-east of Church Road on the southern outskirts of Ballynahinch. The front façade faces south-west and is symmetrical in composition.

The principal features of the front elevation include a projecting gabled bay to the centre, flanked on either side by paired elliptical-headed window arrangements. The gabled bay contains a timber-panelled front door with a plain elliptical fanlight on the ground floor, set within a scalloped elliptical arch-headed recess with moulded archivolt. To the first floor of the bay is a semicircular arch-headed sash window. The bay features overhanging eaves and decorative pierced bargeboards with a timber finial. The paired windows to either side have moulded dressings and sash frames set on a shared cill. A continuous moulded string course runs above window head level, with rusticated coursing to the render below and plain render above. Both the bay and main elevation have quoins.

The south-east gable contains a simple sash semicircular-headed window at first floor level, with a blank ground floor. The north-west gable is similarly arranged but includes a modern French door opening at ground floor level to the far left, and a paired semicircular arch-headed window arrangement at first floor. A recent single-storey extension projects to the right, with a modern window to its centre.

The rear north-east elevation is composed of multiple gabled returns. To the left is a single-storey return with a central modern six-pane window and a modern glazed rear door. To the right is a two-storey recent construction with a modern timber-sheeted door and simple sash window without astragals. Adjacent to this is an older, squatter two-storey return with two large modern windows. Between these projecting returns is a further flat-roofed return containing a small window opening with modern top-hung frame at ground floor and a larger sash window with margins (3 over 6) to its right, repeated at first floor with a 6 over 6 arrangement.

The main gabled roof has an overhang with decorative barges and is covered in Bangor Blue Slate. Return roofs are finished in a mixture of asbestos and non-asbestos slates. Two rendered chimney stacks sit to the centre of the main roof ridge. The original front portion sits on a low chamfered plinth. Cast iron rainwater goods are present. Original square gate pillars with cast iron fencing stand to the front.

The house was originally built around 1880 as the residence of the master or mistress of the local Church of Ireland school. By 1899 it was occupied by a Mrs Skelly. The two-storey return is believed to have been added in the mid-1900s, with the single-storey return possibly dating from the 1970s. Throughout, the façade is rendered and painted.