Ballyward Lodge, 18 Ballyward Road, Ballyward, Co Down, BT31 9PP

Ballyward Lodge is an early nineteenth-century one-and-a-half storey three-bay dormered former hunting lodge, now in use as a house. It is situated within an extensive parkland setting with farm to the rear, in Ballyward townland approximately five miles west of Castlewellan, County Down.

The building is L-shaped on plan with a double-height projecting porch and a long nineteenth-century extension. The hipped natural slate roof features angled clay ridge and hip tiles, leaded valleys, and painted rendered chimneystacks to the gables, central ridge, and returns. A timber casement dormer is located to the rear pitch. Cast iron rainwater goods sit on a projecting rendered eaves course.

The walling is white-painted ruled and lined rendered with quoins to the main elevations, and painted roughcast to the remainder. Windows comprise a variety of timber sashes: 8/8 without horns to the principal elevation, 6/6 to secondary elevations, with some 2/2 and twentieth-century casements to returns. All windows are set within plain reveals with projecting cills, generally of stone and white-painted to principal elevations, though a small number have concrete sills.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged with two windows to each floor at either side of the double-height projecting entrance porch with hipped roof. Upper storey windows are set within gabled wall-head dormers. The porch is lit by a 6/6 window to either cheek. The entrance comprises a four-panelled timber door with round-headed top panels, beaded muntin, and paired bronze knobs and knockers, flanked by sidelights with ornate cast-iron geometric glazing. All are spanned by a cornice surmounted by a large highly ornate semi-circular cast-iron peacock-tail fanlight with simple archivolt.

The south elevation is abutted at its extreme left by a flat-roofed full-height abutment with castellated parapet. The remainder is two windows wide; upper storey windows are pointed-arched headed 9/6 sashes with interlocking glazing, set within shallow wall-head gablets and separated by a chimneystack; lower storey windows are 6/6 sashes. The abutment has an entrance door with four flat panels to the right cheek and a stringcourse over; the left cheek is blank. The south face of the abutment has a pointed arched sash window to the upper storey and a six-light fixed window to the ground floor.

The rear elevation is abutted at centre and left side by returns; that to centre is longer and wider, with both featuring hipped slate roofs. The exposed section to the right has a 2/2 window to the ground floor and a dormer to the upper storey with a 6/6 sash window. The exposed section to the centre between returns is lit by a six-light window to each floor; vestiges of a dormer abut the left-hand return. The central return is accessed at the left end of the south courtyard elevation via a four-panelled timber door in a finely dressed granite surround. The right end abutting the main house is lit by a Venetian window set within a shallow dormer to the upper storey, with a tripartite window beneath. There is a modern insertion and an additional tripartite window to the ground floor, and two additional windows to the upper storey. The remainder of the return has unpainted scratch-coat cement render. The west end has a single 3/6 window; the inner cheek has twentieth-century insertions to the ground floor and a contemporary glass brick insertion to the left end; a 6/6 sash in a dormer to the right end. The left return is lit by three windows to the inner cheek and to the end, all 2/2 sashes.

The north elevation (north wing) is detailed as the principal elevation, with quoins to the left side only, and irregular fenestration comprising two windows to each floor. A four-panelled timber door to the right end bears early twentieth-century bronze door furniture and is surmounted by an inserted sandstone plaque bearing the letter 'H'.

The house is set within an extensive mature landscape setting of approximately 53 hectares, accessed from the east via a winding tree-lined drive leading to a gravel forecourt. Although many specimens are mature, new planting from the 1950s has reinforced the stock. To the front of the house is an enclosed paddock, accessed from the lane by a pair of wrought-iron gates on roughly dressed stone piers with moulded granite caps. To the west is a lawned terrace and a large formal garden laid out divided into quarters by concrete paths, and enclosed on three sides by a high wall of brick to the south and north-west and rubble stone to the south-east. It is accessed from the lawn by a small pedestrian iron gate. There is an additional walled enclosure attached to the south, accessed via a square-headed opening with a wrought-iron gate set in a dressed granite surround. Between the two garden enclosures, at the west side, is a one-and-a-half storey gardener's house. To the rear of the house is a courtyard enclosed by the return and farm ranges, screened from the lawn by a rendered wall with a round-headed opening. The property affords views over Ballyward Lake, which has receded in size since the first Ordnance Survey map, the high Mournes, and the surrounding countryside. The lake is natural.