House at Montalto, Dromore Road, Ballymaglave north, Ballynahinch, Co Down, BT24 8PX

House at Montalto

This is a long, single-storey gabled cottage of largely pre-1834 construction, notable for a distinctive Jacobean-style folly-like tower of three to four storeys rising from its centre. The building's original function remains uncertain, though it apparently served as a schoolhouse at some point and is now used as an occasional dwelling.

The building sits within the Montalto estate on a slight rise to the south of Montalto House. The tower projects forward approximately two metres from the front east elevation and is topped with Baroque gables. At the middle of the tower's ground floor is a recessed Gothic arched doorway with a plain fanlight and modern sheeted door. To the right of the tower are three 2/2 sash windows, with the rightmost being slightly narrower. To the left are a further three 2/2 sash windows, the leftmost being narrower and set slightly lower. The north and south gables have bargeboards with slight overhangs and a small single 2/2 sash window each.

The west façade, facing an enclosed yard bounded by a two-metre-high wall, contains four unevenly spaced 2/2 sash windows of slightly different sizes set at varying heights. Between the first and second windows is a small boiler housing with a stainless steel flue. At the far right is a sheeted door with a small vision panel. The façade is rendered and painted, and the gabled roof is slated. Two skylights are positioned to the rear, and three rendered chimney stacks are visible.

In a garden-like area to the front stands a two-stage stone podium with panels and cornicing, apparently once topped with a bell-shaped ornament decorated with floral swags, now removed.

The building appears on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map in slightly shorter form, positioned next to an area marked as a sheepfold. While it has been suggested the tower was built as a chapel by the original Montalto estate owners, the Rawdon family, no evidence supports this beyond its church-like appearance. The building more likely served as a schoolhouse, presumably during the 19th century for the younger members of the Ker family, who later owned the estate. It was extended during the later 1800s and underwent renovation in the late 1990s.