South Rock Dwellings, off Newcastle Road, Newcastle, Portaferry, Co Down, BT22 1QQ

South Rock Dwellings, off Newcastle Road, Newcastle, Portaferry, County Down

A very fine and rare example of a formal single and two-storey grouping of circa 1825 containing four former lighthouse keeper's houses, set on the rocky south-east coastline of the Ards peninsula, approximately four miles north-west of Portaferry.

The grouping is almost square in plan form. A 'double pile' terrace of originally three single-storey houses faces eastwards towards the sea, while a larger two-storey dwelling faces in the opposite direction. The entire grouping's rears and yards are enclosed with a high wall.

The first of the single-storey seaward-facing houses has an almost central gabled porch with a sliding sash window featuring horizontal and vertical astragals in the gable front. A plain timber-sheeted stable door with three-pane sidelight stands to the left side, and a four-pane roundel window to the right. Double sliding sash-and-case windows with horizontal and vertical astragals flank the porch. The former middle house now exists as portions divided between its neighbours; it originally had a central timber-panel double door with rectangular fanlight within an arch frame, surrounded by smooth cement. The house to the right follows a similar arrangement to the former middle house. All single-storey terrace houses have gabled pitched roofs with Bangor blue slates and stone parapets to both front and rear sections, each section served by a rendered chimney stack. Cast-iron gutters and down-spouts complete the detailing. Each house features a second gabled off-shoot or return at the rear, creating the characteristic 'double' gable effect.

The south elevation is double-gabled with the valley between pitched roofs almost obscured by the high parapet wall. To the right is a 10-over-15 sash window; to the centre are two 6-over-9 double sashes. The north elevation similarly displays double gables with the valley obscured. A single-storey lean-to with pitched roof and asbestos slate is abutted to the gable, containing two unevenly spaced sash windows with horizontal astragals. A side wall to the right contains three door openings enclosing a side yard, and a large vehicular opening with relatively crude pilasters, entablature and keystone leads to the high perimeter wall.

The two-storey dwelling opposite the terrace (with its back to it) is currently gutted and a shell in preparation for renovation. It features a central door opening with a window opening on each side, and two slightly shorter window openings above. The north and south gables are blank. This house retains its pitched roof with stone parapets and two rendered chimney stacks, but has been fitted with asbestos slates and extruded aluminium ogee gutter.

High walls to the left and right of the two-storey house, flush with its front, enclose areas on both sides and join at right angles to similar high walls stretching from the north and south gables of the terrace, thus fully enclosing all buildings' rears. The entire terrace is finished in rough-cast render. A low garden wall surrounds the terrace; the dividing wall between the first house and former middle house has been removed. A yard wall merging with the north gable, and a large low outer boundary wall, enclose additional shared garden area to the south and east of the grouping.

Historical Context

The South Rock Lighthouse, for which these houses were built, was constructed on the rock in 1797 largely at the behest of Lord Kilwarlin, 2nd Marquis of Downshire. In prompting the Commissioners of Irish Lights to sanction construction, the Marquis was acknowledging long-standing concerns, including those of writer Walter Harris, who warned sailors in 1744 to "beware of the South Rock on which so many brave ships have perished", and the merchants of Belfast, who had been petitioning the Irish Parliament for a light since the 1760s. The lighthouse was designed and its building supervised by Thomas Rogers, the foremost lighthouse engineer of the day. Initially, a single keeper and his family lived within the lighthouse, but this arrangement was later deemed unsatisfactory. During the later 1820s, the present houses were built ashore to accommodate the families of three keepers now considered necessary for the effective manning of the rock. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record the existence of the houses in 1834, as does the Ordnance Survey Map of that year. The lighthouse ceased operation in 1877, replaced by a lightship, principally because the light itself was not positioned far enough out to sea to provide adequate warning of all the hazards in the area.