61 High Street, Donaghadee, Co. Down

61 High Street, Donaghadee

This is one of the earliest buildings in Donaghadee, despite significant alterations. It forms part of a two-storey terraced block of eighteenth-century origin and retains its character on the High Street elevation.

The house presents a single-fronted façade to the street. At ground floor level is a panelled door positioned to the far right, fitted with a plain fanlight. To the left of the door is a double sliding sash window with Georgian panes. The first floor has two similar single windows, each with narrow plain render surrounds. The front façade is finished in rough cast. The south-east gable is blank and also finished in rough cast.

To the rear is a large single-storey flat-roofed extension with modern windows and door. On the ground floor of the main house to the left of this extension is a modern door, directly above which is a modern window, with another modern window to the right at a slightly higher level. The rear façade and extension are finished in rough cast. The roof is gabled and covered in asbestos slates, with cast iron skylights to front and rear. A rendered chimney stack with decorative Victorian pots rises from the south-east gable. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

The building is recorded on Daniel De la Cherois's map of Donaghadee dating to circa 1780, though it may correspond to buildings shown on an earlier map of around 1700. The house likely dates from the mid to latter half of the eighteenth century. Valuation records of circa 1836 indicate that the property was then in the possession of a Mrs. Shaw with a rateable value of £5–8–0.