Former Quaker Meeting House, Newry Street, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5PY

Former Quaker Meeting House

This plainly detailed meeting house dates to the late 18th century and stands at the southern end of a graveyard on the south side of Newry Street in Rathfriland. It is a small rectangular structure aligned west to east, with a lean-to return on its east gable. A corrugated metal hall stands to the front of the site, also used by the Quakers.

The building has a pitched roof with artificial slate to the front and natural slate to the rear, with granite skews. Half round metal gutters are missing. The walls are constructed of random granite rubble with large quoins and advanced eaves, all rendered in lime, though the render is now partly failed.

The principal elevation faces north towards Newry Street and contains a single window opening at centre. This has a granite cill and is now infilled with concrete blockwork and corrugated metal sheeting, with only its timber sash box exposed. The left (east) gable is blank and abutted by the lean-to return, beside which is an asbestos flue pipe. The lean-to has a mono-pitched artificial slate roof and the remains of a half round metal gutter. Its south cheek is blank with evidence of an infilled door, its east face is blank, and its north cheek contains a doorway now boarded over with plywood. The rear (south) elevation is three windows wide, all equally spaced and sheeted over with corrugated metal sheets, with a downpipe at the left end. The right (west) gable is blank and contains a large structural crack at its right end.

The building was constructed following the securing of a 51-year lease for the site in 1781 and cost £170. It was completed with a porch, as shown on the 1834 Valuation map. The site itself had earlier significance: tradition holds that a meeting house was erected here in 1722, which would make it the oldest place of worship in the town, though the present building replaced that original structure. The building does not appear on the Clanwilliam Estate Map of 1776, as it was not yet constructed at that date. It was recorded in the London Yearly Meeting of Quakers in 1793.

The building was closed when the last Quaker in the town, Joseph Murphy of 6 Dromore Street, died. From 1898 onwards it was used only for occasional Quaker missions but was superseded in the early 20th century by a timber-framed building immediately to the north. The present building was captioned on the 1918 Ordnance Survey map as a Sunday School. It served as the local Scout hut in the 1970s. A 1970 survey photograph shows the north elevation window to be a 6-over-6 exposed box sliding sash without horns.

The windows are positioned on the quiet side of the site adjacent to the burial ground. No grave markings or mounds are visible externally, but approximately 30 burials are recorded to be present. The building is noted as currently derelict.