Outbuildings, to rear of 7 Church Square, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34

Outbuildings to rear of 7 Church Square, Rathfriland

These warehouses survive as a notable 19th-century example of commercial activity in this part of the town. They do not appear on the 1776 map but first emerge on the 1860 Ordnance Survey map, though the north-south section was not recorded until the 1903 map. The Valuation Book describes them with dimensions of 7 × 8½ × 2½, 2½ × 2½ × 2, and 3 × 6½ × 2½.

The main building is a random rubble outbuilding aligned north-south at the rear of the Church Square frontage. It is three storeys high with a natural slate roof, gabled to the south and hipped to the north, with half-round plastic gutters. The random rubble granite walls are brought to courses with brick trim to all original openings.

The east facade, which faces the rear of the Church Square building, contains a double-leaf door with metal lintel to the ground floor on the left, with an infilled opening to its right. The first floor has three tongued-and-grooved sheeted loading doors; the middle one is wider and has an infilled opening to its left. A pulley beam extends over the right-hand door. The second floor has a loading door at the left with a pulley beam in an eaves gablet above it. To its right is a shuttered opening with a granite cill, and a four-paned window further right. The entire right-hand section of this facade is abutted at right angles by a three-storey return. A ghost outline of a lean-to that once abutted at ground and first floor level is also evident.

A three-storey return abuts the west elevation at right angles. It has a pitched natural slate roof with a coped rendered chimney on its east gable. Walls match the main block with brick trim to openings. The return's main facade faces south into the yard behind the Church Square building. The ground floor contains a 2×6 paned window and door, both original, to the left, with three modern openings to the right (one a doorway). The first floor has four openings: from left to right, a 2×4 paned window, a shuttered opening, an infilled opening, and a 3×2 margin paned window with a smaller three-pane window directly below. The second floor has four openings in line with those below but reduced in height: from left to right, a 2×4 paned window, a shuttered opening, a shuttered opening, and a loading door. All windows have granite cills. The exposed apex of the left gable is blank. Inspection from Newry Street shows three louvred openings at second-floor level.

The right gable is abutted by a lower two-storey building, the exposed walling above being cement rendered. This adjacent building has a pitched natural slate roof and random rubble walls but is of no architectural merit; its south elevation has been drastically altered with new openings and a modern flat-roofed extension abuts the ground floor.

No access was permitted to the remaining elevations as the owner expressed concern about the unstable nature of the site. The north elevation of the return could not be accessed. A 1×1 sash window is visible at second-floor level on the north gable.