Vernacular house, South of 23 Cabragh Road, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2HX

Vernacular house south of 23 Cabragh Road, Rathfriland, Newry, County Down

This is a two storey, two bay vernacular house of 1840–1859, accessed by a lane on the east side of Cabragh Road. The most distinctive architectural feature is its hearth lobby entrance, a form uncommon in this region. However, a significant portion of the historic fabric and details has been lost, and insufficient original material remains to warrant statutory protection.

The house has a pitched natural slate roof (with some slates missing) and rendered and coped chimney to the left (south) gable. The chimney to the centre has been removed. The right bay appears to have been re-slated, as the slates to the left bay are more roughly dressed. The walls are random rubble with lime render, and there is a raised eaves course. No rainwater goods are present.

The principal elevation faces east into the front yard. The left bay contains a large window opening (now sheeted over) with a concrete cill and the remains of an exposed box frame. Above this is a smaller 2×2 exposed-box sliding sash replacement window with horns and no cill. The right bay has an entrance windbreak porch with a pitched natural slate roof, carved bargeboard, and tongue-and-groove sheeted door. The porch cheeks are blank. Irregular granite flags form the threshold. To the right of the porch is a small sash window at ground floor level with a thick granite cill, and a similar but smaller window at first floor, set slightly to its left. All windows are of this type unless otherwise stated. The left gable has a first-floor window opening (now sheeted over) and a projecting irregular stone bracket of unknown function.

Each bay to the rear elevation has a 2×2 sash window at ground floor and first floor. The right gable is abutted by a single storey outbuilding with corrugated asbestos roof and random rubble walls.

The house is accessed from Cabragh Road through a curved rendered rubble stone wall terminated with a pair of cylindrical stone pillars with conical stone copings. The pillars support a pair of wrought iron gates with spear-end finials, protective cross brace, dog bars, and decorative latch. A similar pair of pillars supports a less ornate pair of gates into the front garden. A two-stage single storey rubble stone outbuilding with pitched natural slate roof stands in the front yard.

The building does not appear on the 1834 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map but is first shown on the 1860 edition in its present form. It was valued at 15 shillings in circa 1862. By 1893 the valuation had increased to £1 5 shillings, with a note that "Part of house raised and slated". No further changes in valuation were recorded thereafter.