Ardarragh House, 15 Finnard Road, Ardarragh, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5BL

Ardarragh House is a mid-19th-century former shop and public house with dwelling, now converted to residential use. It stands on the north side of Finnard Road and presents as a two-storey structure with four bays, though the left two bays are slightly wider and lower than those to the right. The building retains its front façade as its principal feature of interest.

The roofing comprises pitched natural slate aligned west to east, with the larger roof over the right two bays carrying slightly larger slates. Two modern skylights puncture the rear pitch of this roof. Rendered and brick-coped chimneys rise to each end gable and between the second and third bays from the left. The walls are painted lined rendered rubble stone, with advanced masonry eaves carrying half-round modern metal rainwater goods.

A single-storey porch projects from the third bay from the left, serving as the main entrance. It has a hipped natural slate roof, walls matching the main block, and stop-chamfered external corners with modern half-round rainwater goods. The porch contains a four-panelled raised and fielded door on its right cheek, with a segmental-headed fixed light in its front wall and a margin-paned 1/1 sash window to its left cheek. All openings have stop-chamfered reveals.

The remaining façade bays each contain a single window opening with a pair of 6/6 sliding sashes. Ground-floor windows are smaller exposed box sashes with painted stone cills; first-floor windows are larger. The ground-floor left window is a modern insertion into an infilled doorway, which originally served as the former pub entrance. At first floor, between the windows of the first and second bays from the left, a linear stucco frame marks the position of the former pub fascia.

The left gable is blank, abutted by a modern external rendered and painted chimneybreast. The rear elevation is heavily altered and extended. The larger block is deeper than the lower one, exposing a west-facing gable at the rear that is rendered with a small two-paned attic window. The left three bays of the rear elevation are abutted by a pair of large modern gabled returns, both detailed as houses with pitched natural slate roofs, rendered walls, and sash windows. The remaining rear wall has a small four-paned casement window at first floor on the third bay from the left, and the ground-floor right bay has a wide 8/8 sash window. The right gable is blank at ground floor, with a 3/6 sash window at first floor and a small metal-framed casement window in the attic gable. All external doors are uPVC.

The front garden is enclosed by a lined rendered and painted rubble-stone wall with a series of iron loops incorporated into its external face for securing horses, and its base is set with roughly dressed stone mounting blocks. The left end has a pair of cylindrical gate piers carrying a flat iron gate serving the rear driveway. The right end has a circa 1900 wrought-iron pedestrian gate on rendered piers. A further pair of cylindrical gate piers and driveway serve the right side of the house, with a high screen wall of rendered and coped painted concrete balustrade featuring a pair of tongue-and-groove sheeted doors, a stucco V-jointed quoin doorway surround, a stucco wreath over the door, and a corbel and ball finial at the right side. Behind the house is a modern patio with lawn, and a small rubble-stone outbuilding with a pitched corrugated-metal roof.

Historical Background

The building is shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map. It appears on the 1859 map as Ardarragh Post Office and is noted in the 1862 Valuation book as post office and shop, occupied by Eliza McConvill. The 1891 Valuation entry identifies it as a public house. It is captioned Ardarragh House on the 1918 OS map. The available evidence suggests a mid-19th-century date, likely between 1840 and 1859.

The building originally comprised three distinct functions: the left ground-floor room was a public bar accessed by a front door; the second ground-floor room from the left was a provisions shop; and the remaining two bays housed the owner's residence. Historical photographs from circa 1930, held by the present owners, show the building largely as it appears today, except that the pub porch had a flat roof with stucco parapet rather than the current hipped roof. Local tradition holds that film star Errol Flynn once drank in the bar.

The property remained vacant for several years before undergoing repair and extension circa 1990. The conversion to residential use dates from this period.