Carraghers Bar, 12 Main Street, Camlough, Co Down

Carraghers Bar, 12 Main Street, Camlough, is a largely original two-storey public house and dwelling dating from 1862. It stands at the end of a mixed terrace on the eastern side of the small village of Camlough, facing onto a busy road. It is privately owned and currently in use as a public house, as it has been since its construction.

Public houses are one of Northern Ireland's most common building types, and even small villages frequently contain bars in numbers that seem disproportionate to their populations. Most of these 19th-century buildings have been repeatedly renovated to cope with changing markets and competition, losing much of their original character in the process. Carraghers Bar is one of a relatively small number of public houses to have escaped this trend. Despite the introduction of some modern window frames and a modern roof covering, its original appearance remains largely intact, its basic plan has been preserved, and much of its internal detailing survives — including an unexpected and memorable winder staircase. The public bar is the pièce de résistance: it has retained a full complement of late Victorian and Edwardian fittings, including snugs with Art Nouveau-influenced glazing and, behind the bar, decorative mirrored pilasters and built-in kegs. The whole effect blends a dash of opulence with small-scale charm that is typical of more modestly-sized pubs of the era.

The building consists of the main two-storey-plus-attic gabled block to the north, a lower two-storey gabled house return to the south-east, and a taller, part-gabled, part-hipped-roof pub return to the south-west. Abutting the south end of the pub return is a long line of outbuildings. The entire building is rendered and painted. To the first floor of the front elevation, the whole of the east gable, and the east face of the house return, the render is lined. The ground floor of the front is rusticated and topped with a projecting sill course, an effect that continues onto the right-hand edge of the east gable. The first floor of the front elevation also has moulded in-and-out quoins. The remaining visible faces of the returns are finished in plain render.

The roof of the main block is covered in fibre cement slates to the front, with natural Bangor Blue slate to the rear. It has four evenly spaced replacement chimneystacks constructed in brown brick in approximately the 1980s. To the rear of the roof there are three relatively small gabled dormers, which appear to be 1990s additions or replacements; these are clad in the same covering as the front of the roof and each has a single-light window with a single-pane frame. Of the return roofs, only the eastern sides could be seen: the house return has natural slate, and the pub return has fibre cement tiles. There is a tall chimneystack, matching those described above, to the gable of the house return. The rainwater goods appear to be a combination of original cast iron and replacement extruded aluminium.

The front elevation is symmetrical, with a pub shopfront to the centre of the ground floor. This consists of a central timber-sheeted double door with a plain overlight and relatively plain reeded pilaster jambs. The doorway is flanked by large window openings filled with plate glass, with slimmer pilaster jambs to the outer sides of both windows. Above the whole ensemble is a painted timber signboard with a projecting cornice. To either side of the shopfront is a single-light window opening in Georgian proportions, with a moulded surround, a one-over-one timber sash frame with horns, and wrought-iron security bars. There are four similar window openings to the first floor, though these have modern top-hung frames.

The house entrance is to the left of centre on the east gable of the main block. It takes the form of a relatively large elliptical-headed opening with a prominent rusticated surround, set within which is a panelled door with an elliptical fanlight and panelled pilaster jambs. The first floor of this gable has two window openings matching those of the first floor front, but with one-over-one timber sliding sash frames. There are two smaller windows at attic level with modern frames.

The house return has a tripartite timber sliding sash frame to the ground floor window, with one-over-one outer lights and two-over-two central light, and security bars matching those on the front elevation. The first floor of the house return has a shorter window with a similar frame.

The rear elevation could not be seen in its entirety, but internal evidence indicates a doorway to the left-hand side of the ground floor of the house return gable, fitted with a timber-sheeted door, and another doorway to the ground floor of the western face, fitted with a panelled door. The taller eastern return appears to be linked to the main block by a long single-storey section set on an east-west axis, though this could not be observed directly. The return itself has a single window opening to the east face at ground floor level. At first floor level on the same face there is a doorway to the left — accessed via a metal spiral staircase — and a single-light window opening to the right, fitted with a nine-pane timber frame.

Extending from the gable of the pub return is an L-shaped collection of single- and two-storey outbuildings, constructed in a combination of concrete block and rubble stone, with some portions rendered. These have curved metal truss roofs covered with corrugated metal. To the south of the outbuildings are some concrete block animal pens. A tall rendered wall encloses the yard to the east; at the north end of this wall is a vehicle gateway with square piers and gates clad in corrugated metal sheeting. There is a small forecourt in front of the main block, on which stands a cast-iron pump. The yard is accessed via a lane shared with several other properties.

The site shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1860 appears undeveloped. The second valuation of September 1862 records the property as being in progress and not yet finished inside. Dimensions noted at that time were fourteen yards by eight yards, two-and-a-half storeys, for the main front block; five by five by two storeys for the house return; and a further section of nine by two by one storey, presumably the narrow portion between the main block and the pub return. Structures matching the footprint of the outbuildings visible today are shown on the valuation plan annotation of approximately 1862. Additional buildings were present at that time against the eastern yard wall. A note in the valuation revision book for 1894 reads "some sheds down," indicating the demolition of some of these structures, though all are shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1906. The concrete block walls and metal truss corrugated-iron roofs make clear that most outbuildings were rebuilt in the mid-20th century, probably in the 1950s or 1960s, along with the animal pens to the southern edge of the site. The pens are believed to have been in use for a local livestock market until the mid-1970s.

The public house interior appears to have been refitted at some point during the Edwardian era. The current owner has stated that the terrazzo floor in the bar was laid by Italian craftsmen working on Newry Cathedral. If accurate, this work could have been carried out either in 1888–90, when the transepts, sacristy, and north tower were added to the cathedral, or in 1904–09, when the east end was rebuilt. However, the fact that the floor does not extend into the snug areas, which are tiled, suggests it may have been laid at a later date — perhaps in the 1920s or 1930s. The conversion of the room behind the bar to a snooker room was carried out by the present occupant, probably in approximately the 1980s.

The original owner, Margaret Kelly, died in approximately 1864, and the property remained with her representatives until 1877, when the lease was acquired by a William Quigley. In 1888 the current owner's family took on the lease, and later the freehold.