Annaghbane House, 34 Cargabane Road, Newry, Co Down, BT34 1SB

Annaghbane House is an early 19th-century farmhouse situated on the east side of Cargabane Road near Newry. Originally constructed between 1800 and 1819, it has been substantially altered and extensively refurbished around 1985, resulting in the loss of most of its original architectural detailing.

The building is a two-storey, three-bay symmetrical structure with a pitched natural slate roof and three rendered chimneys—one serving each gable and one positioned between the central and right bays. The walls are cement-dashed and painted with smooth rendered and painted basecourse, and a concrete threshold runs around the perimeter. Modern timber bargeboards and eaves support plastic rainwater goods.

The principal northeast-facing elevation features a narrower central bay that advances slightly forward. The ground floor centre contains a semi-elliptical headed opening housing a modern six-panelled stained timber door with three-paned sidelights and a plainly glazed semi-elliptical fanlight. The left and right ground floor bays each contain tripartite windows comprising a modern 6/6 timber casement window flanked by 2/2 lights, with painted stone cills. The first floor has three modern 3x3 paned casement windows with painted stone cills, one in each bay. The left gable has a 6/6 timber casement window positioned left of centre at ground floor level.

The rear elevation is substantially obscured by a modern single-storey flat-roofed extension at ground floor level. The first floor of the original structure retains three modern 3x3 paned casement windows. The extension features a glazed door and three modern casement windows. The right gable has two 6/6 casements at ground floor and a similar window set left of centre at first floor.

The setting comprises a large front garden leading to Tierny Road, enclosed by a curved rendered screen wall with saddle coping. Pairs of square-sectioned rendered gate posts at each end and centre support spear-headed wrought-iron gates at the centre. The rear contains a farmyard enclosed by a two-storey L-shaped outbuilding with a hipped artificial slate roof. This outbuilding has random rubble walls with brick dressings and granite quoins and cills; all openings are boarded with tongue-and-groove sheeting. External stairs with a dog-kennel beneath are present. Modern farm buildings lie beyond.

Historical records show a building at this location on the 1834 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map. The 1859 map identifies it as Annaghbane House and records it was occupied by Reverend Doctor J Bryson at the time of the 1862 Valuation, when it was measured as 45 feet by 24 feet and two storeys high—dimensions broadly corresponding with the present structure. Its valuation remained constant at £15 with no subsequent changes recorded.

A Historic Monuments and Buildings Record first survey card from December 1972 describes the house as a two-storey, three-bay harled and whitened structure with slated roof and three modern brick chimneys. At that time the glazing was documented as nine-paned on the upper floor and triple on the lower floor with twelve-paned centre lights. The central entrance was noted as recessed in a segmental arched opening with decorated fanlight and sidelights, with a modern door opening to rear accommodation. Contemporaneous survey photographs from January 1973 confirm the building's symmetrical character, showing the pitched natural slate roof with rendered skews and half-round rainwater goods, unevenly rendered walls, and the slightly advanced central bay. Ground floor centre featured a single step rising to the modern front door flanked by hoop-decorated sidelights framed by timber pilasters, with a peacock-tailed semi-elliptical fanlight. The ground floor bays contained tripartite windows with 6/6 sashes flanked by 2/2 sashes, while upper floor bays had 6/3 sash windows. The rear elevation was abutted by a single-storey lean-to with monopitched natural slate roof, housing a 6/3 sash window at ground floor left and a tongue-and-groove sheeted door, with three irregularly spaced 6/6 sash windows to the remainder of the elevation. The left gable showed a 6/6 sash window at ground floor centre.

The house has undergone significant modernisation, particularly the replacement of original sash windows with modern casement windows and the addition of the rear extension, substantially compromising its architectural interest.