21 Greencastle Pier Road, Kilkeel, Co Down, Newry, BT34 4LR

This attractive vernacular grouping on the north side of Greencastle Pier Road in Kilkeel has been partially restored, though it is not of special architectural or historic interest.

The complex comprises a single storey, two-bay house with two gabled blocks abutting at right angles to its right gable. The main house has a pitched natural slate roof with cement verges and a cement-rendered chimney at the centre. There are no rainwater goods. The walls are painted lime render with projecting eaves. The principal elevation faces south towards the road and is lit by 6/6 sliding sash windows with painted granite cills in each of the two bays. The original doorway to the extreme right has been infilled. Both the left and right gables are blank. The rear wall of the main block matches the façade.

A post-war extension abuts most of the right bay. To the right of this extension, the remaining wall contains a 1/1 sliding sash window with horns. To the left of the extension, the wall has a small fixed four-paned casement and a sheeted half door. The extension itself has a mono-pitched corrugated asbestos and clear plastic roof running to a shared gutter on the back wall of the house, with cement-rendered brick walls that are blank and lit from the roof only.

The first gabled block, abutting the right gable of the main house, has a pitched natural slate roof. Its front gable is set back from the main block and is harled and painted. It features a modern sheeted door on the left and a modern two-paned window on the right. The second gabled block abuts its right wall. Its left wall fronts a yard and is blank, while its rear gable has a pair of sheeted timber doors.

The second gabled block has a pitched natural slate roof with a chimney on its rear gable, sharing a drainage valley with the first gabled block. Its front gable has a sheeted door on the left, and its right wall contains two 6/6 sliding sashes. The rear wall is blank and abutted by a small shed with a pitched corrugated metal roof, rubble walls, and a sheeted door on its end gable.

The setting is enclosed by a low timber ranch fence to the front, enclosing a small front garden. A lane to the left gable provides access to the yard, which is part gravel and part tarred and contains a timber shed to the rear of the bathroom extension. The large rear garden contains mature trees, an outside toilet with pitched natural slate roof and painted rubble walls, and a similarly detailed pig house with a raised door. A restored Mourne turf cart is also present.

The building shown at this location on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map is not cited in the 1835 valuation book, indicating a very modest house. The 1872 valuation revision notes "new house – grocer's shop", with an increase in valuation from 10 shillings to £2 (rising to £3 10 shillings by 1878). The owner states that part of the complex served as Greencastle post office around the turn of the 20th century. When purchased by its present owner, the house had been much modernised. During restoration, a modern kitchen extension was removed from the rear, original openings were reinstated, glazing bars were introduced into the front windows and internal doors, and a ceiling and Mourne fireplace were reintroduced.