Mourne Park House, Newry Road, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4SD

Mourne Park House is a country house of considerable architectural and historical interest, standing largely intact within its mature demesne on the outskirts of Kilkeel. The building has evolved significantly over two centuries, beginning as a modest early 19th century house and accumulating a series of extensions and alterations through to the early 20th century.

The present house was built in 1806 by Robert Needham, later Lord Kilmorey, who was descended from Nicholas Bagnall, holder of the lordship of Newry and Mourne in the 16th century. The site had previously been occupied by a small hunting lodge recorded as 'Siberia' on Taylor and Skinner's map of 1777. The original early 19th century building was two storeys and three bays wide, with Venetian windows and a doorway with sidelights. A third storey is believed to have been added sometime after 1820. After 1859, a new two-storey, three-bay front was added with higher ceiling heights than the original building. The rectangular bay windows were added to the principal elevation in 1892. In 1904 a long room was added to the rear right. Around 1920, a single-storey extension was added to the west side, and the staircase was remodelled at the same time. During the Second World War, from October 1943 to March 1944, the estate served as headquarters for the Divisional Artillery, headquarters battery, and 46th Field Artillery of the 5th Infantry Division of the United States Army. Numerous Nissen huts were erected in the grounds during this period, though none survive intact, and their concrete foundations remain scattered across the grounds.

The house as it stands is a double-pile, three-bay structure, two storeys to the front and three storeys to the rear, with a two-storey kitchen block abutting the north-west corner. It faces south across a large, mature demesne, with three yards of outhouses to the rear and a gardener's house behind. The hipped roof is finished in natural slate, with a flat, centrally positioned leaded section. The eaves to the main façade overhang deeply, with a timber-sheeted soffit, and the remaining elevations have decorated rafter tails. There are six chimneys in total: some are ashlar granite and others are cement rendered.

The south-facing principal elevation is symmetrical and built in finely dressed ashlar granite. It has an advanced, moulded granite eaves course and plain blocking course above. The central bay is slightly narrower than the flanking bays and projects slightly forward. At ground floor level it contains three equally spaced, full-height openings with voussoired flat heads. The middle opening holds a pair of glazed and panelled doors with a large sliding sash transom above. The left and right openings each contain a casement window of door height, with a large fixed transom above. At first floor, the central bay has a slightly recessed segmental-headed panel, creating two ashlar piers with a spandrel above, flush with the ground floor. Within this panel sit a pair of 1/1 sliding sashes separated by a two-piece ashlar mullion, with no cills, their heads aligned with the springing of the arch. A very narrow ashlar string course, flush with the façade, runs along this line and defines the bottom of the spandrel.

The left and right bays of the south elevation are identical to one another. At ground floor level each has an advanced rectangular ashlar bay with a moulded eaves cornice and blocking course above, concealing a flat roof behind. Each bay has three tall two-paned casement windows to the front and one on each cheek, all detailed in the same manner as those to the central bay. An ashlar platband projects between ground and first floor levels. At first floor, the wall is set back in line with the bay window below and has two windows arranged in the same manner as the central bay, though narrower. Abutting the ground floor on the left side is the south elevation of a single-storey billiard room extension, finished in ashlar to match the main façade, with a similar moulded cornice and blocking course concealing its flat roof. To its centre is an advanced rectangular bay matching those on the main façade, with a single full-height casement window on each side of the bay.

The west elevation is fully abutted at ground floor level by the single-storey extension. The wall above is in ashlar granite and is four openings wide. The left section belongs to the original house and rises three storeys, diminishing in height with each floor; the newer right-hand portion is two storeys, but both share a common eaves height. On the left, two 6/6 sliding sashes without horns sit at first floor level, with their cills at the roofline of the single-storey extension, and two 3/6 sashes are positioned immediately above with their heads at eaves level. To their right, at first floor of the two-storey block, is a pair of large 1/1 sliding sashes in a single opening, and to the right of those a single 1/1 sash window.

The west elevation of the single-storey extension is dressed to match its south-facing wall but is wider. Its roof is concealed behind a parapet and has two hipped timber-framed rooflights. A wide flight of four ashlar granite steps leads to the entrance, which consists of a pair of large stained timber panelled doors, each with five panels — the bottom two shorter, the top one horizontal. These are set within plain ashlar jambs beneath a flat voussoired head and are fitted with a bronze lion's head knocker and a matching door pull. Above the doorway hangs a bronze pendant light, possibly Edwardian. To either side of the entrance, resting on the top step, are two freestanding ashlar granite pillars with moulded plinths and thin moulded capitals, with no evidence of any entablature above. Between each pair of pillars and the wall is a single narrow two-paned casement window. Beyond the pillars, to left and right, are two large 1/1 sliding sashes with dressed granite cills. The north wall of the extension, forming its left cheek, is detailed in the same way as the other elevations, with moulded cornice and blocking course. The left half of this wall is abutted by the south wall of the kitchen block. The remaining right-hand section has two equally spaced openings of the same height: the left one is a large 1/1 sliding sash with a dressed granite cill, and the right one has been converted into a doorway, now fitted with a tongue-and-groove sheeted door and a matching sheeted transom above. A diagonal timber post attached to the transom suggests that a greenhouse or conservatory was once connected here, and a raised concrete floor is visible on the ground in front.

The north-facing rear elevation is lined, rendered, and painted. It is abutted on the right by a two-storey return and on the left by a single-storey yard block. Between these returns are four 2/2 horizontally divided sliding sashes with granite cills, three of which are large and one smaller 1/1. The first and second floor openings in this section suggest original construction: there are four 1/1 sashes at first floor level and five 6/6 sashes at second floor level, the fifth of which is partially abutted by the roof of the return. All windows are concentrated towards the centre of the elevation, with no openings near either end. All have dressed granite cills.

The two-storey return is arranged in two stages and fills the internal corner formed between the main block and the kitchen block at the north-west. The first stage, two storeys in height, abuts the rear of the main block and has a hipped lean-to natural slate roof, with a notch cut out to accommodate the fifth second-floor window of the main block. Its north-facing wall is abutted on the right by the two-storey part of the second stage and on the left by the single-storey section. The exposed portion of the north-facing wall at first floor has a large 6/6 sliding sash window. The left cheek of this first stage has a pair of glazed and panelled doors at ground floor level. The right cheek abuts the kitchen block. The second stage is two storeys on the right and single storey to the left. The single-storey section on the left has a mono-pitched natural slate roof sloping down to the left into the yard, and three segmental-headed 3/3 vertically divided windows on its left cheek, with a blank wall facing the yard. The two-storey section has a flat leaded roof and a tall cement-rendered chimney. Its left cheek is abutted at ground floor by the single-storey section. At first floor it has two 2/2 horizontally divided sash windows. Its rear wall has a single similar 2/2 window at each floor level. Its right cheek abuts the kitchen block.

The kitchen block runs along the west side of the rear yard. It has a hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridges, overhanging eaves with a boarded soffit, a cement-rendered chimney rising from the centre of the ridge, and similar though taller chimneys rising from the wall heads at the north and south ends. The east wall, which faces the rear yard, is lined, rendered, and painted. At its left end it abuts the two-storey return on the main block. The wall is also abutted near the centre by a shallow two-storey return. At ground floor on the right is a flat-roofed outbuilding rising from a low basement to approximately one metre above yard level. On either side of the middle return, at both ground and first floor levels, are single sliding sash windows — that on the left is 6/6 and that on the right is 3/3, its cill apparently raised to accommodate the single-storey outbuilding below. Below the left-hand window is a four-panelled door into the kitchen basement. Further right on this wall is a 2/2 horizontally divided sash window at first floor level. The two-storey middle return has a flat roof with rendered and painted walls and a concrete block chimney rising from its right north-facing cheek. It has a four-panelled door at basement level on the yard elevation and a small 1/1 sash at first floor. Its left cheek has a similar 1/1 window at basement level, and its right cheek is blank. The single-storey outbuilding to the right has a shallow mono-pitched concrete roof, with window openings just above ground level on its east and north walls, both now without frames, and a sheeted timber basement door in its south wall. The north wall of the kitchen block is lined and rendered, with a single 6/6 sliding sash window, now partially boarded over, centred at ground floor level. The west elevation, facing the demesne, is architecturally treated: ashlar dressed walls with a slightly raised low base course, and four windows to each floor, not quite symmetrically arranged. The ground floor windows are 6/6 sliding sashes with flat voussoired heads, and those above are similarly sized 2/2 horizontally divided sliding sashes. All windows have dressed granite cills. The three first-floor windows on the left, which serve the nursery, have vertical wrought iron bar grilles over their lower sashes. The south elevation of the kitchen block is abutted by the billiard room extension on the west wall of the main block, and the exposed first floor section of wall was not visible at the time of survey, but is believed to be blank.

The east elevation of the main building is in ashlar granite and is four openings wide. The right-hand section is the original block and rises three storeys with diminishing floor heights; the left section is a later addition of two storeys. At ground floor on the right are two tall openings: the one on the right is a full-height glazed casement with fixed transom matching those on the principal façade, and the left opening contains a pair of glazed and panelled doors set within an open timber porch. The porch dates from around 1900 in style and has a pitched corrugated metal roof, possibly originally glazed. It has a chamfered ashlar plinth to left and right, supporting a frame with tongue-and-groove sheeted dado. Turned posts at either end of the dado rail form an open panel with spandrel brackets, above which is a rail of four short turned balusters. A curved timber support rises from the front of each post to carry ogee cast iron rainwater goods. At first floor on the right are two sliding sashes: the left is 1/1 and the right is 6/6, both aligned with the openings below. At second floor level, aligned with those below, are two 3/6 sashes with heads at eaves level. At the centre of the ground floor, in the later section of this elevation, is a wide opening containing a pair of narrow fully glazed French windows with matching sidelights and transoms above the whole composition. At first floor, in line with and of similar width to the opening below, is a pair of large 1/1 sliding sashes in a single opening. To the left of this is a full-height opening containing a pair of fully glazed French windows with a fixed transom above, and above that at first floor is a tall 1/1 sliding sash window.

To the front of the house the garden is arranged as a three-stage terrace, with central linking steps between levels. Immediately in front of the house is a raised paved area, beyond which is a lawned section enclosed by a low granite wall, containing an ornamental pond on either side of a central pathway. Steps lead down to the lowest terrace, also lawned. All paths have been formed using large concrete blocks. To the right of the house is a lawned garden enclosed by a low granite wall on three sides, containing a sundial and a low, rock-faced family mausoleum. The sundial consists of a single cushion-moulded dressed granite pillar with a moulded base and head supporting a bronze dial inscribed 'Gardiner, Belfast Oct. 1820', with etched Roman numerals and a scrolled gnomon. The lid of the tomb is inscribed: 'Nicholas Needham Anley / Born and died at / Mourne Park / 30.3.1943 – 13.2.1992 / Safe in your beloved Mourne / Rest in peace.'

To the north-west is a large garden with mature yews, paths, and a pergola, at the end of a concrete block path from which a pair of wrought iron gates dating from around 1890 lead to a concrete swimming pool enclosed by a hedge. Within this enclosure is a small Buddha statue on a concrete plinth. Elsewhere in this garden stands a white marble statue of a man in Grecian clothing, dating from the early 19th century, on a pedestal inscribed 'Francis Jack, 13th Viscount and 2nd Earl of Kilmorey B.1787 D.1880.' To the left of the main house the principal entrance approach is served by a loop of gravel driveway with lawned areas to the centre and edges. A now disused driveway runs from the Green Gates to the front of the house and is lined with mature beech trees. The lake to the south of the house is now largely silted up, and a falling tree has destroyed a rustic-style boathouse that once stood there. Concrete foundations of numerous Second World War Nissen huts survive scattered across the grounds, though none of the structures themselves remain intact.