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

Mourne Park House is an early 19th-century double-pile house of three bays, with two storeys to the front and three to the rear, accompanied by a two-storey kitchen block abutting its north-west corner. The house faces south within a large mature demesne and was extensively altered and extended in the early 20th century. Three yards of outhouses lie to the rear, with a gardener's house behind them. The building has a hipped natural slate roof with a flat central leaded section. The main façade features deeply overhanging eaves with a timber-sheeted soffit, while the remaining elevations display decorated rafter tails. Six chimneys punctuate the roofline, some in ashlar granite and others cement-rendered.

South Elevation

The front elevation is symmetrical and constructed in finely dressed ashlar granite with an advanced moulded granite eaves course and plain blocking course above. The central bay, narrower than the flanking bays and slightly projecting, contains three equally spaced full-height openings at ground floor, each 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 contain casement windows of door height with large fixed transoms above. At first floor, the central bay features a slightly recessed segmental-headed panel flanked by two ashlar piers with a spandrel above, flush with the ground floor. Within this panel sits a pair of 1/1 sliding sashes separated by a two-piece ashlar mullion. The windows have no cills and their heads align with the spring of the arch. A very narrow ashlar string course, flush with the façade, runs along this line defining the bottom of the spandrel.

The left and right bays are identical. At ground floor, advanced rectangular ashlar bay windows feature moulded eaves cornices and blocking courses above flat roofs. Each bay contains three tall two-paned casement windows to the front and a single window on each cheek, all detailed as those in the central bay. A projecting ashlar platband separates the ground and first floors. At first floor, the wall is recessed in line with the bay window below and contains two windows as in the central bay but narrower.

Abutting the ground floor to the left is the south elevation of a single-storey billiard room extension in ashlar matching the main façade, with similar moulded cornice and blocking course over a flat roof. At its centre stands an advanced rectangular bay detailed as those on the main façade, with a single full-height casement window to the main wall on either side.

West Elevation

The west elevation is completely abutted at ground floor by the single-storey extension. The remaining upper floors are in ashlar granite and four openings wide. The left section belongs to the original house and contains three storeys of diminishing height; the more recent right-hand portion is two storeys high, both sharing a common eaves height. On the left are two 6/6 sliding sashes without horns at first floor, with their cills at the roofline of the single-storey extension, and two 3/6 sashes aligned above with heads at the eaves. To their right, on the first floor of the two-storey block, is a pair of large 1/1 sliding sashes in a single opening, with a single 1/1 sash window to the right.

The west elevation of the extension is dressed as its south-facing wall but wider, with its roof concealed behind a parapet and two hipped timber-framed roof lights. At the centre, accessed by a wide flight of four ashlar granite steps, is a pair of large stained timber panelled doors. Each door has five panels, the bottom two shorter and the top one horizontal, with plain ashlar jambs and a flat voussoired head. The doors feature a bronze lion's head knocker and matching door pull, with a bronze pendant light above, possibly Edwardian. Resting on the top step to either side are two freestanding ashlar granite pillars with moulded plinths and thin moulded capitals, though no evidence of an entablature survives. Between each pair of pillars are single narrow two-paned casement windows. Beyond the pillars on both left and right are two large 1/1 sliding sashes with dressed granite cills.

The north wall of the extension features the same detailing with moulded cornice and blocking course. Its left half is abutted by the south wall of the kitchen block. The remaining wall to the right has two equally spaced openings of the same height. The left opening is a large 1/1 sliding sash window with dressed granite cill. The right opening, originally a similar window, has been converted to a doorway with tongue-and-groove sheeted door and large sheeted transom above. A diagonal timber post attached to the transom suggests a greenhouse or conservatory was once attached, with raised concrete flooring to the front supporting this.

North Elevation

The rear elevation is lime-rendered and painted, abutted at right by a two-storey return and at left by a single-storey yard block. Between these returns are four horizontally divided sliding sashes with granite cills: three large 2/2 sashes and one smaller 1/1. The size of first and second floor openings suggests they are original, with four 1/1 sashes at first floor and five 6/6 sashes at second floor, the fifth abutted by the roof of the return. All windows are concentrated towards the centre with no openings at either end, and all have dressed granite cills.

The two-storey return consists of two stages and infills the corner formed by the two-storey kitchen block abutting the north-west corner of the main house. The first stage, two storeys high and abutting the rear elevation of the main block, has a hipped lean-to natural slate roof with a notch cut to accommodate the fifth second-floor window on the main block. Its north-facing wall is abutted at right by the two-storey part of the second stage and at left by the single-storey section. The exposed section of the north-facing wall at first floor has a large 6/6 sliding sash window. The left cheek of this first stage contains a pair of glazed and panelled doors at ground floor, while the right cheek abuts the kitchen block.

The second stage of the return is two storeys at right and single storey to left. The single-storey section to the left has a mono-pitched natural slate roof sloping left into the yard, with three segmental-headed 3/3 vertically divided windows to its left cheek and a blank wall to the yard. The two-storey section has a flat leaded roof with a tall cement-rendered chimney. Its left cheek is abutted at ground floor by the previous block, with two 2/2 horizontally divided sash windows at first floor. Its rear wall has a single similar 2/2 window to each floor, and its right cheek abuts the kitchen block.

Kitchen Block

The kitchen block encloses the west side of the rear yard. It has a hipped natural slate roof with terracotta ridges, overhanging eaves and boarded soffit. A cement-rendered chimney rises from the centre of the ridge, with similar but taller chimneys rising from wall heads on the north and south ends. Its east wall, fronting the rear yard, is lime-rendered and painted. At its left end is the abutting two-storey return on the main block. To the right, the wall is also abutted at centre by a shallow two-storey return. At ground floor right is a flat-roofed outbuilding rising from a low basement to a height of one metre above the yard.

On the exposed wall to either side of the middle return are single sliding sash windows to each floor: the left is 6/6 and the right is 3/3, its cill presumably raised to accommodate the single-storey outhouse. 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. The two-storey middle return has a flat roof with rendered and painted walls and a concrete block chimney rising up its right north-facing cheek. It has a four-panelled door at basement level in the elevation to the yard and a small 1/1 sash at first floor, with a similar 1/1 window on its left cheek at basement level. Its right cheek to the north is blank.

The single-storey outhouse at right has a shallow mono-pitched concrete roof with painted rendered walls. Window openings just above ground level on its east and north walls now lack frames, and a sheeted timber basement door sits on the south wall. The north wall of the kitchen block is lime-rendered with a single 6/6 sliding sash window, now partially boarded over, centred at ground floor.

The west elevation faces the demesne and is architecturally treated with ashlar-dressed walls and a slightly raised low base course. Four windows to each floor are not quite symmetrically arranged. Those at ground floor are 6/6 sliding sashes and those above are similarly sized 2/2 horizontally divided sliding sashes. Ground floor windows have flat voussoired heads and all have dressed granite cills. The three first-floor windows to the left, serving a nursery, have vertical wrought iron barred grilles over their lower sashes. The south elevation is abutted by the billiard room extension on the west wall of the main block. The exposed first-floor section of wall was not visible but is probably blank.

East Elevation

The right elevation of the main building is in ashlar granite and four openings wide. The right-hand section is the original block containing three storeys of diminishing height; the left section is later and of two storeys. At ground floor right are two tall openings: the right contains a full-height glazed casement with fixed transom as those on the façade. The left opening contains a pair of glazed and panelled doors set within an open timber porch. The porch, circa 1900 in style, has a pitched corrugated metal roof, possibly once glazed. It has a chamfered ashlar plinth to left and right supporting a frame and tongue-and-groove sheeted dado. Turned posts at either end of the dado rail form an open panel with spandrel brackets, over which sits a rail of four short turned balusters. A curving timber support rises from the front of each front post to support the ogee cast iron rainwater goods.

At first floor right are two sliding sashes: the left is 1/1 and the right is 6/6, both aligned with ground floor openings. At second-floor level, in line with openings below, are two 3/6 sashes with heads at the eaves. At centre on 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 over all. At first floor is a pair of large 1/1 sliding sashes in a single opening, aligned with and of similar width to the opening below. At left is a full-height opening containing a pair of fully glazed French windows with fixed transom above. Above at first floor is a tall 1/1 sliding sash window.

Setting and Grounds

To the front of the house is a three-stage terrace with central linking steps between levels. A raised paved area sits in front of the house, beyond which a lawned section is enclosed by a low granite wall and contains an ornamental pond on either side of a central pathway. Steps link with the lowest terrace, also lawned. All paths have been formed using large concrete blocks.

The right elevation has a lawned garden enclosed by a low granite wall to three sides, containing a sundial and a low rock-faced family mausoleum. The sundial is a single cushion-moulded dressed granite pillar with 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."

Beyond to the north-west is a large garden with mature yews, paths and a pergola with a concrete block path at the end of which is a pair of wrought iron gates circa 1890 leading to a concrete swimming pool enclosed by a hedge. Also within this enclosure is a small Buddha statue on a concrete plinth. Elsewhere in this garden is a white marble statue of a man in Grecian clothing, early 19th century, on a pedestal inscribed "Francis Jack, 13th Viscount and 2nd Earl of Kilmorey B.1787 D.1880."

The left elevation provides the main entrance and has a loop of gravel driveway with lawns to the centre and edges. Beyond to all sides the domain has a picturesque garden to the far right with statuary and pergola. The lake to the south of the house is now mostly silted up and a falling tree has destroyed a rustic-style boathouse. A now-disused driveway runs from Green Gates to the front of the house and is lined with mature beech trees. Elsewhere in the grounds are the concrete foundations of numerous Second World War huts, but none survive intact.