161 South Promenade ('Widows' Row'), Newcastle, Ballaghbeg, Co Down, BT33 0HA

161 South Promenade, Newcastle, is a small two-storey house forming part of 'Widows' Row', a terrace of 12 dwellings built in 1843. The terrace occupies the south-west side of South Promenade at the southern edge of Newcastle and was constructed to house the families and dependants of local fishermen who lost their lives in a severe storm off the coast in January 1843. That disaster drowned 46 Newcastle men, leaving behind 27 widows, 118 orphans and 21 dependants. An appeal, aided by a substantial donation from the trustees of the Annesley Estate, raised sufficient funds to build these 12 houses, which became known as 'Widows' Row'.

No. 161 is positioned at the north-west end of the terrace. The front (north-east) façade is finished in rough cast render and painted. The ground floor contains a timber-sheeted stable door to the right and a multi-pane vernacular Georgian fixed-light window to the left. The first floor features a similar multi-pane window set within a gabled half-dormer. The north-west gable end is blank. The roof is gabled, covered in natural slate with exposed rafter ends and an overhang. A single rendered chimney stack, shared with the neighbouring property to the south, rises through the roof. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC.

The rear wall and original roof slope are largely obscured by a substantial modern two-storey flat-roofed extension, which rises to the level of the roof ridge. This extension reflects the pattern of later enlargement undertaken on most properties in the terrace; each house originally consisted of only two rooms, one to each floor, but in recent years most have been significantly enlarged.

A low stone boundary wall encloses a small garden to the front. The terrace as a whole retains significant original character and detailing despite substantial alterations to the rear, including the gabled half-dormers to each dwelling and the vernacular Georgian multi-paned windows.