Mourne Wood, Lurganconary Road, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4LL

Mourne Wood is a substantial two-storey house with attic and basement, comprising two distinct blocks arranged in an L-shape on the east side of Lurganconary Road near Kilkeel. The building dates to the Georgian period and is accompanied by adjoining farm outbuildings to its east.

The main east-west aligned block is five bays wide with a pitched natural slate roof and plain verges. Cement rendered walls with corbelled eaves are painted in wet dash. Each gable carries a cement rendered and granite coped chimney. The principal south-facing elevation features the main entrance in the middle bay, approached by three granite steps to a granite-paved threshold. The doorway comprises a pair of glazed and panelled doors (single bottom panel and six glazed panes over) with a radial segmental fanlight above, set within a segmental headed encasement with ashlar granite jambs and voussoirs. The marking of a former gabled porch survives on the main block. Ground floor windows to left and right bays and five first floor windows are all 6/6 sliding sashes with painted granite cills. Rainwater goods are half-round cast iron, now mostly missing.

The left gable is abutted at ground floor by a single-storey two-bay return with a pitched roof, its slates largely missing. The return has a projecting bay window to its front right with large cast iron lattice casements in the right-hand bay and a 6/6 sash to the left bay. This return is dashed and unpainted over random rubble, with a dashed brick chimney on its left gable. A 6/6 sliding sash window to first floor left of the main block is visible, and a 4/8 to the attic right; an attic window to the left has been infilled with brick and its granite cill removed. The rear wall of the left return is abutted by a one-storey outbuilding serving the yard.

The main block's rear elevation is abutted at middle and left by two further returns. The exposed section of rear wall at right has lost render, exposing random rubble. A slated hipped dormer breaks the eaves with an 8/8 window (bottom sash missing). Ground floor has a 6/6 sliding sash; the first floor has no window. The right gable of the main block is abutted by a nineteenth-century addition.

The north-south aligned block forms the second arm of the L-plan, rising to the same eaves height as the east-west block but with no attic and only one bay deep. This two-storey two-bay structure has a hipped natural slate roof. Walls are painted dash over a moulded granite base course, with finely dressed stepped quoins to all corners and projecting eaves matching the first block. A rendered brick chimney rises from the rear right. Rainwater goods are missing.

The principal east-facing elevation has four regularly spaced 6/6 sliding sash windows to each floor, all in line with one another, with painted granite cills. The left gable faces south and advances forward of the east-west block. It displays a recessed panel with segmental head at first floor level containing a tall 6/6 sash window to ground floor and a slightly shorter 6/6 sash to first floor. The right gable, which projects well beyond the depth of the first block, is blank and is abutted by a one-storey farm outbuilding. The rear elevation is almost entirely abutted by Return 2 of the first block; only a small section of wall at the north end is exposed. A trace of a former lean-to porch survives at ground floor, and there is a tiny sash window to the first floor.

Return 1 abuts the middle bay of the east-west block and rises to three storeys, matching the height of the main block. It has a pitched natural slate roof (now largely gone) tying into the rear pitch of the main block. The yard-facing gable bears a partially collapsed cement rendered chimney with dash walls partly missing. Ground floor is blank. First floor has two 6/6 sliding sashes (left one now missing sashes); second floor has two 8/8 sashes (right one gone). The right cheek is blank save for a 6/6 sliding sash at ground floor left and a tiny four-paned casement to its right. The left cheek is completely abutted by Return 2. A distinct wall break at ground floor level between Return 1 and Return 2 suggests Return 1 was originally one storey high and was raised to three storeys when Return 2 was added.

Return 2 matches the height of Return 1 and accommodates two stairwells internally. Its yard-facing gable has a hipped natural slate roof (slates gone), while the other end ties into the rear pitch of the main block. The exposed gable is dashed with some fallen away, revealing brick walling identical to Return 1; the extreme left side is slate hung. Ground floor has three openings: an 8/8 sliding sash window to the right and two segmental brick headed door openings to middle and left serving a rear passage. First floor has a window opening to the right (probably formerly 6/6 sliding sash) lighting the servants' stairwell, and to its left a tall 6/6 sash window with spoked semicircular head lighting the main stairwell. Second floor has an 8/8 sliding sash window to the right serving the servants' stairwell. The right cheek is abutted by Return 1, and the left cheek by the north-south block.

Farm outbuildings enclose two yards to the rear of the house. All buildings have natural slate roofs, cement dashed walls and some ashlar dressings. The entrance to the first yard (Yard 1) at the north-west corner comprises a large semi-elliptical coachway with finely dressed granite jambs and splayed voussoirs, fitted with a pair of sheeted timber doors. The entrance to the second yard (Yard 2) on the west side is flanked by ashlar gate piers, the right one of which rises to a small bell-cote (bell missing). Within Yard 1 stands a cow-tailed water pump with head embossed "W. Weir Ballyroney"; though complete, it is no longer working.

The landscaped and planted grounds formerly occupying the front have largely disappeared due to sand extraction to the south of the house. A former one-storey gate lodge at 11 Lurganconary Road (associated with Mourne Wood) has been entirely modernised and is now of no architectural interest. A second gate lodge formerly located near the same vicinity was cleared during the Second World War and no traces remain.