59 Main Street, Forkhill, Newry, Co Armagh, BT35 9SQ

This is a two-storey, three-bay house with an attached shop, likely built between 1820 and 1839. It is situated on the west side of Main Street in Forkhill, Newry, Co Armagh. While it retains some original character, it has undergone alterations that have diminished its special architectural or historic interest.

The house is aligned north-south and features a pitched natural slate roof with a two-stage brick chimney on each gable. Modern plastic rainwater goods are also present. The walls are constructed from coursed squared granite rubble laid irregularly, with strap pointing. All windows are modern uPVC top-hung casements with single glazing (1/1) and granite cills, although those to the front façade are set within large, smooth, rendered and painted stepped architraves. The principal elevation faces east.

The left bay of the front façade has a window with a decorative cast-iron cill grille at ground floor level. To the right is a modern timber door with glazed side panels and transom, all with obscured glazing, set within a semi-elliptical headed reveal with V-jointed stucco jambs and voussoirs. The right bay houses the shopfront and is wider, with a pair of modern timber doors and a rectangular transom above, centred. Large fixed-pane timber windows are located to either side of the shopfront entrance. Above the shopfront, a smooth rendered and painted fascia is supported by four plainly detailed pilasters, each with a painted stone plinth block, flanking the openings. The first floor has four windows aligned above the ground-floor openings.

The left and right gables are wet-dashed and each have a window set centrally at first floor level. The rear elevation is also wet-dashed and largely abutted at ground floor by a similarly detailed lean-to return. A window is exposed on the right-hand section of the ground floor. The first floor of the rear elevation features four equally spaced windows. The right cheek of the rear return has a modern timber door to the right and a window with a brick cill to the left.

The plot was occupied by a building shown on the 1835 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, but its original size and development history cannot be accurately determined from available records.