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

181 South Promenade is a small, picturesque two-storey house, one of a terrace of 12 dwellings known as 'Widows' Row', built in 1843. The terrace stands on the south-west side of South Promenade at the southern edge of Newcastle, County Down.

The terrace was built to house the families of local fishermen who drowned in a fierce storm off the coast in January 1843. The disaster claimed 46 Newcastle men, leaving behind 27 widows, 118 orphans and 21 dependants. An appeal, supported by a substantial donation from the trustees of the Annesley Estate, raised sufficient funds to construct these 12 modest houses.

The front (north-east) façade is finished in plain render and painted. The ground floor has a timber-sheeted stable door with a glazed panel to the right, and to the left a multi-pane window in the vernacular Georgian style, though the top-hung opening suggests this is a modern replacement. The first floor contains a similar multi-pane window within a gabled half-dormer. The gabled roof is covered in natural slate with exposed rafter ends and features an overhang. A single rendered chimney stack, shared with the neighbouring property to the south, rises from the roof. The boundary incorporates a low stone wall enclosing a small front garden.

Although substantially altered to the rear, the terrace as a whole retains significant original character and detailing, including the gabled half-dormers and vernacular Georgian windows. However, this house has been greatly enlarged with a large modern two-storey flat-roofed extension to the rear, which rises almost to roof ridge level and completely obscures the original rear wall. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and PVC. Each house originally consisted of two rooms, one to each floor, but most properties in the terrace have been enlarged in recent years with modern extensions.