Welcome Inn, 35 Main Street, Forkhill, Newry, Co Armagh, BT35 9EQ

The Welcome Inn is a two-storey public house prominently situated on Main Street in the village of Forkhill, Newry, County Armagh. The building dates to between 1800 and 1819. It has undergone extensive alteration and retains no features of particular architectural or historic interest.

The building is aligned north-south along the western side of Main Street, immediately ahead of Forkhill Bridge. The roof is pitched and covered with artificial slate, with modern brick chimneys located on each gable and to the right of centre. Overhanging eaves have modern carved timber bargeboards supporting ogee aluminium rainwater goods. The walls are smooth rendered and painted, featuring a contrasting base course and stepped stucco quoins. All windows are modern top-hung timber casements with concrete cills and painted reveals.

The principal elevation faces east. A projecting entrance porch with a pitched artificial slate roof and bargeboards is located to the left of centre; its front face contains a modern panelled mahogany door with a narrow transom over. Each cheek of the porch contains a slender fixed-pane timber window. To the left of the porch are two large 2x2 casements, the bottom panes of which have obscured glass. To the right of the porch are three equally spaced 1/1 windows. Above these, on the first floor, are similar windows which are diminished in height. Two timber fascia boards with painted lettering are positioned between the ground and first-floor windows. A circular plastic advertising sign is above the porch.

The left gable is abutted by a lower extension, HB16/15/008, which is now of no interest. The exposed section of the gable is lined, rendered, and blank. The rear elevation is almost completely abutted by a modern two-storey return with a flat roof (of no interest). The exposed upper left section is pebble-dashed with smooth rendered quoins and no openings. The right gable is abutted by a single-storey addition (of no interest), and the exposed section has a window to the first floor on the left.

A building is shown on the 1835 Ordnance Survey map and subsequent editions. However, information about the building’s development could not be determined from the Valuation books due to an inability to locate its plot number on the Valuation map.