Rathturret farmyard, Rath Road, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3RX

Rathturret Farmyard

This farmyard, situated at the end of a lane south of Rath Road near Warrenpoint, has been largely demolished. Two buildings remain from what was formerly a medium-sized corn mill of the later 19th century, known as Thompson's Mill.

The two structures are connected by a short link block. Both sections feature pitched natural slate roofs with tiled verges and advanced chamfered brick eaves. The walls are constructed of random rubble granite brought to courses, with stepped rock-faced granite quoins displaying tooled arrises. Brick trim frames all openings, also stepped in character.

Building 1 is a two-storey, two-bay structure, slightly lower than Building 2. Its principal elevation faces west and contains four ground-floor openings: from left to right, a beaded tongue-and-groove sheeted door into a single room; a fixed 4x2-paned window with granite cill; a door matching the first opening leading through to the mill proper; and a tongue-and-groove sheeted door into an infill room between the buildings. A 1/1 sliding sash window occupies the first floor. Running the full width of this elevation is a single-storey canopy with a monopitch natural slate roof, supported at each end by granite walls with tooled quoins and at the centre by a cast-iron column. The roof join with the main block is marked by a line of chamfered brick. A formerly prominent brick chimney on the right gable has been dismantled. The northern gable contains a first-floor window at centre. Ground level rises from right to left. The rear eastern elevation has been artificially raised, leaving only the first floor visible; it contains a beaded tongue-and-groove door at right and a small 1/1 sash window to its left. The right southern gable is abutted by the short connecting passage to Building 2, which features a skylight to each roof pitch and a raised louvred ventilator to its front pitch. Half-round metal gutters (partly collapsed) run to the front; plastic half-round gutters serve the rear.

Building 2 formerly contained corn threshing and crushing equipment. It is of similar construction to Building 1 but includes contemporary one-storey extensions to the east and south. The main elevation faces west and contains five ground-floor openings: from left to right, a segmental-headed window; a wide segmental-headed door with two tongue-and-groove sheeted leaves; a segmental-headed 7x4-pane window; a transomed two-leaf door; and another segmental-headed 7x4-pane window (with the top 7x2 panel replaced by a single pane). A square window on the first floor aligns with the third ground-floor opening. To its right, in line with the fourth opening, is a loading door with the upper half now glazed. Two rows of skylights light the rear pitch (one to the main block, one to the extension). Half-round metal gutters to the front are partly missing; the rear has no gutters.

The northern gable has been artificially raised to ground level, burying the ground floor and making the first floor directly accessible from outside. Here stands a tall, wide double-leaf tongue-and-groove barn door opening into the threshing section. A segmental brick relieving arch spans a flat timber lintel, featuring a keystone inscribed "WSR / 1883" (W.S. Richards). The link passage to Building 1 abuts this gable at right.

The eastern rear elevation, not cut into the slope, is abutted by a one-storey extension whose roof continues from the two-storey section. Four openings serve this side: from left to right, a beaded tongue-and-groove door; an opening with two louvres; a door matching the first; and another louvred opening. A loading door on the main block at first-floor left has a finely dressed granite cill that also forms the head of the ground-floor door directly below.

The southern gable is abutted at middle and right by a one-storey extension. The exposed main block section at left contains two small rectangular openings, each with a rusticated granite lintel, and a sheeted timber door. The extension has a doorway and large window opening at each end, with a segmental-headed opening above at first-floor level and a granite cill.

The mill was originally served by a millpond to the north on the west side of the approach lane. The feed pipe remains visible at the base of the middle of the dam, and an overspill channel is present at the east end.