Jonesborough House, Jonesborough, Newry, Co Armagh, BT35 8HR

Jonesborough House is an early 18th-century symmetrical two-storey, three-bay house with single-storey, one-bay wings, prominently sited along Jonesborough Village Road and aligned north-east to south-west. It is of unusual construction and remains largely original.

The building was constructed around 1760–1779 for Colonel Morris Jones, a Welshman who acquired land in the area circa 1750. According to historical records, the walls were built in layers of mortar and wood with turf in the middle, and the ceilings contain many fine oak beams running the length of the house.

The pitched natural slate roof has four chimneys: one cement-dashed chimney to each gable of the main block and one whitewashed cement-rendered chimney to the end gable of each wing, though the right wing chimney has been rebuilt in concrete blocks. Slightly advanced eaves course runs throughout, with moulded stone kneelers to the wings and dressed granite verge to the front pitch of the left wing. The walls are whitewashed and lime-rendered over random rubble, with no rainwater goods.

The principal elevation faces north-west and is centred on a fine painted stone doorcase featuring a broken-bed pediment supported on three-quarter engaged Tuscan columns raised on plinth blocks. The doorcase contains a modern glazed timber door with a radial timber fanlight and is accessed by four granite steps flanked by decorative cast-iron boot scrapers. To each side of the doorcase are two 4/4 exposed box sliding sashes with horns. The first-floor windows comprise five equally spaced openings: those to the left and central bays are 1/1 sliding sashes, whilst those to the right bay are 1/1 top-hung casements. All principal elevation windows have painted reveals and granite cills. The left wing has two modern 1/1 fixed-pane windows; the right wing has a 4/4 sliding sash to the left and a modern timber door to the right. The exposed left gable of the main block is blank. The left gable of the left wing has an advanced chimneybreast at centre and a modern timber casement window to its left with concrete cill.

The rear elevation is abutted to the right by a modern single-storey porch. The left wing has a casement window with cement cill set to the left and a modern panelled timber door to the right. The main block's left bay contains a window to each floor; the ground-floor window has been altered with a cement cill. The centre bay has a window set between each floor, both top-hung casement windows. The right bay has a 2/2 exposed box sliding sash window with horns and no cill to the first floor. The right wing is abutted to the left by the porch; its exposed section is blank, with an advanced chimneybreast to the wing gable. Both the right gable of the main block and the wing gable are blank.

The porch has a monopitched natural slate roof with boxed timber eaves and cement-rendered walls. Its front face has two modern windows, the left wider than the right; the left cheek is blank and the right cheek has a modern glazed timber door.

The house is set back from the road with a small front garden enclosed by a lime-rendered rubble stone wall with fieldstone coping. At the centre stands a pair of square-section whitewashed brick gate piers with cement-rendered pyramidal copings supporting a cast-iron gate, with a short path leading to the front door. The First Valuation book of 1836 recorded the main house measuring 41 feet by 24 feet 6 inches by 18 feet high, with wings measuring 12 feet 6 inches by 24 feet 6 inches by 13 feet and 12 feet by 24 feet 6 inches by 11 feet 6 inches respectively. The servants' quarters were located in the left wing and the kitchen in the right wing. The property's valuation dropped from £10 to £6 in 1894 due to the house being "very much dilapidated". The rear is now occupied by a petrol filling station, which detracts from the building's setting.