Former St Louis Convent House, 151 Newry Road, Kilkeel, Newry, BT34 4ET

Former St Louis Convent House

This is a much-extended three-bay, three-storey symmetrical house with Gothic detailing, set in mature grounds. It resulted from the remodelling of an existing country house as a convent in the 1920s.

The roofs are pitched and naturally slated with crested ridges and coped parapet verges. Four main chimney stacks in two stages—two to each end bay—are all rendered with moulded caps.

South Façade

The south-facing façade is three bays wide. The middle bay has a crenellated parapet, while the flanking bays are gabled with raised copings, moulded kneelers, and a cross finial at the apex of each. The elevations of the flanking bays have projecting eaves courses supporting ogee cast iron gutters. The walls are painted lined render throughout.

A large, single-storey porch—out of scale—abuts the central bay of the main elevation. It has a flat roof concealed by a crenellated parapet with walls matching the main block and a moulded eaves cornice. Two-stage corner buttresses flank it. The entrance is on its left (west) cheek and comprises a pair of three-panelled painted timber doors. The porch's front (south) wall has a pair of leaded stained glass windows separated by a masonry mullion. Its right (east) cheek is abutted by a lean-to timber-framed and partially glazed extension with a mono-pitched asbestos tiled roof, possibly of inter-war 20th-century date.

The porch is flanked by a window in the left and right bays. The upper floors each have three windows, one to each bay. Ground and first-floor windows are exposed-box 6/6 sliding sashes with painted render cills, except the ground-floor right window, which has been replaced by a modern stained timber bow window in an enlarged opening. Second-floor windows are 6/6 (boxes not exposed) with slightly diminished height and narrower proportions. Those to left and right bays have Gothic-headed hood moulds containing tympanum panels of blind tracery. A blind lancet niche exists to each gable apex. The change in window details suggests the second floor is a later addition.

West Elevation

The left (west) elevation is three bays wide with an advanced and gabled middle bay. This extended section has a pitched natural slate roof tied into the main roof and has a pair of three-stage buttresses to each end. At ground floor on the gable end of the middle bay is a 6/6 sliding sash. At first floor is a pair of 2/2 sashes. Above is a pair of 2/2 sashes with a traceried tympanum in the gable above (as on the façade). All these reveals have chamfered arrises. The cheeks of this advanced bay are blank.

The right bay of this elevation has a 6/6 sliding sash on each floor (boxes exposed to ground and first floors). The left bay has two smaller but similar 6/6 windows to each floor (but no exposed boxes).

North Elevation

The rear (north) elevation of the main block has, like the front, two gables flanking a crenellated central bay. The two gables are not in line. A modern boiler flue is fixed to the right cheek of a three-storey return abutting the east elevation at left. Windows are sliding sashes, but boxes are not exposed.

Abutting the centre of the ground floor is a timber-framed and clad one-storey classroom linking with the school building. The left and middle bays each have a 4/4 sliding sash to the first floor and a 6/6 sash to the second floor. The right bay has two 6/6 sliding sashes to each of its three floors.

East Elevation

The right (east) elevation is abutted at left by a two-storey return and at right by a three-storey return. The exposed section of wall between the two returns is abutted by a one-storey infill block. The infill has a pair of 2/2 sliding sash windows to its front face. To the first floor of the main block is a modern door opening out to the roof of the infill; to the second floor is a 6/6 sliding sash. Above the left return roof at this level is a 6/6 sliding sash.

The left-hand return has a natural slate roof hipped at both ends; a gable rises from its east end. Walls are painted, lined, and rendered with moulded eaves cornice. Its left cheek is set back slightly from the line of the principal elevation of the main block. On this elevation are three 6/6 sliding sashes to the ground floor. To the first floor are three openings, each containing a pair of 2/2 sliding sashes. Its east gable is symmetrical with a slightly advanced middle section. At ground floor right is a sheeted service door. At first floor centre is a 4/4 sliding sash window. To the right of this are two 6/6 sliding sashes. At first floor are three pairs of 2/2 sliding sashes.

The three-storey return at right has a pitched slate roof. Its east gable has, to ground floor, two doors and a 2/2 sliding sash window at right. The first floor has two 2/2 sliding sashes at centre. A modern window and fire escape occupy the second floor middle, with the fire escape descending right. A 1/1 sliding sash lancet window exists to the gable apex. Its left cheek is abutted at ground floor left by the infill block. Various windows exist to the first and second floors.

Setting

The rear of the school detracts from the setting of this house. To the north-west is a large motte (Dunavan Fort) planted with trees, and to the east-south-east (beyond the school) is an associated rath. Early 19th-century tree planting survives on ground that falls away to the south and west of the house. Some smaller-scale landscaping introduced by the nuns includes a Marian grotto on a raised site to the south-east of the house.