53 Benagh Road, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4LT

53 Benagh Road, Kilkeel is a vernacular house with outbuildings dating to the early 19th century (1820–1839). It stands as a good example of its type, little altered, with attractive setting and group value.

The main house is one and a half storeys over two bays, positioned up a lane on the east side of Benagh Road. It has a pitched natural slate roof with small, thick slates, an iron skylight to the rear pitch, clay ridge tiles, and a cement-coped verge. Dashed corbelled brick chimneys rise from each gable. The walls are harled and whitewashed rubble stone, tarred at the base. Projecting eaves support half-round metal gutters.

The principal elevation faces north into the yard. The main entrance is at the left side of the right bay, set in a projecting gabled porch with a natural slate roof, slate flashing detail, and mortared verge; the porch has no rainwater goods and blank cheeks. The sheeted front door comprises four wide planks, each with a central bead. Set to the left of the right bay of the main block is a 6/6 partially exposed-box sliding sash window with a painted stone cill; a similar window is centred on the left bay. The right gable is blank at ground floor and has two 2/2 exposed-box sliding sash windows to the first-floor gable. Abutting this gable at left is a square stone-built pier with a domed cap from which hangs a traditional flat iron gate.

The rear elevation of the main block is abutted at left by a modern kitchen extension with a shallow monopitch asbestos-slated roof, smooth rendered walls, and a steel casement window on its rear wall. The extension's right cheek is blank and its left cheek has a 1930s-style partly glazed door. To the right of the extension is a buttress to the rear wall of the main block, beyond which is a low 6/3 exposed-box sash window.

The left gable is abutted by a single-storey wing with a natural slate roof (slates thinner and larger than those on the main block) and a red brick chimney on the end gable. The wing's walls are harled and whitewashed. Its gable has a 2/2 exposed-box sash window, and its rear wall has a 2/2 sash window. A small outbuilding abuts the front wall of this wing.

A single-storey outbuilding abuts at right angles to the front of this block, with a pitched natural slate roof, a sheeted door on its west face, and no other openings.

To the east of the house stands a small domestic water pump.

The outbuildings comprise two principal structures. Opposite the house, across the yard, is a single long storey outbuilding with a pitched natural slate roof (asbestos at the west end) and no rainwater goods. The walls are harled and whitewashed with a tarred base. The front wall has five openings from left to right: a sheeted half door, a small vent with cill, a sheeted half door, a double-leaf door, and a single door. On the left corner are a pair of metal gates linking to a second outbuilding. The left gable has a pair of corrugated iron doors. The rear wall is unpainted granite rubble without openings, against which is a concrete-block lean-to with an open corrugated tin roof shelter. The right gable is blank.

The second outbuilding is a byre with hayloft over at the west end of the yard, one and a half storeys over two bays, positioned at right angles to the first. It has a pitched natural slate roof with no gutters, though brackets remain. The walls are roughly dressed squared granite, snecked and laid in courses. The east face (to the yard) is the front, with openings from left to right: a sheeted half door, a vent, and a second similar door. The left gable has a painted sheeted timber loading door to the upper floor. The rear elevation has two small low openings, with the left-hand one infilled. The right gable has a flight of smooth cement-rendered steps leading to a door in the gable. Abutting the ground floor right of these steps is a small outhouse with a corrugated monopitched roof and cement-rendered walls, featuring a door on its left cheek and a four-paned window on its right cheek; the front wall is blank.

A building and outhouses are recorded at this location on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map and may have been associated with the nearby Benagh House.