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

53 Benagh Road, Kilkeel

A one and a half storey, two-bay vernacular house situated up a lane on the east side of Benagh Road, with associated outbuildings arranged around a yard.

The main house has a pitched natural slate roof with small, thick slates, an iron skylight on the rear pitch, clay ridge tiles and cement coped verge. Dashed corbelled brick chimneys rise from each gable end. Projecting eaves support half-round metal gutters. The walls are harled and whitewashed rubble stone, tarred at the base.

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

The rear elevation of the main block is abutted at its left by a modern single-storey 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 main block's rear wall, beyond which is a low 6/3 exposed-box sash window.

A single-storey wing abuts the left gable, over which, in the gable itself, is a partially exposed-box 2/2 sliding sash window offset towards the front. This wing has a natural slate roof with slates thinner and larger than those on the main block, and a red brick chimney on its end gable. Its walls are harled and whitewashed. The wing's 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 at right angles, 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 first outbuilding, positioned opposite the house across the yard, is a single-storey structure with a pitched natural slate roof (asbestos at the west end) and no rainwater goods. Its harled and whitewashed walls are tarred at the base. The front wall contains 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. A pair of metal gates at the left corner connects to a second outbuilding. The left gable contains a pair of corrugated iron doors. The rear wall is unpainted granite rubble without openings, against which stands 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, positioned at the west end of the yard and at right angles to the first. It is one and a half storeys over two bays, with a pitched natural slate roof and no gutters, although brackets remain. The walls are roughly dressed squared granite, snecked and laid in courses. The east-facing elevation (the front to the yard) contains, 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, the left-hand one infilled. The right gable features a flight of smooth cement-rendered steps leading to a door in the gable. A small outhouse with corrugated monopitched roof and cement-rendered walls abuts the ground floor to the right of these steps, with a door on its left cheek, a four-paned window on its right cheek, and a blank front wall.