Signalman's house, potato shed and small waiting room at Ballyward railway station, Station Road, Ballyward, Castlewellan, Co Down, BT31 9TU

Collection of buildings dating to around 1906, originally belonging to Ballyward Railway Station. The group is situated north of Station Road, roughly 5 miles northeast of Castlewellan.

Signalman's house

The former signalman's house is relatively small and plain, with a gabled roof, roughcast façade and small porch. It originally matched the former stationmaster's house to the west, but has been substantially modernised in recent years with a large rear extension, modern top-hung windows throughout, and a large flat-roofed garage built against the east side.

The façade is finished in roughcast render with in-out quoins and a sill course. The gabled roof is covered in fibre cement slates and has an overhang with plain barges and boxed-in eaves and verge. A plain rendered chimneystack sits west of centre on the main roof ridge. The rainwater goods appear to be PVC.

The front elevation faces south and is asymmetrical. To the right of centre is a small gabled porch with a slated overhanging roof with plain barges. The west face of the porch carries a panelled and glazed door set within a segmental arched recess. The south gabled face of the porch has a window opening with segmental arch head and modern frame. The east face of the porch is blank. To the left of the porch on the main façade are two windows. The west and east gables are blank. The right-hand edge of the east gable is abutted by the modern flat-roofed garage. The rear elevation could not be fully inspected; the original gabled projection appears either to have been demolished or enlarged.

Potato shed

To the east of the house stands a large single-storey timber-built structure believed to have originally been a potato shed, with a curved Belfast truss roof. The curved roof is covered in corrugated iron and has an overhang with boxed-in eaves. The long north elevation has three large timber-sheeted double doors. The short east elevation is blank.

On the west elevation, a timber-sheeted pedestrian door sits at the left-hand end with a small adjoining window with security bars over. The shed measures approximately 18 metres by 7.8 metres. Adjoining the left-hand side of the south elevation is what appears to be a cattle or sheep run and pen with concrete posts and metal rails, suggesting the shed was used latterly for livestock. To the centre of the south elevation is a pedestrian door, with two high-level window openings with timber shutters to its right.

Small waiting room to north

To the northeast of the shed, north of the north platform, stands a very small single-storey building with a mono-pitched roof, constructed in brick and probably originally a waiting room (the former main waiting room and ticket office is on the south platform).

The roof has a shallow mono-pitch, though its covering could not be established. The symmetrical south elevation has a central timber-sheeted door, which does not appear original, with boarded sidelight and fanlight areas. To the left of the doorway is a two-light window with curved corners to each light; an identical window stands to the right. Both windows are now dilapidated and partly boarded over. The doorway and windows share the same continuous concrete lintel. The short west face has a small narrow central single-light window, partly boarded over. The east and rear elevations are blank.

The façade is constructed in red brick with a concrete coping.