Watch House, opposite 87 Cranfield Point Road, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4LJ

Watch House

This utilitarian coastguard lookout station stands prominently on the coast near Kilkeel, facing south-east opposite 87 Cranfield Point Road. Built in the early 20th century, it operated as a relay station between Kilkeel Coastguard and Bangor headquarters on a part-time basis until decommissioning around 1990.

The structure is a three-storey building of painted smooth render, with a single room on each floor accessed by external steps. The ground floor is three-quarters height. An overhanging cast in-situ concrete roof, very slightly pitched to the rear, drains through a cast iron downpipe. The entire second floor sits on a similar roof structure, suggesting the building may originally have been single storey before a second floor was added in the 1960s.

The sea-facing front elevation is partially abutted at ground floor and lower first floor level by a World War Two pillbox of red brick, 200 millimetres deep, formerly whitewashed and topped with cast in-situ concrete. This pillbox features single precast concrete gun-loops on its front and left cheek.

At first floor, a single fixed metal window with top hung transom and concrete cill punctuates the front. Between first and second floors, a cantilevered concrete viewing platform extends around the left and right sides at a level above the sloping roof, enclosed by tubular metal railings. The second floor is dominated by a three-paned timber window with a small opening casement in the bottom of the central pane, allowing verbal communication with the viewing platform.

The right elevation contains the main entrance sequence. Seven concrete steps rise from the right corner to a platform serving a first floor door (slightly right of centre), which is tongue-and-groove sheeted with a small fixed metal window with top hung transom to its left. From this platform, further steps lead upward, supported on the left by the pillbox brickwork. A metal ladder then rises onto the pillbox roof, and from there a metal ladder with timber treads accesses the second floor viewing platform. At second floor, a glazed plywood door aligns with the floor below, with a two-paned timber window to its left (the left pane contains three small openings for verbal communication).

The left elevation is abutted at ground floor right by a small lean-to structure with corrugated asbestos roof and brick wall (matching the pillbox). Its doorway is now boarded over. On the main block at ground level stands a boarded window with moulded render hood. At first floor, a fixed metal window with top hung transom is visible, alongside a two-paned timber window with small opening pane to the right, part of the wrap-around viewing system.

The rear elevation is largely blank except for a boarded small door at ground floor with moulded render hood.

The pillbox's right elevation now contains a doorway (formerly likely matching the left), accessed through an opening on its rear right below the main step to the first floor platform. This opening was originally a small timber-framed porch, now gone but traceable from remaining frame elements.

Few such coastguard lookout structures survive in the province. However, its comparatively recent date and limited architectural and historic interest do not merit formal listing, though the building retains industrial archaeological interest.