46-48 Fair Road, Greencastle, Kilkeel, Newry, BT34 4LS

A modest pair of beach-front dwellings at Greencastle, Kilkeel, now extensively altered and retaining little of special architectural or historic interest.

The buildings are a pair of one-and-a-half storey semidetached houses, aligned north-west to south-east on the coast at the end of Fair Road. Both have south-west beach-facing facades. Number 46 (left of pair) is two bays wide and longer than Number 48 (right of pair), which is three bays wide, with the third bay on the right being a single-storey extension.

Number 46 has a pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge and tiled verges. To each bay on the front pitch are single gabled natural slated wall-head dormers with plain timber bargeboards and decorative finials. There are two coped smooth render chimneys without pots, one on the left gable and one on the party wall between the first and second bays. The walls are whitewashed uneven lime render over random rubble. Each bay has a single window to the ground floor. At first floor, each has a similar window set into a gabled dormer, diminished in height and width with a glazed triangular transom over each, roughly in line with the ground floor windows. Windows are single-paned fixed lights with painted concrete cills. Semicircular metal rainwater goods are present. A porch abuts the extreme right end of the facade, with a pitched natural slate roof, plain bargeboard to its gabled front, and walls matching the facade. The left and right cheeks of the porch are blank, with a modern tongue-and-groove replacement timber half door to the front. The apex of each gable dormer is also glazed. The left gable is blank and the right forms a party wall with the adjacent property. The rear wall matches the facade and is abutted at the left by a single-storey modern extension. At first floor of the main block are two small two-over-two sliding sash windows, one to each bay just below the eaves. The extension has an almost flat corrugated asbestos roof, painted render walls, and three windows on its rear wall; the right one is a two-over-two sliding sash and the others are modern top-hung timber. Its left cheek is abutted by a modern glazed timber porch and its right is blank.

Number 48 has a pitched natural slate roof with two smooth rendered chimneys without pots, one to the left on the party wall with Number 46 and the other to the right gable. Two gabled wall-head dormers to the facade, each with decorative bargeboard and timber finial. Semicircular plastic rainwater goods are present. The walls are whitewashed uneven lime rendered over random rubble. The main block is two bays with a porch abutting the left side of the right bay. The porch has a pitched rendered roof with replacement decorative bargeboard to its front gable. Both cheeks of the porch are blank. A modern glazed painted plywood door is present with painted granite blocks to the base of its frame. All windows are one-over-one exposed box sliding sashes with horns and painted concrete cills. One window is present to each bay at ground floor, and two in dormers to first floor, in line with ground floor windows but diminished in height and width. The left gable forms a party wall with Number 46. The right is abutted by a single-storey annex with a blank wall above. The annex has a pitched artificial slate roof with plastic rainwater goods. Its walls match the facade, with a tongue-and-groove sheeted door to the left and a one-over-one sliding sash with narrow painted concrete cill to the right. The front wall continues to the right enclosing a yard and has a sheeted door. The right cheek of the extension is blank and is enclosed by the yard, which has a corrugated plastic roof. Its rear wall has a single fixed window with top opening transom. The rear elevation of the main block has no rainwater goods. There are no ground floor openings and two two-over-two sliding sashes to first floor, one to each bay.

Both houses share a common drive with small gardens falling to the beach head, enclosed by painted rubble walls. The front garden of Number 48 has a cast iron water pump with a flag logo and no handle or cap. Number 48 also has a whitewashed outbuilding to its front drive. To the rear, each house has a large garden, with Number 46 having a range of single-storey outhouses fronting the shared rear lane.

The buildings are shown at this location on the 1834 Ordnance Survey six-inch map and were occupied by Mr James Clarke in 1835. They date from between 1820 and 1839.