Clooneavin, 62 Rostrevor Road, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3RU

Clooneavin is a single-storey house of three bays built over a basement on an elevated site within extensive mature grounds. The property also includes a walled garden, ice house, and farmyard. The house has a U-shaped plan with the base of the U facing south.

The Main House

The house has a hipped natural slate roof with three chimneys, each rendered and corbelled with three octagonal terracotta pots. Two chimneys sit on the west ridge and one on the east ridge. The south elevation features moulded stucco eaves, while the rest of the house has slightly projecting plain eaves. Half-round metal gutters discharge to downpipes on the east and west elevations. The walls are finished in lined cement render and left unpainted.

The front (south) elevation is three bays wide. The left and right bays are semicircular projections with semi-conical natural slate roofs that share the same eaves line and tie into the main roof. Each bow bay contains three curved windows: the central window is tripartite with a 6/6 sash in the middle flanked by 2/2 sashes (all with horns), whilst the side windows each contain 6/6 sashes without horns. All windows have concrete sills.

The central bay contains the main entrance, sheltered by an open trestled canopy positioned between the cheeks of the end bays. This canopy is constructed in iron with a shallow swept lead roof and is three openings wide. All openings are framed by trestled posts with decorative heads and fanned brackets beneath a trestled frieze. The eaves feature decorative crested ironwork. The floor under the canopy has a moulded ashlar granite step and black and red terracotta tiles. The central opening leading to the front door has a slightly higher step with nosed ends, from which rise three moulded granite steps with iron balusters and a swept timber handrail. The door itself comprises a pair of three-panelled stained timber reproduction doors with brass knobs, flanked by full-height sidelights with reproduction leaded glazing. Above is a shallow segmental-headed fanlight with thin radial glazing, and above that an electric light in a metal lantern fixed to the wall.

The west elevation is three bays wide, each containing a window. The left bay is abutted at its left corner by an extension (described below). The window in the left bay is a post-war steel-framed 4/4 top-hung casement window with a glazed aluminium door to the right. The centre bay has a tripartite window with a central 6/6 sash flanked by narrower 4/4 sashes (all with horns). The right bay has a 6/6 sash window without horns.

The small single-storey extension has a hipped natural slate roof aligned west to east with a small cylindrical ridge ventilator. Projecting eaves carry half-round metal rainwater goods, and the walls are lined cement render. The extension's south elevation has two 6/6 sash windows without horns. Its west elevation has a 6/3 sash window to the left, also without horns. The north elevation has two steel-framed casement windows in the middle and a 1/1 top-hung timber window to the left. The east cheek abuts the west elevation of the main house at the left and has a modern door at the left.

The north elevation features a recessed central yard with returns to left and right. Each return and the interior of the yard have assorted flat-roofed post-war extensions, all with steel-framed windows. The end wall of the left return is abutted by a slightly lower hipped-roof return with a blank north wall and a 6/6 sash window without horns on its east wall. A modern flat-roofed boiler house extension sits at the end of the right bay.

The east elevation of the main house is four bays wide, each bay containing a 6/6 sash window without horns. Below the fourth bay from the left is a modern louvred door into the basement, accessed by external concrete steps.

The Setting

The front boundary consists of a rendered wall with gate piers in a curved screen at the west end, with wrought-iron gates. To the west on entry is a small gate lodge which has been much altered and retains no features of interest. The gravel driveway runs north and is tree-lined on the west side. It then branches east to the front of the house and continues north to the farmyard with a second eastward branch to the rear of the house.

The garden to the front of the house slopes south and has mature shrub beds. Between it and the road is a paddock enclosed by a modern timber fence, once part of the garden. The garden to the east of the house is maturely planted and has numerous paved terraces and a small pond.

To the immediate north of the house is a single-storey post-war garage block with a shallow monopitched felted roof, rendered blockwork walls, and three up-and-over garage doors. Immediately to the northwest of this garage is an ice house. Enclosing the north side of the grounds is a paddock with a walled garden to the east and farmyard to the west.

The Ice House

This subterranean chamber is accessed by a flight of steps descending to a short passage on the north side. Its brick segmental vaulted roof has collapsed. The passage continues right through two former doorways into the main chamber, which is rectangular in plan with stone-lined walls and a shallow brick vaulted ceiling. There is a small ventilation opening at the centre.

The Walled Garden

The walled garden to the northeast of the main house has unrendered random rubble stone walls. The site slopes eastwards. It is accessed by a wrought-iron loop-headed gate with a smooth rendered architrave at the left end of the south wall. To the inside of the north wall is a rubble stone outbuilding with a natural slate lean-to roof abutted at the front by modern lean-to sheds. The garden contains numerous vegetable plots and pens for hens. Abutting the external southwest corner of the walled garden is a small lean-to with a natural slate roof and walls of rubble stone with brick dressings to openings.

The Farmyard

This rectangular farmyard lies to the northwest of the main house and is aligned north to south. It is enclosed by outbuildings on all four sides, although those to the west belong to the farmyard of neighbouring Moygannon House. Between the main driveway and the lane up the east outside of the farmyard are modern metal gates supported on a pair of whitewashed square-section one-piece granite posts with pyramidal heads. The right post also supports a small wrought-iron pedestrian gate which closes against a small rendered and painted rubble stone wall.

The farmyard is in two parts, with a smaller roughly square yard at the north end. The main yard is entered through a gateway at the centre of the east elevation. The two gates are of wrought iron with pointed bars and dog-bars, supported on massive posts. The right post is rendered and whitewashed rubble stone with a concrete pyramidal coping. The left post is similar but has been rebuilt in concrete and has no coping. The boundary walls are whitewashed rubble stone.

All the outbuildings are similarly detailed with natural slate roofs, advanced eaves courses carrying half-round metal rainwater goods, and whitewashed rubble stone walls. The principal elevations of all outbuildings face into the courtyard.

On the east side there are two outbuildings, one on either side of the entrance gates. The south outbuilding is a single-storey lean-to with various openings. Its north gable has a pair of tongue-and-groove sheeted doors with a timber lintel. Its yard-facing (west) wall has five openings from left to right: (1) a 2/2 timber sliding sash window without horns and with a slate sill; (2) a tongue-and-groove bead-moulded door; (3) a sash window as before; (4) and (5) two large openings with modern metal mesh gates. The south gable is abutted by a lower lean-to, its exposed section being rendered and blank. The lean-to has a roof and walls matching this block. To the left end of its yard-facing (west) wall is a four-panelled door with a timber architrave. The external (east) elevation is blank.

The outbuilding at the north end of the east side of the yard is a single-storey three-bay lean-to. It has two rendered chimneystacks with terracotta pots on its ridge and a metal skylight on its west pitch. Its south gable and east wall are blank. Its yard-facing (west) elevation has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door on the left and middle bays. Its right bay has a 4/8 sliding sash exposed-box window and a tongue-and-groove sheeted door.

The outbuilding enclosing the south side of the farmyard is a one-and-a-half-storey stable block four bays wide with a hipped natural slate roof. All bays have single doorways at ground floor level. That to the fourth bay has a segmental head and is infilled. At first-floor level the left bay has a metal 2×3 casement window at loft level with a ventilation slot to its right. The second bay also has a similar slit. The third bay has a tongue-and-groove sheeted loading door. The fourth bay has a 2×2 metal casement window. The east gable is blank. The south (external) elevation is blank with ventilation slots at loft level. The west gable abuts a random granite rubble wall which encloses the west side of the farmyard.

The wall enclosing the west side is abutted (roughly at its centre) by an open lean-to with a corrugated metal roof supported on six plain timber posts. The north side of this wall is the wall of a barn in the adjacent farmyard. It extends as a small barn which meets the left gable of the block along the north side of the yard.

The north end of the yard is enclosed by a two-storey three-bay carriage house and labourer's dwelling. All share a pitched roof which cat-slides over the advanced centre bay. There is a metal skylight to the south pitch of the left bay. A rendered and corbelled chimneystack (with a moulded pot as at the house) sits on the party wall between the middle and right bays.

The central and left bays form the carriage house. The left bay has a doorway to the left and a 9/4 exposed-box sliding sash window to its right. Aligned above the latter is a shuttered opening at first-floor level. The advanced centre has blank left and right cheeks. Its front (south) cheek has a pair of tongue-and-groove doors with square louvred panels at the tops.

The right bay is the façade of the labourer's house and has a tongue-and-groove bead-moulded door to the right. To its left is a pair of 2×3 timber side-hung casement windows in a common opening with a rendered granite sill. Aligned above the latter is an exposed-box window frame. The left gable of this block abuts the west wall of this yard.

The rear (north) elevation fronts the smaller north yard and has a small 2/2 window with brick dressings at each floor level of the left bay (house). There is a shuttered opening at ground-floor level in the central bay. Ventilation slats are present in the loft of the central and right bays. To the right end is a segmental-headed niche, enclosed to the yard by a bowed stone wall forming an animal pen. The east gable is blank and abutted by a small lean-to at the right end. Its front (south) gable has a window opening with a timber sill. The north and east sides are blank.

The smaller yard to the rear (north) of the main farmyard is accessed through a segmental-headed brick arch at the left end of its east wall. It is detailed as the previous yard (but with unpainted walls). Its south side is enclosed by the north block of the main yard. Its west side is enclosed by the stone boundary wall with the adjacent property. Its north boundary is enclosed by a single-storey four-bay rubble stone outbuilding with a lean-to natural slate roof. Each bay has a doorway and animal pen to the front. The east boundary is a blank rubble stone wall with the ghost of a previous lean-to on the inside face.