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

Clooneavin is an attractive early 19th-century single-storey house over a basement, set within extensive mature grounds on an elevated site facing the sea on Rostrevor Road, Warrenpoint. It was built around 1810, reputedly by a Mr Moore of Arno's Vale, and first appears on the 1834 Ordnance Survey six-inch map under the name 'Richmond', together with its farmyard and cruciform gate lodge. By the 1859 Ordnance Survey it is recorded as 'Clooneavin'. The 1835 First Valuation book records the house as occupied by a Mrs Brownlow and describes it as measuring 60 feet by 42 feet 6 inches by 12 feet 6 inches, with two wings each 17 feet 6 inches by 19 feet 6 inches by 12 feet 6 inches, with basements throughout, and an 18 feet by 10 feet by 9 feet return. The 1861 Valuation describes it as a "very nice villa with good basement and beautiful view from front." The plan form of this house and the neighbouring Moygannon House are believed to be unique to this area, with a very similar property, Templegowran, located to the north-east of Newry and built at around the same time.

The house is three bays wide on its south-facing front elevation and is U-planned, with the base of the U facing south. The roof is hipped natural slate, carrying three rendered and corbelled chimneys, each fitted with three octagonal terracotta pots — two on the west ridge and one on the east ridge. The eaves are finished with a moulded stucco cornice to the south elevation and slightly advanced plain eaves elsewhere. Half-round metal gutters drain to downpipes on the east and west elevations. The walls are finished in lined cement render, unpainted.

The left and right bays of the south elevation are semicircular projections with semi-conical natural slate roofs sharing the same eaves as the main roof and tied into it. Each bow bay contains three curved windows: the front window is tripartite, with a central 6-over-6 sash flanked by 2-over-2 sashes, all with horns; the side windows are 6-over-6 sashes without horns. All windows have concrete cills.

The central bay houses the main entrance, sheltered beneath an open trestle canopy positioned between the cheeks of the two bow bays. This canopy is constructed in iron with a shallow swept lead roof, three openings wide, each framed by trestle posts with decorative heads and fanned brackets below a trestle frieze, with decorative crested ironwork along the eaves. The floor beneath the canopy is laid with a moulded ashlar granite step and black and red terracotta tiles. The central opening leads to the front door via a slightly raised step with nosed ends, from which rise three moulded granite steps with iron balusters and a swept timber handrail. The front door is 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 has a post-war steel-framed 4-over-4 top-hung casement window with a glazed aluminium door to its right. The centre bay has a tripartite window with a central 6-over-6 sash flanked by narrower 4-over-4 sashes, all with horns. The right bay has a 6-over-6 sash window without horns. A small single-storey extension abuts the left corner of this elevation, with a hipped natural slate roof aligned west to east, a small cylindrical ridge ventilator, projecting eaves with half-round metal rainwater goods, and party-lined cement rendered walls. Its south elevation has two 6-over-6 sash windows without horns. Its west elevation has a 6-over-3 sash window without horns to the left. Its north elevation has two steel-framed casement windows in the middle and a 1-over-1 top-hung timber window to the left. Its east cheek abuts the west elevation of the main house and has a modern door.

The north elevation has a recessed central yard with returns to left and right, each containing assorted flat-roofed post-war extensions fitted 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-over-6 sash window without horns on its east wall. A modern flat-roofed boiler house extension is attached to the end of the right bay.

The east elevation is four bays wide, each containing a 6-over-6 sash window without horns. Below the fourth bay from the left, a modern louvred door gives access to the basement via external concrete steps.

The front boundary to the south is a rendered wall with gate piers set in a curved screen at the west end, with wrought-iron gates. A small gate lodge sits to the west of the entrance; this has been much altered and retains no features of interest. A gravel driveway runs north, tree-lined on its west side, before branching east to the front of the house and continuing 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 contains mature shrub beds; between the garden and the road is a paddock enclosed by a modern timber fence. The garden to the east of the house is maturely planted with numerous paved terraces and a small pond. Immediately to the 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.

The grounds to the north contain an icehouse, a walled garden to the east, and a farmyard to the west.

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

The walled garden lies to the north-east of the main house. Its walls are of unrendered random rubble stone, and the site slopes eastwards. Access is through a wrought-iron loop-headed gate with a smooth rendered architrave, set at the left end of the south wall. Inside, a rubble stone outbuilding with a natural slate lean-to roof stands against the north wall, with modern lean-to sheds abutting its front. The garden contains vegetable plots and hen pens. Abutting the external south-west corner of the walled garden is a small lean-to with a natural slate roof and rubble stone walls with brick dressings to its openings.

The farmyard is a rectangular enclosure to the north-west of the main house, aligned north to south, enclosed by outbuildings on all four sides — though those to the west belong to the farmyard of the neighbouring Moygannon House. Between the main driveway and the lane running up the east side of the farmyard stand a pair of whitewashed, square-section one-piece granite gate posts with pyramidal heads, supporting modern metal gates. The right post also carries a small wrought-iron pedestrian gate closing against a small rendered and painted rubble stone wall. The farmyard divides into two parts: a smaller, roughly square yard to the north end and the main yard to the south.

The main yard is entered through a gateway in the centre of the east elevation. The two wrought-iron gates have pointed bars and dog-bars, hung on massive posts — the right-hand post being rendered and whitewashed rubble stone with a concrete pyramidal coping; the left-hand post similar but rebuilt in concrete without coping. The boundary walls are of whitewashed rubble stone. All outbuildings within the farmyard share the same character: natural slate roofs with advanced eaves courses carrying half-round metal rainwater goods and whitewashed rubble stone walls, with their principal elevations facing into the yard.

On the east side of the yard are two outbuildings, one on each side of the entrance gates. The southern outbuilding is a single-storey lean-to with various openings. Its north gable has a pair of tongued-and-grooved sheeted doors with a timber lintel. Its yard-facing west wall has five openings from left: a 2-over-2 timber sliding sash window without horns with a slate cill; a tongued-and-grooved bead-moulded door; another matching sash window; and two large openings fitted with modern metal mesh gates. The south gable is abutted by a lower lean-to, its exposed section rendered and blank, with a four-panelled door with timber architrave at the left end of its yard-facing west wall. The external east elevation is blank.

The outbuilding at the north end of the east side is a single-storey, three-bay lean-to with two rendered chimneystacks carrying 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 tongued-and-grooved sheeted doors to the left and centre bays; the right bay has a 4-over-8 sliding sash with an exposed box-frame window and a tongued-and-grooved sheeted door.

The south side of the farmyard is enclosed by 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; that to the fourth bay has a segmental head and is infilled. At first-floor level, the left bay has a metal 2-by-3 casement window at loft level with a ventilation slot to its right; the second bay also has a similar slot; the third bay has a tongued-and-grooved sheeted loading door; and the fourth bay has a 2-by-2 metal casement window. The east gable is blank. The south external elevation is blank with ventilation slots to loft level. The west gable abuts a random granite rubble wall enclosing the west side of the farmyard, which is further abutted at roughly 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 shared with the adjacent Moygannon House farmyard and extends as a small barn meeting the left gable of the block along the north side of the yard.

The north end of the farmyard is enclosed by a two-storey, three-bay carriage house and labourer's dwelling sharing a pitched roof that cat-slides over the advanced centre bay. There is a metal skylight to the south pitch of the left bay and a rendered and corbelled chimneystack with a moulded pot matching those on the main house on the party wall between the middle and right bays. The left and central bays form the carriage house. The left bay has a doorway to the left and a 9-over-4 exposed box sliding sash window to the right, with a shuttered first-floor opening above. The advanced centre bay has blank left and right cheeks; its south face has a pair of tongued-and-grooved doors with square louvred panels at the top. The right bay is the façade of the labourer's house, with a tongued-and-grooved bead-moulded door to the right and a pair of 2-by-3 timber side-hung casement windows in a common opening with a rendered granite cill to the left, with an exposed box-frame window above. The left gable of this block abuts the west wall of the yard.

The rear north elevation of this block faces the smaller north yard and has a small 2-over-2 window with brick dressings to each floor of the left bay (the house portion), a shuttered opening to the ground floor of the central bay, and ventilation slats to the lofts of the central and right bays. At 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 is abutted at its right end by a small lean-to. The lean-to's south face has a window opening with a timber cill; its north and east sides are blank.

The smaller yard to the rear, to the north of the main farmyard, is accessed through a segmental-headed brick arch at the left end of its east wall. It is detailed similarly to the main yard but with unpainted walls. Its south side is enclosed by the north block of the main yard; its west side by the stone boundary wall with the adjacent property. The north boundary is a single-storey, four-bay rubble stone outbuilding with a lean-to natural slate roof, each bay having a doorway and animal pen to the front. The east boundary is a blank rubble stone wall, which retains on its inside face the ghost of a previous lean-to. The northern extension to the farmyard is first shown on the 1901–02 Ordnance Survey map, indicating a later 19th-century construction date.