15 McCartan's Rd, Castlewellan, Co Down, BT31 9BE

A terrace of four two-storey, single-bay houses built in the early 1870s in Castlewellan, erected to accommodate workers from a nearby flax scutching mill. The houses are constructed of random rubble granite with pitched natural slate roofs and flat granite lintels above all openings. The terrace is arranged in two pairs of blocks, stepped down the hillside, aligned north-south at right angles to McCartan's Road. Each house is a mirror image within its block, with a door and window to the ground floor and a window to the first floor on the principal east-facing elevation. The west elevation and south gable contain no openings.

The buildings have been substantially altered. The original timber doors have been replaced with metal sheeted ones, and windows are without sills. On the southern block, all window openings have been infilled with concrete blockwork or covered with corrugated plastic sheeting. On the northern block, the original windows have been replaced with modern metal-framed frames. The roofs show missing ridge tiles and slates, and rainwater goods are largely absent except for a vestige of a cast-metal downpipe on the east elevation. Chimneys are missing from several expected locations, including the shared gable between the two houses of the southern block and the south gable of the southernmost house. An overgrown rendered chimney survives on the north gable of the northern block's western house, while a brick chimney flue is visible on the north gable of the southern block, with the apex repaired in concrete blockwork. Lime render survives partially on the walls and fully on the west elevation, though the building is increasingly overgrown with vegetation, particularly ivy on the north gable of the northern block.

First recorded in the 1872 Valuation book under ownership of Michael McCartan, the houses were built to house workers from his adjacent scutch mill. Each property held a rateable valuation of £1 10 shillings. The terrace appears on the 1901 Ordnance Survey map. Successive tenants occupied the houses through ownership by the McCartans and later the McAnulty family. Although the scutch mill ceased operation by the mid-1930s, the houses remained occupied until gradually being vacated during the 1940s and 1950s.

The yard to the front of the terrace is now overgrown and enclosed by a high concrete block wall to the north and east, with modern steps giving access to the road on the south side. A modern single-storey toilet block with a monopitched corrugated metal roof and concrete block walls stands within the yard. The site is surrounded by open fields to the north, east, and west, with a public road running along the south side. The associated flax mill lies a short distance to the east.