53 Fathom Line, Newry, Co Armagh, BT35 8QN

This is a two-story, three-bay house located on the west side of Fathom Line, aligned roughly north-south. The house was likely constructed between 1860 and 1879 and is a private residence. It has undergone considerable alteration and retains few original features.

The roof is pitched with natural slate and features a brick chimney on the left gable. The eaves are smooth, rendered, and painted, with half-round plastic rainwater goods. The walls are cement-dashed and painted, with a smooth rendered and painted basecourse. Two platbands are present – one below the eaves and the other at the sill level of the first floor, with the corners also smooth rendered. The principal elevation faces east and features modern top-hung timber casement windows with smooth rendered and painted architraves and cills. Each bay has a window on each floor, all equally aligned; the window to the ground floor on the right bay is landscape format. A modern glazed timber door with a matching sidelight is positioned to the right of the middle window. The left and right gables are blank. The right gable is abutted by a single-story, flat-roofed addition, which is considered to be of no particular interest. A two-story extension with a flat roof, rising above the eaves of the main block, abuts the left and middle bays of the rear elevation, matching the detailing of the main house. The exposed right bay of the main block has a window on the ground floor.

The property sits within a small front garden enclosed by a cement-rendered wall with square-in-section gate piers supporting modern cast-iron gates. To the rear, the garden rises steeply with the natural slope of the hill.

A building is shown at this location on the 1835 Ordnance Survey map, described as a small, one-story structure with a valuation of only £1 in 1862. The rateable value increased to £2.5s.0d by 1877 and remained unchanged afterward, suggesting the house was likely raised to its present two-story form around that time.