34 Kilbroney Road, Rostrevor, Newry, BT34 3BJ

A small, low two-storey semi-detached house dating from around 1861, located on the eastern side of Kilbroney Road on the northern outskirts of Rostrevor, approximately 900 metres north-east of the village centre. The building is broadly vernacular in appearance with relatively uniform fenestration and represents a rare surviving example of original semi-detached vernacular dwelling, largely intact both externally and internally. Its historic character contributes significantly to the approach into the Rostrevor Conservation Area.

The house sits on a substantial plot with a large garden or field to the south and a smaller front garden bounded by a low timber picket fence. The attached property to the north, presumably originally similar, has undergone considerable modern alteration and now presents a contrasting appearance.

The front elevation is three openings wide at ground floor level, with a slightly left-of-centre entrance featuring a timber-sheeted door, flanked by windows with timber sash frames of six over six panes set within broad boxes. Above these are two smaller upper-level windows with two over two timber sash frames, each set within small quarter gabled dormers with timber bargeboards. The window to the left is surrounded by a convoluted downspout arrangement and has lost a section of bargeboard. The south elevation presents a blank gable to the right, with the single-storey return to the left and a small outside toilet extension set further back. The return has a right-of-centre window with a modern timber frame, and the toilet features a timber-sheeted door. The rear (west) elevation of the main body has two ground-floor windows matching those on the front, with a much smaller upper-level window to the right set close to the eaves, fitted with a timber casement frame. The rear end of the return and toilet sit to the right, with timber-sheeted doors and a doorway on the return. The north elevation consists only of the return, which has a window matching the south side.

The façade of the main section is finished largely in limewash. The return is partly cement rendered, whilst the toilet is roughcast with limewashed finish. The main roof is gabled and slated, with some slates covered in pitch, and features a single rendered chimneystack. The return has a shallow single-pitch roof covered in asphalt with timber fascia boards. The toilet extension has a single-pitch roof covered in corrugated plastic. Rainwater goods are cast iron and painted. Windows comprise timber sliding sash multi-pane frames as described to the front elevation, with casement and modern timber replacement frames to the rear.

A date stone in the lobby inscribed 'JS 1861' indicates the most likely construction date, though the building was first formally recorded in valuation books in 1874 alongside its similarly sized neighbour. The first recorded occupant was Bernard McCreanor, followed by a succession of residents including John Millar (1887), Elizabeth Reid (circa 1890), Patrick Breen (1893), Agnes Trainor (circa 1900), John Parr (1903), John Martin (1909), Daniel Fearon (1914), Hugh McAleavey (1915), Samuel Martin (1917), John Martin Junior (1919), Anne Mullery (1920), and Elizabeth Parr (1924). The house remained in possession of the Parr family until approximately 2015. The 1901 census records Agnes Trainor, a 52-year-old widow, living alone in a second-class dwelling with four rooms in use. The 1911 census lists John Martin, a 70-year-old farmer, as householder, living here with his son and daughter-in-law Robert and Annie Martin, and grandson George Lynas.

The building appears to have been little altered over the years, apart from the return which map evidence suggests was enlarged at some point in the mid-twentieth century. The single-storey return appears to have been modified in the mid to later twentieth century.

Rostrevor itself is situated between the Rostrevor and Ghann Rivers at the junction of Kilbroney Valley and Carlingford Lough. Christian settlement in the area dates to the sixth century with the establishment of a religious community by Saint Bronach, who gave her name to the local parish of Kilbroney. The name Rostrevor first appears in 1618; prior to the seventeenth century the settlement was known as Castle Rory or Castle Roe after Rory Magennis who built a castle there, and before that as Carrickavraghard, possibly owing to associations with malting or brewing. In 1752 the village consisted of only a few cottages. The earliest settlement as it is known today centred on Water Street, which comprised an hotel and inn alongside dwellings for local residents. By the start of the nineteenth century, it had developed much of its present form with a tree-lined square and a quay half a mile distant. On account of its pleasant climate and scenic environment, Rostrevor had become a fashionable resort by the early nineteenth century, as evidenced by the number of large houses in spacious grounds in the village vicinity. A steady population growth occurred in the late nineteenth century, partly resulting from the arrival of the tramway from Warrenpoint in 1876 and the building of the Rostrevor Hotel in 1876. The site is shown undeveloped on the Ordnance Survey map of 1859, with both the present house and its attached neighbour shown by 1901-02. In the valuation of circa 1861, the wider plot contained four dwellings, at least two of which appear on the 1859 map; the remaining two cannot be easily accounted for and may have been built between 1859 and 1862, though it appears more likely that the present number 34 and its similarly sized attached neighbour are the two dwellings of the same rateable value first recorded in the valuation book within this plot in 1874.