St Columban’s College (RC), 127 Newcastle Rd, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4NJ

St Columban’s College is a post-war school building constructed between 1940 and 1959. The design blends elements of pre-war Moderne and post-war Festival of Britain styles, exhibiting long horizontal lines, continuous bands of glazing, and interlocking rectangular forms. It is a U-shaped, two-storey building with a flat roof, facing south east, and includes a squat tower with a chimneystack, along with two lower blocks to the rear.

The south east elevation is principally brick with concrete window surrounds, parapet copings, and dressings. A central entrance is flanked by two flat-roofed, single-storey office returns with semicircular ends and continuous bands of uPVC windows. Below the first-floor windows are ground-floor continuous bands of uPVC windows which terminate in 1.5-storey brick blocks, originally housing pupil entrances, now windows. The first floor features a continuous band of dressed uPVC windows, with overhanging concrete copings to the parapet above. A squat brick tower, complete with a concrete parapet coping, rises one storey behind the main block. In front of the tower, flanked by two small metal-framed windows, is a tall rectangular brick chimney, featuring a modern clock and concrete coping, which rises perpendicular to the façade. The rear blocks are similar in design, but feature metal windows and simpler detailing. The original thin-framed metal windows along the façade have been replaced with broader uPVC frames of a different glazing pattern, which has negatively impacted the building’s character. The school is located within the Maghereagh townland.