173 South Promenade ('Widows' Row'), Newcastle, Ballaghbeg, Co Down, BT33 0HA

173 South Promenade is a small, picturesque two-storey house forming part of 'Widows' Row', a terrace of 12 dwellings built in 1843 on the south-west side of South Promenade at the southern end of Newcastle, County Down. The house is positioned in the middle of the terrace.

The terrace was constructed following a devastating fishing disaster in January 1843 when a fierce storm claimed the lives of 46 Newcastle fishermen. This tragedy left behind 27 widows, 118 orphans and 21 dependants. An appeal was launched to support the bereaved families, and substantial funding from the trustees of the Annesley Estate enabled the construction of these 12 small houses, which became known as 'Widows' Row'. Each house was originally built with two rooms, one on each floor.

The front (north-east) façade of number 173 is finished in rough cast render and painted. It features a timber-sheeted stable door on the ground floor to the right, and to the left a multi-pane vernacular Georgian window with an upper opening. On the first floor to the left is a similar multi-pane window set within a gabled half-dormer. The gabled roof has an overhang to the front, covered in natural slate, with exposed rafter ends. A single rendered chimney stack, shared with the neighbouring property to the south, rises from the roof. Cast iron rainwater goods are present.

The rear of the property has been substantially altered with a small single-storey lean-to extension featuring a corrugated iron roof and timber-sheeted door, currently in poor condition. Immediately to the south-east stands a single-storey outbuilding with a mono-pitched slated roof. The exposed upper section of the main rear façade is blank and finished in rough cast, with asbestos slate covering the rear roof.

A low stone boundary wall encloses a small front garden. Despite modifications to the rear, number 173 appears to be the least altered property within the terrace, which as a whole retains significant original character and detailing, including the characteristic gabled half-dormers, vernacular Georgian multi-paned windows, and the original boundary walls to individual front gardens.