Mount Saint Columb, Rostrevor Road, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3RT

Mount Saint Columb, formerly known as Clonallan Glebe House, was an 18th-century former rectory of two storeys plus a semi-basement, built in the late 18th century (most likely between 1780 and 1799, though a house at this location called 'Marley' is recorded on the Harris Map of 1743). It stood on the Rostrevor Road in Warrenpoint, set within a demesne that had been substantially eroded by housing development. The building was demolished in 2000.

The house was square in plan, three bays wide on its principal elevation, with a hipped artificial slate roof forming four equal ridges meeting at a central valley. Two cement-rendered and coped chimneys, each carrying several pots, rose from the front and rear ridges. Overhanging timber eaves were carried on pairs of cantilevered timber brackets along the soffit. Half-round metal rainwater goods ran around the building. The walls were wet-dashed and painted, with the basement level advanced and chamfered. Ground level rose towards the front south-east elevation, largely obscuring the basement on that side.

The main entrance on the south-east elevation was reached by a flight of five post-Second World War terrazzo steps enclosed by sweeping balustrades, rising to a terrazzo threshold with a cross inset. The door itself comprised twelve glazed panels, flanked by one-over-six-paned sidelights and a radial fanlight; all of these elements were modern and of little interest. This arrangement sat within a deeply recessed concave opening with a rusticated stucco key-block. An earlier survey card recorded that the door had originally been flanked by fluted timber pilasters rising to a fluted archivolt containing an elliptical fanlight with decorative glazing bars, full-length sidelights, and a peacock-tail fanlight in decorative leadwork. The ground-floor left and right bays each had a six-over-six sash window with a painted granite cill and smooth rendered architrave. The three first-floor bays each had a six-over-three sash window, positioned in line with those below but reduced in height.

The left south-west elevation had three six-over-six sash windows to both ground and first floors, with the semi-basement window openings blocked up. The earlier survey record indicated that this elevation was lined-rendered and painted at upper floor level, with the basement dashed and finished with a plain smooth-rendered border.

The rear north-west elevation was abutted by a pair of lower two-storey returns. It had a basement-level door at ground level and was otherwise blank above. The right return was modern and connected to the nursing home extension. The left return had a flat roof concealed behind an embattled parapet; its north-east cheek was flush with the right elevation of the main block and similarly dashed. It had a pair of four-panelled doors at ground-floor level to the right, a small window to their left, and two small two-over-two sash windows on the first floor.

The right north-east elevation of the main house featured a two-storey curved bay to the middle bay, finished in the same manner as the main walls. The remaining wall to left and right had a single window to each floor: six-over-six sashes at ground level and six-over-three sashes at first floor. The curved bay itself had three windows on each floor — a nine-over-nine sash to the front and a six-over-six to each side at ground level, and three six-over-three sashes with modern obscured and coloured glass at first floor.

The interior was notably asymmetrical, in complete contrast to the regular classical exterior. Fake windows had been introduced externally to maintain the symmetrical appearance of the façade while accommodating the irregular internal arrangement. The 1997 survey by Consarc Design Group recorded most internal fixtures and fittings as intact at that time; these were subsequently lost before demolition.

The setting included a large derelict post-Second World War nursing home complex abutting the rear of the house on three sides, which was of no architectural interest except for its chapel. To the front, opposite the main entrance, was a small formal garden enclosed at its south-east end by a bow-fronted balustrade topping a bow-fronted rubble-stone retaining wall, which retained the mass of earth banked against the front basement. Two flights of curving steps descended from this wall, below which a large modern concrete retaining wall separated the garden from the modern housing development beyond. To the south-west of the house, within a copse of mature trees, gravel paths led to three concrete grottoes. Each was a single small open-fronted bay with thin painted walls on three sides supporting a concrete roof — one with a segmental pediment, the others with gable pediments. All had cross finials (broken at the time of survey) and small cast-iron skylights. Internally each contained a tapering concrete pedestal decorated with an embossed Celtic cross but lacking its statue.

The gravel paths continued uphill to the burial ground of the Alexian Brothers. This was roughly square in plan, enclosed by a modern dashed boundary wall with modern concrete paving. Its gates were tall wrought iron, dating from the early 20th century; to their left the wall stepped down to allow pedestrian access. At the opposite end from the gates stood a statue of the Crucifixion and a dressed granite memorial inscribed: 'SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF MEMBERS OF THE CONGREGATION OF ALEXIAN BROTHERS WHOSE MORTAL REMAINS ARE HERE INTERRED WHO FOR MANY YEARS SERVED THE AGED AND INFIRM OF WARRENPOINT MAY THEY REST IN PEACE PRAY FOR THEM'. Along the side walls were ten gravestones marking individual burial plots, ranging in date from 1941 to 1991.

The front driveway ran northward from the Rostrevor Road along what appeared to be its original course, though housing development had been built along its lower length. The demesne was substantially developed with new housing set at a much lower level than the house itself.

The building had strong historical associations with Clonallan Church. Although it has not been conclusively established that the house recorded as 'Marley' on the 1743 Harris Map is the same structure, most of the physical evidence points to a later 18th-century construction date. The rectory was associated with a succession of Clonallan rectors: Reverend Joshua Pullein, Reverend James Hawkins (from 1767), William Evelyn (from 1775), George Rogers (from 1776), John Davis (from 1805), Edward Richards (from 1836), Robert E. Glenny (from 1883), and Edward S. Medcalf (from 1921). The 1835 First Valuation recorded it as occupied by Reverend John Davis and measured the building at 45 feet 6 inches by 43 feet by 24 feet, with a basement and a return measuring 17 feet by 8 feet by 24 feet; assorted stores, stables, offices, and a barn were also noted. The property was shown on Ordnance Survey maps as Clonallan Glebe House. Reverend Medcalf vacated the property in 1924, and it was sold to the Alexian Brothers in 1925, who renamed it Mount Saint Columb. The Brothers built the nursing home extensions in the post-Second World War years and vacated the property in the 1990s. The entire demesne was subsequently sold to a private developer, who erected houses on the front lawns and demesne before the main building was demolished in 2000.