8 Killowen Village, Rostrevor, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3AJ

8 Killowen Village, Rostrevor

A terrace of three one-storey houses, now converted into a single dwelling, situated just above the shoreline on the east side of Killowen village. Dating to between 1840 and 1859, the complex is primarily of historical interest as a former coastguard station, though it has lost much of its original character through conversion and subsequent upgrading.

The building is six openings wide and contains three rooms and a hallway internally. The main elevation faces south towards the sea. White-painted lined cement rendered walls conceal random rubble masonry beneath. The roof is pitched with natural slate and half-round metal gutters, with four rendered chimneys, two of which rise from the gables.

A projecting gabled porch at the centre contains a modern four-panel raised and fielded door with electric light in the apex. Each cheek of the porch has a two-paned window. The main block has two windows to the left wall and three to the right; all are 2/2 sliding sashes with exposed black-painted boxes and painted granite cills. A small lean-to shed with corrugated asbestos roof (now a coal store) abuts the left gable. The right gable is blank.

The north elevation, facing the mountain, features a one-storey kitchen return at its centre, probably a relatively modern addition, protected by a modern concrete porch. The left cheek of this return has a partly-glazed door and a modern 1/1 top-opening window. The end wall of the return is blank. The right cheek has an identical window to that on the left. Two 2/2 sashes flank this return on the main block.

A small garden to the front is enclosed by a hedge and a rendered, whitewashed wall. A small wrought-iron gate hangs between two low square masonry posts.

To the left, a one-storey shed with pitched natural slate roof and cement verges abuts the coal store, aligned at right angles to the house. Its walls are whitewashed random rubble. The seaward gable has a pair of painted tongue-and-groove doors, and a small door along the side wall faces east to the front garden. The north gable has a small window and is abutted by a lean-to shed with a door accessing the back yard. The west wall is blank.

At the right-hand end of the garden stands a similar one-storey building, also aligned at right angles to the house, with a roof partly repaired with artificial slates. Its seaward gable is abutted by a low shed. The east wall has two entrances to the farmyard, while the remaining walls are blank.

Historical Context

The 1834 Ordnance Survey map shows a Waterguard Station at Killowen, though this relates to a complex of three houses west of the present building. The 1861 map cites a building at this location as a 'Coastguard Station'. The 1863 Valuation records the middle and right-hand sections as dwellings and the left section as a coastguard watch house and boathouse. In 1868, six men and a chief boatman were stationed here. Coastguard use appears to have ceased around 1889, as it is no longer cited under this use in the 1889 Valuation. No station appears on the 1901 Ordnance Survey map.

The building is of vernacular character and of industrial archaeological interest as evidence of 19th-century coastal defence infrastructure.