Mourne Grange, Newry Road, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34

Mourne Grange is a two-storey, three-bay country house on the Newry Road at Kilkeel, built in the mid-1870s in Lombardic Romanesque style. Although historically significant, the building is much altered and does not meet the criteria for statutory protection.

The main south-facing front is symmetrical, with a hipped roof topped by a flat section surrounded by a decorative cast iron balustrade. The roof has been recently recovered with butyl rubber on the flat and natural slate on the two main slopes; all other roof areas are artificial slate with grey concrete tiles on the hips. Four cement-rendered chimneys with corbelled copings are irregularly positioned. Bracketed overhanging eaves support plastic and cast iron rainwater goods. The walls are finished in smooth painted render with an advanced basecourse, stepped stucco quoins, and a chamfered string course between the ground and first floors.

The central bay of the façade is fronted by a single-storey porch with a flat roof behind a block parapet. The porch walls match the main façade treatment, with the chamfered string continuing as its eaves. Its front wall contains a triple-light window with moulded semicircular heads and a rendered cill, the central light being wider. A single-light window is set in the west face, and the main entrance is on the east, consisting of a pair of narrow three-panelled bolection-moulded doors with a semicircular-headed plain glazed fanlight above. The ground floor left bay has a pair of modern top-hung timber casements divided horizontally in imitation of the original sliding sashes. The first floor windows are similar, except above the porch which has a triple-light arrangement of these casements, again with the central one widest.

The east elevation is abutted by a much-altered two-storey dormitory wing of circa 1900, which extends onto the front lawn. The west elevation has a ground floor canted flat-roofed bay of dressed granite, followed by two separate windows and a door that appears to be an alteration to an original window opening. The first floor shows a pair of windows followed by three other evenly spaced single windows.

At the rear, the principal feature is a large semicircular-headed staircase window, the only surviving original window in the building. It is a sliding sash with a six-paned lower sash and three-paned upper sash with radial glazing divisions above, both glazed with coloured glass. All other windows are modern. A modern external spiral stair is attached. A two-storey return with three bays adjoins the main block to the right, beyond which is a modern extension of similar scale. Some remains of the original planting survive, though much has been lost to accommodate a range of separate modern buildings in the grounds.

Historical Development

A house occupied this site from at least 1834, when it appears on the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map. The 1838 Valuation identified the owner as Eliza Anne Thompson, with dimensions of 58 feet by 21 feet by 12 feet 6 inches. The 1859 map shows a similar ground plan and captions it as 'Drumindoney'. By 1861, it was described as a "neat cottage in part, but old in rere" and belonged to Robert Thomson, with measurements of 19 yards by 6 yards 2 feet, recorded as 1.5 storeys.

The present house was erected in the mid-1870s. The 1873 Valuation notes a house "in process" by Robert William Von Steiglitz at a cost of £2,600. The accompanying sketch map shows an L-shaped block to the east dated the same period, with a small addition dated 1876, and a small block to the south also dated 1876. The new house was built as the dower house of the Kilmorey family of nearby Mourne Park and retained the traditional name Drumindoney House.

In 1900, Allen Carey, tutor to the Kilmorey children, took over the lease and opened Mourne Grange Preparatory School, apparently the first such school in Ireland. As pupil numbers grew, extensions were added: a two-storey dining room and dormitory wing aligned at right angles to the south gable (1904), a classroom block to the south-east (one storey in 1902, heightened to two-and-a-half storeys in 1907), and a chapel (1911). The school operated until 1971, when it became Mourne Grange Village Community. A chapel in the grounds is separately recorded.