Kilmorey Arms Hotel, Knockree Avenue, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4BH

The Kilmorey Arms Hotel is a two-storey building with attic, located at the corner of Greencastle Street and Knockchree Avenue in Kilkeel. Dating from around 1840 to 1859, it is an important building in the development of the town. The hotel was explicitly cited on the 1860 town map, and in 1862 the complex belonged to John Shannon.

The building comprises a main corner block and several additions accumulated over time, including the incorporation of an adjoining house in Greencastle Street. The entrance frontage faces Knockchree Avenue and is divided into three distinct parts.

The northern (right) section is the original building, three bays wide with a natural slate hipped roof featuring clay ridge tiles, projecting eaves and half-round metal gutters. Three chimneys, all smooth rendered with a corbel course and granite capping, rise from the roof. The wall is lined with smooth render over a dressed granite base, with stepped quoins at the right end. The central bay contains the entrance, which projects as a single-storey structure with a flat roof carried on two square piers, plain frieze, projecting cornice and block parapet. The entrance is open to the front and accessed by two tiled steps, with a modern railed ramp up its right side. The left cheek has a fixed 2x5 pane timber window. The entrance comprises a pair of modern multi-glazed doors. On either side of the porch is a blind arch containing a rectangular window: the right window is 6/6 panes and the left is 1/1 pane, both with granite cills and painted timber sliding sashes. At first floor are three evenly spaced 6/3 sash windows in line with the ground floor openings but diminished in height.

The middle section of the Knockchree Avenue frontage has at ground floor three 6/6 sash windows with exposed boxes and painted concrete cills. To the left is a modern double door (2x4 panels) in an older frame with rectangular transom. Beyond this is a segmental headed carriage arch with granite dressings and painted sheeted doors including a wicket gate. At first floor are four equally spaced 1/1 sash windows. From the eaves rise two dormers, each with a pitched natural slate roof and raised and coped verges. These were a later 19th century addition. Each dormer contains two modern top-hung casements with slated cheeks.

The western (left) section comprises a two-storey gable fronting the street with a pitched asbestos slate roof and tiled verges. A chimney rises from the apex, detailed as those elsewhere. At first floor is a large plastic casement window. From the south elevation of this gable a wing projects, its roof and side wall parallel with the street. At first floor left is a curved oriel with plastic windows, and to its right a small casement. Immediately left of the wing are metal sheeted gates hung from square rendered pillars, providing access to the yard, with a squared and snecked rubble granite wall approximately 2 metres high to their left. On the south gable of the wing is a modern casement window, and at first floor a projecting rectangular bay with plastic windows. The left (yard-facing) cheek of this bay has various additions and modern windows.

The south elevation of the gable section is abutted by various one and two-storey additions, many of recent date. To the left is a large modern function suite with overhanging artificial slate roof, plastic gutters, smooth render walls and plastic windows.

The Greencastle Street facade has roof and wall finishes matching those of Knockchree Avenue. Two chimneys detailed as before rise from this elevation. The facade is six openings wide with stepped quoins at both ends. The second opening from the left contains an entrance door set within a semicircular arch with stepped plaster dressing and glazed transom; the door itself is four-panel bolection moulded painted timber. The remaining openings contain 6/6 windows. At first floor are six 6/3 sashes in line with the ground floor openings. This facade now incorporates an adjoining two-storey three-bay house.

Internally, all roof pitches facing inward to the main corner block have artificial slates, and inward-looking walls have modern plastic or timber casement windows. A flat-roofed kitchen fills the central well with various flues.

Whilst little historical fabric has survived internally, the building retains much of its original external character and warrants its continued statutory protection. The building is described as excluding modern extensions from the listing.