15 Cullion Road, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5BA

This is an early 19th-century vernacular house situated in a pleasant farmyard, located to the east of Cullion Road in the townland of Bavan, near Rathfriland. The building is of a two-storey, three-bay design and is shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map. It was described in the 1835 valuation book as 40 feet by 22 feet by 15 feet high, and noted as a “good strong house built by Mr Newell,” though at that time occupied by John McConville; these measurements correspond to the current structure.

The principal elevation faces east and features a small farmyard and outbuilding to the front. The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate, with rendered skews and two rendered and coped chimneys, one on each gable. The walls are constructed of lime-rendered random granite rubble with a cement-rendered base course, and an advanced rendered eaves course. There are no rainwater goods. A windbreak porch with a natural slate lean-to roof is set to the right of a window in the left bay, with blank cheeks and a tongue-and-groove sheeted door. An 8/8 window is located to the left of the porch, with a smaller 2/2 window (vertically divided) above it; all windows have exposed box sliding sashes with horns and painted granite cills. The central bay features an 8/8 window on the ground floor, smaller than the window in the left bay. The right bay has a pair of 4/4 sliding sashes (without horns) in a common opening. The first floor has five equally spaced window openings aligned with those below, with three of the openings having 2/2 (vertically divided) sliding sashes, and the remaining two being infilled and rendered over, leaving only the cills visible. The left gable is blank and abutted by a single-storey, two-bay outbuilding with matching walls and roof as the main block. A small window at ground floor provides access to an under-stair cupboard in the middle bay. The rear elevation’s left bay has 2/2 windows to both floors, while the right bay has a window opening to the ground floor and a 2/2 window to the first floor. The right gable is blank and abutted by a narrower single-storey outbuilding. A single-storey, three-bay outbuilding with a lean-to roof extending from the right gable is situated in the front yard. Wrought-iron gates with twist finials are set upon cylindrical gate posts, leading to the former garden at the rear of the house, and similar gates and posts lead from the yard into the adjacent field. The house was formerly recorded as derelict.