Dwelling, Up lane on north side of Bloody Bridge River, 81 Ballagh Road, Off Newcastle Rd., Newcastle, Co Down, BT33

This is a single-storey, three-bay dwelling situated on the north side of Bloody Bridge River, off Newcastle Road, Newcastle, County Down. The building was likely constructed between 1840 and 1859, appearing on the 1859 Ordnance Survey map but not on the preceding 1834 edition. It sits into the hillside, with the rear eaves level with the ground. The roof is coped and gabled, with a section to the left of the door slated and the remainder corrugated. A cement-rendered chimney stands on the south-west gable, and another is located on the party wall between the second and third bays. The rainwater goods are plastic. The exterior walls are rubble granite, rendered with cement and painted white.

The main elevation has a south-east facing façade, centred by a half-door with tongue and groove boards. There is a green-painted timber sliding sash window to the left of the door and two to the right, each with granite cills. A now-roofless monopitched shed abuts the south-west gable, and a shed with a pitched roof abuts the north-east (right) gable, alongside the remains of another shed. The rear elevation features a single sliding sash window in the middle bay.

The building’s plan form appears to have evolved over time, with the addition of a lengthways extension to the left of the kitchen, evidenced by the slightly raised cill height of the leftmost bay and the different roof coverings. It has strong historical connections to Estyn Evans, a professor of Geography at Queen’s University, Belfast, and a renowned folklorist who wrote extensively about the Mourne Mountains and Irish vernacular buildings. “Mourne Country,” a regionally important geographical monograph, was written during his time at the house. The dwelling is set within a visually appealing landscape enclosed by rubble granite walls and is functionally associated with a nearby two-storey byre located a short distance to the south.