The Old Rectory, 74 Drumintee Road, Meigh, Newry, Co. Armagh, BT35 8SJ

The Old Rectory is a late 19th-century two-storey, three-bay cross-gabled house of well-proportioned design, set within a mature wooded garden on the east side of Drumintee Road at Meigh. Originally built as a rectory (known as Killeavy Rectory on the 1907 Ordnance Survey map), the building retains most of its original features and exemplifies an important building type of the period.

The house is aligned north-south with its principal elevation facing west. The roof is pitched artificial slate with two tall cement-rendered and corbelled chimneys — one positioned to the east of the right bay's cross gable (running parallel to the house axis) and the other on the rear pitch aligned perpendicular to the axis on the party wall between the left and central bays. A skylight sits to the left of the rear chimney. The rear pitch adopts a shallower gradient where the rear wall is set further back than the front wall at the gable. Overhanging eaves with exposed rafter tails and narrow timber bargeboards define the gables. Half-round metal rainwater goods are fitted throughout. Walls are wet dashed with granite cills to all openings.

The picturesque porch projects slightly to the right of the central bay with a steeply gabled natural slate roof rising almost to eaves level. This is a composite structure: the narrower front section, probably a later addition, features cusped traceried glazing on all faces over a painted cement-rendered basecourse and continuous cill course. The front face contains a timber double-leaf entrance door, each leaf with a lower bolection-moulded panel and Victorian obscured floral glazing above, topped by a plain rectangular transom light. The left and right cheeks each contain a side-hung casement window. The earlier and wider rear section of the porch has a monopitched natural slate roof with cement-rendered and painted exposed ends; its left cheek contains a top-hung casement window and the right cheek is blank.

To the left of the porch is a tall 2x3 window lighting the stairwell. The left bay contains a 2x2 mullion-and-transom window to the ground floor, set within a stepped cement-rendered and painted reveal with label-mould above. The gabled right bay features a 3x2 window to each floor; the ground-floor window sits within a projecting bay with steep monopitched natural slate roof and painted cement-rendered walls and cill course, while the first-floor window is slightly diminished in height. The left gable has a 1/1 sliding sash window with timber mullion at ground-floor level, left of centre, with a 3x2 window to the first floor centre. In the extended left section is a shorter 1/1 sliding sash window without label mould. These windows are set within narrow smooth rendered reveals. All windows follow similar detailed specifications.

The rear elevation is abutted on the right bay by a modern single-storey kitchen extension that extends beyond the main block's gable. The gabled left bay has a 3x2 window to each floor (the first-floor window diminished in height). The central bay contains a 2x2 window in a narrow cement-rendered reveal without label mould, with two equally spaced and diminished windows to the first floor. The extension has a flat felted roof with timber eaves board and matching wall finishes. It incorporates a modern timber glazed door accessed by five cement steps enclosed by a cement wall, and a modern top-hung casement window to the left. The extension's left cheek has a fixed-paned window without cill and the right cheek is blank. A modern glazed conservatory obstructs a former window on the right elevation; to its left is a projecting 3x2 bay window matching that on the principal facade.

To the rear of the house is a small domestic yard containing a two-storey outbuilding to the east. This structure has a pitched natural slate roof and coursed rubble-stone walls. Its yard-facing elevation displays a large segmental-headed opening at centre flanked by door openings to either side, all with brick heads. At the extreme right end is a 1/1 sliding sash window, with two narrow ventilation openings below eaves level. Other elevations of the outbuilding were not inspected.

The house is well concealed from the road, set within mature woodland and accessed by a sweeping tree-lined driveway. It was first cited in the 1881 Valuation Revision Book and is identified on the 1907 Ordnance Survey map as Killeavy Rectory.