Riverside, 23 Castlewellan Rd, Rathfriland, Newry, BT34 5LZ

Riverside is a mid 19th-century farmhouse situated at the end of a lane on the south side of Castlewellan Road at Hammy's Bridge near Rathfriland. Although a pleasant and formally laid out example of its period, it is not considered of sufficient architectural or historical significance to warrant statutory listing protection.

The building is a two-storey, three-bay structure with symmetrical proportions, constructed between 1840 and 1859. A single-storey rear return extends from the main block. The pitched roof is finished with natural slate and clay ridges, with clay tile skews at the gable ends. Cement-rendered chimneys rise from each gable, each topped with a pair of clay pots. Semicircular cast iron rainwater goods (partially missing) are mounted on an advanced eaves course.

The north-west facing front elevation is lined with cement render. The central bay, narrower than those flanking it, contains the entrance. A single granite step leads to a late Victorian or Edwardian front door with two fielded bottom panels and a glazed top panel with eye-browed head (the obscured glass is broken). The door hangs on an exposed granite-blocked frame, and above it is a segmental spoked fanlight. The ground floor bays to left and right each contain a single 2/2 vertically divided sliding sash window with horns and dressed granite cill. All windows are currently sheeted over with plywood. The first floor has corresponding windows, diminished slightly in height and aligned with those below.

The left elevation of the main block is blank. The rear elevation is partially obscured by the single-storey return abutting it to the left of centre. The exposed back wall is smooth cement-rendered with advanced eaves. At ground floor left, adjacent to the return, is a pair of 1/1 sliding sashes within a single opening; at ground floor right is a similar single window. Both have dressed granite cills. The first floor left contains a 2/2 sliding sash matching the façade windows; the first floor right has a small exposed box 1/1 sash window without a cill.

The rear return has a pitched natural slate roof with a ridge meeting the eaves level of the main block. A cement-rendered chimney rises from its gable, and a small cast iron skylight sits on the left pitch (viewed from the rear). Its walls are cement-rendered over undressed granite, with a blank rear gable. The left elevation features a tongue-and-groove sheeted door and a one-piece granite water trough. The right elevation has a pair of small 6/6 exposed box sliding sashes in a single opening without a cill.

At the road are a pair of cement-rendered gate piers with pyramidal caps, supporting a modern farm gate; the original wrought iron gates from around 1900 remain in the ditch. The lane to the house is lined with mature beech trees and passes the right gable of the main block into the rear yard. A small triangular garden fronts the house, enclosed by the lane and bounded by a small mid 19th-century wrought iron pedestrian gate hung on single-piece granite piers with square bases tapering to octagonal shafts. The rear yard is enclosed to the south and west by ruinous single-storey outbuildings constructed of granite rubble with natural slate roofs.

Cartographic evidence indicates no buildings stood on this site in 1834 (1st edition Ordnance Survey map, Down sheet 42). The house, return, and southern outbuilding all appear on the 2nd edition Ordnance Survey map (1859), confirming mid 19th-century construction. The building has been derelict for approximately ten to twenty years.