Cabra Towers, Convent Road, Cabra, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5EU

Cabra Towers is a medium-sized late 19th-century country house with additions dating from around the turn of the 20th century, set in mature grounds on the west side of Convent Road, Cabra. The building is recorded but does not merit statutory listing protection, as modern extensions and alterations substantially compromise this relatively late structure. It is currently used as an Outdoor Pursuits Centre and is owned by an Education Board.

The complex comprises three main elements: a two-storey entrance block (the original house), a service block to its west, and a later double-pile house to its east and south.

ENTRANCE BLOCK

The entrance block is the original house, north-facing, two storeys tall and three bays wide. It has a hipped natural slate roof with a flat leaded top. A cement-rendered, decoratively coped two-pot chimney stack rises from the rear left, and the left end is abutted by the gable of the later addition. The walls are painted lined render with an advanced base course. Cyma-recta cast iron gutters run on an advanced painted eaves course.

The main entrance occupies the central bay within an open porch. The door, dating from around 1900, is four-panelled, flush-moulded and chamfered, fitted with decorative brass furniture but no letterbox. It is flanked by sidelights with diagonally sheeted apron panels, and above is a large glazed transom — all glazing is decorative etched glass depicting shamrocks. The transom is a single vertical pane that has been rotated 90 degrees, with the result that the "JM" monogram etched in its central panel appears on its side. The entrance is set on an ashlar granite plinth with advanced jambs also of ashlar granite; the right jamb retains the remains of a bell pull. The porch itself consists of two stout free-standing square pillars — one to either side of the doorway — each with moulded plinths, a dado and moulded capitals. They support a moulded and dentilled cornice, and a turned balustrade encloses the flat roof above. A cast iron downpipe with a decorative hopper is positioned to the left. The porch cheeks are infilled up to the dado height of the pillars.

Each of the remaining ground floor bays contains two 1/1 sliding sash windows with horns, stooled cills and one-piece advanced granite lintels. The left and right bays at first floor have identical windows, diminished in height, with their lintels at eaves level. At first floor centre is a pair of plain glazed French windows with an advanced granite lintel and a plain mullion.

SERVICE BLOCK

Continuing flush with the walls of the entrance block to its right is a three-storey, single-bay service block. It has a flat modern felted roof with broad timber eaves and semicircular gutters to the front. The walls match those of the entrance block, but the right corner and the left corner at second floor level have advanced chamfered quoins. Each floor on this elevation has two 1/1 sliding sash windows with horns.

MAIN HOUSE (LATER ADDITION)

To the left of the entrance block is the north front of the main house, which is double-piled and two and a half storeys tall — each storey appreciably higher than those of the entrance block. The walls have an advanced base course and are painted smooth rendered.

At the junction with the entrance block, a three-storey attached tower advances forward. It has a conical natural slate roof with an ornate wrought iron weathervane, and moulded cast iron rainwater goods on a deep, decorated Gothic Revival eaves cornice. At ground floor on the front face is a pair of casement windows, each with a transom above, sharing a one-piece granite mullion with slightly advanced granite cills. Each casement is curved glass following the line of the tower. The transoms have cusped heads with three-piece ashlar granite heads and contain fixed leaded lights. An identical pair of windows occupies the right cheek of the tower. Between the first and second floors an advanced cavetto-moulded stringcourse runs across the elevation. At first floor, aligned with the ground floor windows, is a pair of 1/1 sliding sash windows, again with curved glass and horns, with a single similar window on the right cheek above the pair of ground floor casements. At second floor there are four individual 1/1 sliding sash windows, each with a chamfered transom that obscures the meeting rail and a cusped top sash, detailed and leaded like the ground floor transoms. All share a slightly advanced cill course.

To the left of the tower is the rest of the main block, divided at roof level into two sections, the right of which has a gabled wall-head dormer. The first floor stringcourse and second floor cill course continue from the tower, and the left corner has advanced chamfered quoins. Filling the ground floor is a single-storey canted bay window, its walls matching those of the main block. It has a slightly advanced canted cill course, an advanced eaves course, and a flat masonry roof with a pierced arcaded parapet. This parapet has a cavetto-moulded coping that continues the stringcourse running between ground and first floors. A decorative Celtic cross is erected on the parapet. The front of the bay window is three openings wide: the left and right openings each contain a large 1/1 sliding sash with horns and leaded top sash; the central opening, of similar dimensions, contains a modern glazed timber door with a transom matching the top sashes of the flanking windows. The door is accessed from the front drive by a single concrete step, with chamfered dwarf walls terminating in pedestals on which stand broken terracotta urns. Each cheek of the bay window has a single window matching the others. Above the bay window at first floor are two 1/1 sliding sash windows with horns, matching those on the tower at this level. Above to the left is a chamfered eaves cornice. Rising to the right is the gabled wall-head dormer, tied into the tower at its right. It has chamfered kneelers and a moulded coping raised to a box at the gable head, and contains two 1/1 cusped-headed sliding sashes matching those at the equivalent stage of the tower.

EAST ELEVATION

The east elevation of the main block is divided into two equal gabled bays, the left one advancing forward. They share a common projecting base course; the right bay has chamfered quoins to its exposed corners. Both are inset with small semicircular-headed vents with chamfered kneelers, and their moulded copings are raised to a box at the gable head. At ground floor of the right bay there are two tall 1/1 sash windows matching those on the canted bay window of the north elevation. In line at first floor are two 1/1 sash windows, diminished in height, with Gothic relieving arches over their granite lintels. Above and between them, in the apex, is a small cusped-headed window with its head infilled, now containing a modern top-hung timber casement window.

The left bay advances to its left. Its right cheek is blank except for the base course and first floor stringcourse. It has moulded cast iron rainwater goods with a square-section downpipe to the inside corner. The front wall of the advanced left bay has a two-storey canted bay window with a steep natural slated lean-to roof abutting the gable, with an advanced chamfered eaves course, gutters and a matching downpipe. Its walls match the main facade, with the addition of a blind pierced arcade below the first floor stringcourse — identical in detailing to the parapet on the canted bay of the north elevation. At ground floor there are two front windows and one to each cheek, all matching those on the ground floor right bay, except that the right-hand front window has lost the leaded glass on its top sash. There are four 1/1 sash windows at first floor matching those of the first floor right bay but without the relieving arch. In the valley between the two bays stands a tall painted cement-rendered chimney.

SOUTH ELEVATION

The south elevation of the main block is abutted to the far left by a two-storey return and at the centre by a single-storey flat-roofed extension. The walls continue as elsewhere, with an advanced base course, a first floor moulded stringcourse and an advanced chamfered eaves course. The right corner has stepped V-channelled quoins, partially gone at ground floor. The left side of the roof has a modern skylight. To the left of centre is a gabled wall-head dormer detailed as the other gables, containing a 1/1 sliding sash with an additional infilled transom above. To the right of centre is a tall wall-head chimney with decorative mouldings and two terracotta pots. Breaking through the eaves at centre is a modern gabled dormer, natural slated with plain timber barges, containing an emergency exit door leading to an escape stair. Directly below this at first floor is a second escape door, also onto the stairs. To its left, between ground and first floor in line with the dormer window, is a 1/1 sliding sash stairwell window. There are two tall openings at ground floor right: the left one is a 1/1 sliding sash with a leaded top sash matching those on the bay window of the east elevation; to its right is a modern glazed door with a matching transom, which formerly led into a conservatory that abutted at this point. The first floor to the right is blank.

At ground floor right, the floor and base course of the former conservatory survive. It was rectangular, extending southward and advancing eastward in a central canted bay with a central door. The floor is pink and white terrazzo with a black margin, with a large pink and yellow floral panel in a Moorish design inset to the centre. The former eastern doorway is accessed by a flight of three steps in a convex sweep with a dwarf wall and terracotta urns, the right-hand one now gone.

Abutting the ground floor central bay is a modern flat-roofed kitchen extension, which may possibly fill a former yard. A steel escape stair stands on its roof, constructed in I-beams and rising above the eaves level of the main block, where it carries a water tank. The east cheek of this extension has three modern high-level louvred windows with concrete cills. Its south elevation ties in with earlier outbuildings and its west wall abuts the two-storey return.

REAR ELEVATIONS AND RETURNS

The two-storey return partially abuts the rear south elevation of the entrance block. It has a hipped natural slated roof whose ridge meets the eaves of the main block, rendered walls and moulded cast iron gutters on an advanced eaves course. At first floor of its east elevation is a modern three-paned casement window; the remainder of this wall is abutted by the one-storey extension. Its west elevation has a similar first floor window and an original 1/1 sliding sash to the ground floor left; this elevation is abutted by numerous soil pipes from the first floor toilets. The south gable has two infilled first floor windows and is abutted at ground floor by a small return with a felted flat roof. This small return has lined walls and two windows on its south wall: to the left a small 1/1 sliding sash, to the right a decorative margin-paned fixed window.

The west elevation of the main block, rising over the junction with the entrance block, has two gables. A chimney with a moulded coping rises above the apex of the left one. A 1/1 sliding sash window is set in the right gable.

The rear wall of the entrance block is abutted to the right by the two-storey return described above. The remainder of its wall is lined rendered. To ground floor right is a modern door with transom and granite lintel. At ground floor extreme left is a small 1/1 sliding sash, and to its right is a larger 1/1 top-hung casement in an earlier opening. At first floor right, above the door, is a 1/1 sliding sash. At centre, lighting the stairwell, is a pair of 1/1 sliding sashes with a granite mullion of the same form as those over the front porch. To the left is a modern casement window and an escape door — in an earlier window opening — leading to a modern steel escape stair.

To the left of this elevation is the rear of the service block. It has quoins to its left corner and to the second floor right, rising over the junction with the entrance block. At ground floor right is a small 1/1 casement. At first and second floor left are long modern picture windows, with another similar modern window to the right between first and second floor levels. Turning the left corner, the west elevation of the service block has two large picture windows to each floor.

Enclosing the sides of the rear yard to the south of the house are various outbuildings of no particular merit.

SETTING

The grounds are maturely planted to the east of the house and fall down to the road. From the drive, a flight of steps descends to the garden, with rock-faced granite retaining walls and copings supporting urns of which only the bases remain. A disused 1970s swimming pool stands to the south-east of the house.

There are two gateways onto Convent Road. The left, side entrance is modern, with two pairs of plain square piers in painted render with pyramidal caps supporting a pair of painted angle-iron gates, both with vertical dog-bars to the lower half. Plain painted rendered screen walls with rendered copings are flanked by an outer pair of posts with pyramidal caps. The main, right entrance has a pair of highly decorative wrought iron gates dating from around 1900. The piers match those of the side entrance, with a rendered and painted convex screen wall. The wall is coped with squared granite rubble blocks forming crenellations.

HISTORY

No building appears on the 1859 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map of this site. The subsequent valuation book records a small house valued at £1 5s 0d belonging to Bridget McKey. By 1891 its value had risen to £7 15s 0d and its dimensions were recorded as 13 yards by 12 yards, two storeys — almost certainly reflecting what is now the entrance block. John McKey is noted as the owner in 1893, and the monogrammed windows indicate that he was responsible for building the entrance block. A local man, he is said to have made his fortune in the retail trade in England. According to local account, he had worked for Major Gartland at Cabra House as a young man for 7d a day, left for England, and vowed to return with his fortune made and build a house bigger and better than Gartland's. McKey made his money in the Newcastle upon Tyne retail trade. He had the first house built for his mother Bridget, but she died before it was completed; he then decided to extend her modest house and use it as a summer home. Plans were drawn up in Newcastle upon Tyne and a local architect, Mr Hubbard of Dromore, supervised the works.

The house valuation jumped to £80 15s 0d in the 1897 valuation, almost certainly reflecting the construction of the larger towered addition to the south and east. The solarium was added in 1906. Local tradition holds that McKey's family squandered his wealth, and by 1934 the house was in the possession of the Sisters of St Joseph from New Jersey, USA, who remained until the early 1960s. The house then stood vacant until 1972 when it was taken over by the South-Eastern Education and Library Board (SEELB), which also built the swimming pool.

A 1970s photograph shows the conservatory to have had a lean-to roof aligned north–south with its north gable abutting the house. Its advancing eastern section was canted with a similar glazed roof, and at the junction between the main section and the advancing bay there was a tall glazed drum carrying a glazed dome.