84 Killowen Old Road, Killowen, Rostrevor, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3AE

A predominantly single-storey post-war house with a partly two-storey main block, situated on an elevated site overlooking Carlingford Lough. The property was designed by architect Robert McKinstry (his first completed building) in cooperation with Mr and Mrs A.W. Hay-Edie. Original plans are dated August 1953, and construction was undertaken by Major W.J. Hanna of Kilkeel, with the house completed in 1955 at a cost of £5,000.

The setting is mature, featuring a rocky outcrop to the front garden, a winding path (an original feature), and a sweeping driveway (a later addition; the original drive stopped at the foot of the hill). A modern bungalow has been constructed on low ground to the front on the former tennis court.

The property consists of four abutting blocks. The main block faces south-east and is abutted at the north-east by a kitchen block. An accommodation block abuts the south-west side of the main block. A fourth block is a recent extension abutting the right gable of the kitchen block. All blocks have pitched concrete-tiled roofs (originally cedar-shingled), with overhanging plain painted timber eaves and bargeboards and sheeted soffits. All roof ridges run south-west to north-east. The main and kitchen blocks are deep relative to their width, with longer rear pitches. On the main block, the two-storey-high ridge falls to single storey at the rear. There are two rendered chimneys with projecting concrete coping: one to the rear pitch of the main block and the other to the left gable of the kitchen block. Rainwater goods and downpipes are semicircular plastic.

Walls are finished in painted smooth cement render, although the main facade of the main block was originally cedarwood-shingled. All windows have a canted double course of brown tiles forming cills, except the south elevation of the main block which has concrete cills. Windows are stained hardwood replacements with plain reveals unless otherwise stated. Modern double-glazed skylights to the rear pitch of the main and accommodation blocks replace original two-paned skylights.

The main entrance is set within a porch on the south-east (front) elevation of the kitchen block, with its left cheek abutting the right gable of the main block and a door giving through to the main block. The porch rests on a plinth of brown tiles with an overhang to each of its approach steps. Below the steps is a dog kennel accessed via the right cheek of the retaining wall. The porch roof is a continuation of the kitchen roof, constructed in plastic double glazing. Its right cheek has three vertical panes, and its south-east face consists of two large glazed modern sliding doors (originally a single glazed door with a large fixed glass panel to the left).

The main block has identical large horizontal window openings to each floor on its front facade. The ground floor window has four equal fixed panes (originally six with those at each end having top-hung transoms). The first floor window has three fixed panes. The right gable of the main block is largely obscured by mature creeper. At ground floor to the front left of the porch is a four-paned casement window. Above and to the left are two small windows, separated by a rendered mullion but with a common cill. Windows on both floors are set to the right of the roof ridge; there are no openings to its left. The left gable of the main block is abutted to the rear of its roof ridge by the gable of the accommodation block. The exposed wall to the front has a painted sheeted oak door and two square windows to the ground floor and two two-paned windows to the first floor. At first floor level on this wall are six projecting tapering concrete posts with wire holes, forming a pergola.

The accommodation block has three sets of three-paned windows to the front elevation and a similar window to the rear side of the left gable. The wall of this gable continues to the front as a windbreak, enclosing a grassed area to the left of the main block. The rear elevation of the accommodation block has two similar windows to the left side and a narrower two-paned window to the right.

The back wall of the main block has a horizontal window broken into five casements; these are painted timber and appear original. Its exposed right cheek has a single taller casement window. The right gable of the kitchen block (as viewed from the rear) is abutted to the right by the main block and to the left has three very narrow horizontal windows. That to the right has been enlarged (cill lowered and replaced) and those to the left have single fixed panes. The back wall of the kitchen block is devoid of openings. The remaining gable is abutted in line with the roof ridge by a recent extension. On the wall to its right is a linear opening from floor to eaves with a modern multi-panelled stained timber door and fixed transom over. Originally there was a windbreak to this door, but this is now gone. The extension is gabled with a rendered base course and vertical plastic double glazing.

A free-standing rendered flat-roofed outbuilding runs parallel with the kitchen block.

The house was designed to provide a small home for the younger children of Mr and Mrs Hay-Edie (with a large prominent playroom) and to accommodate their older children when on holiday from boarding school. Contemporary magazine articles liken its form to traditional Ulster farm buildings. Its Scandinavian influences are due to Mrs Hay-Edie's Norwegian background. Gerd Hay-Edie, born Gerd Bergersen in 1909, settled in Ireland with her husband in 1947. She was a well-known bespoke textile designer who established Mourne Textiles in 1949. When the house was completed, she worked in the small outbuilding. Her clients included Robin Day (for Heathrow Airport), Terence Conran, Sybil Connolly, and Liberty's. She died in 1997.

The building originally finished to a high specification, has had much of this replaced with cheaper materials and has consequently lost much of its original character.