Aughavilla Lodge, 121 Clonallon Road, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3QN

Aughavilla Lodge is a one-and-a-half-storey, three-bay double-pile house of the early 19th century, set in mature grounds on the east side of Clonallon Road near Warrenpoint, County Down. The house now stands as a picturesque but substantially altered building, stripped of much of its original character and architectural quality by inappropriate modern interventions.

The pitched roof is covered in artificial slate with modern overhanging timber eaves and plain bargeboards. Two broad modern cement-rendered chimneys sit aligned parallel to the façade in the valley between front and rear pitches. The walls are cement-dashed and painted, with a smooth rendered and painted base course. Historic photographs show that the original roof was natural slate, with delicately fretted timber bargeboards and eaves boards, and the chimneys originally supported four tall red brick stacks turned at 45 degrees to the façade.

The principal elevation faces south-east and is symmetrical in composition. The central bay is narrower than its neighbours and features a gabled central return to the front, detailed to match the main block. On the gable of this return, each floor contains a pair of timber three-paned casement windows with margin panes and painted granite cills. The left and right cheeks of the return step out slightly at first-floor level; the right cheek is blank, while the left cheek contains a Tudor Gothic front door within a flat-headed opening, accessed by a single granite step. The door has a beaded muntin and four panels, the top two of which curve to accommodate the Tudor Gothic head, and is fitted with timber spandrels, a decorative cast-iron knocker, and a brass escutcheon.

The left and right bays of the front elevation each have two ground-floor openings containing large 6/6 sliding sash windows with horns and painted granite cills. Matching recessed wall panels, much diminished in height, appear in the attic wall head above these bays.

The left (south-west) elevation displays three gables. The right gable, relating to the front pile of the house, is wider than the others and is believed to be later than the central gable of the rear pile. The walls match those of the main façade. The right gable is blank at ground floor and has a pair of 2×6 timber casements in a common opening with painted cill at attic level. Each remaining gable has a similar attic window. The central gable of the rear pile contains three ground-floor openings: the left and right openings hold top-hung 3/9 timber casements mimicking sashes, while the middle opening contains a nine-paned casement with a segmental spoke-headed fanlight. The left gable is an abutting rear outbuilding and not part of the house; it has a modern up-and-over metal garage door at ground floor.

The right (north-east) elevation is two gables wide. The left gable, relating to the front pile, features a late-19th-century single-storey canted bay window with an artificial slate roof and a heavy moulded timber cornice supporting plastic rainwater goods. Its walls are smooth-rendered and unpainted. The openings have stop-chamfered reveals. Each side cheek contains a narrow fixed 1/1 timber window with a plain transom over, while the front cheek has a pair of French windows with matching detailing and a two-paned transom. Two granite steps lead up from the garden, with dwarf walls enclosing each side. At attic level is a pair of casements matching those to the left elevation. The right gable of the rear pile has a large modern fixed window with sidelights at ground floor and a pair of casements at attic level.

The entrance from Clonallon Road is marked by a pair of wrought-iron gates with plain bars over similar dog bars, all with scrolled finials and a top rail that ramps up to left and right. The gates hang on rendered and coped masonry piers with concave walling to either side. A gravel driveway loops to the main house. The garden is maturely planted with trees and shrubs marking the road boundary to the south-west. The lawn in front of the house terraces down and probably once incorporated the adjacent field. The front elevation enjoys a spectacular view of the Carlingford mountains across Carlingford Lough. To the north-east is a rose garden on a sloping site falling away from the house. To the north-west of the house lies a domestic yard and beyond it a ruinous farmyard.

The house has a notable historical background. It appears to have functioned originally as the dwelling of the land agent to the Batt estate; George Braddell held this post in the 1830s. A farmhouse existed on the site and was purchased in 1829 by Narcissus Batt, who owned much land between Spelga and Warrenpoint but was resident elsewhere. Batt is believed to have added the front pile to the existing structure around 1830, creating the present double-pile configuration, and used the house as a holiday residence due to its proximity to the popular resorts of Rostrevor and Warrenpoint. By 1860, the house was occupied by William James Watson, possibly an architect. It is cited as Rostrevor Sanatorium on the 1901–02 Ordnance Survey six-inch map, a function also noted in the 1905 Valuation Revision book. In the early 20th century, the property became a sanatorium under Dr Steele, who is said to have erected timber pavilions on the lawns for his patients—buildings supposedly without doors, as Steele believed fresh air was the best cure for tuberculosis patients. The sanatorium was later sold to a Mrs Smithe, who ran it until it was closed by the NHS in the immediate post-Second World War years. The house subsequently stood vacant for several years until purchased by the present owner in the mid-1960s. During the owner's absence, the house was badly vandalised in the 1970s and fell into serious disrepair. Many original features were removed during subsequent repair work.