Former Herring Smokery, The Harbour, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4AU

Former Herring Smokery

An unusual structure of functional design and plan form, strategically located on the quayside of what was once a flourishing herring fishery at Kilkeel Harbour. The complex comprises three contemporary components: a smokery, a lean-to to the east, and a two-storey building to the north.

The smokery is a two-storey rendered brick building with a pitched natural slate roof featuring a raised timber-louvred ridge, also slated, with clay ridge tiles and verges. Painted eaves boards are present but there are no gutters. All walls are finished in smooth cement render over brick. The west elevation is partially obscured at ground floor by a modern one-storey shed with a trough-corrugated metal roof; the exposed section above shows two window openings, each fitted with two timber shutters and concrete cills. The north gable is abutted by a large two-storey shed. The date '1913' is marked on the apex of this gable. The east elevation is abutted to eaves level by the lean-to structure. The south gable is blank and may formerly have been abutted by a lower one-storey building, now gone. Much of the render has fallen away, exposing the underlying brickwork.

The lean-to features a trough-corrugated monopitched metal roof and walls matching the smokery. Its left cheek has two infilled windows at first floor and is abutted at ground floor by a lower lean-to. The east elevation has two two-pane timber windows with transom lights and granite cills at ground floor, and two infilled windows at first floor. The right cheek is abutted by the two-storey building which also abuts the north gable of the smokery.

The two-storey building to the north has a pitched roof now covered with trough-corrugated metal sheeting, with half-round metal gutters. A raised brick verge marks the west gable with plain flush bargeboards. Its east gable features, at centre, a large double-leaf painted timber door, with a smaller pedestrian door to the left. At first floor is a central tongue-and-groove sheeted door with transom light, with steps rising from the left. A hoisting beam is present in the apex. There are windows on either side of the first-floor door, detailed as in the lean-to. The left sidewall, facing south, is abutted by the smokery and lean-to. The ground rises on the rear gable to first floor level, which has two sheeted timber doors. The right sidewall, facing north, has four window openings at ground floor, detailed as on the east gable. At first floor are six regularly spaced openings, all three-by-three paned except the fifth from the left, which is a loading door.

The datestone confirms erection in 1913. The building was first entered in the 1915 valuation book as a 'herring curing factory' belonging to Chambers & Company, and was cited in the 1919 Ordnance Survey map as a 'curing station'. According to its present owner, each kiln was capable of handling in excess of 20,000 fish at any one time. The herring processing involved gutting, soaking in brine, then hanging to dry before smoking, a process lasting several days. The smokery appears to have ceased use in the late 1940s. The building is now in use as a store and is of industrial archaeological interest.