Dwelling 70m N of 8 Low Road, Newry, Co Armagh, BT35 8SU

An attractive and much evolved vernacular house with interesting plan form, pleasantly set within a mature garden in the Slieve Gullion Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The building is a two-storey, two-bay vernacular house aligned north-south to the east of Low Road, with a later single-storey single-bay addition to the right gable. It is accessed by a grassed lane.

The main block has walls of granite random rubble with vestiges of lime render. The roof is pitched natural slate with tiled skews, in ruinous condition. There is a chimney to each gable of the main block: that to the left is rendered and corbelled, while that to the right is gone. A smooth cement rendered eaves course runs along the principal elevation facing west, falling to ground level only at the left corner of the façade. There are no rainwater goods.

A projecting windbreak porch with pitched natural slate roof is situated to the extreme right of the main block. The west face of the porch has a door opening with timber lintel, with a slightly advanced rendered apex over the lintel and a blind recess beneath. The right and left cheeks of the porch are blank.

To the left of the porch are two window openings to each floor, those to the upper floor being diminished in height. All have granite cills and smooth rendered decorative architraves, lugged to the bottom and hooked to the top. The first floor left opening retains the remains of a 2/2 exposed box sliding sash window with horns.

The left gable has a small window opening to the first floor and ghost marks of a former lower single-storey lean-to. The section above is rendered.

The rear elevation has fieldstone quoins to the left end. Set to the left of centre is a door opening with timber lintel. To either side is a window opening, both infilled with rubble stone. To the first floor is a single window opening to the right of centre. All windows have granite cills.

The single-storey addition to the right gable is detailed as the main block, with a rendered chimney to the right and fieldstone quoins to the right end only. The principal elevation has a single window opening to the centre, detailed as those to the main façade, and infilled with brick. The rear elevation has two plainly detailed window openings, that to the left infilled with timber, with the right gable blank.

The house is set in a maturely planted garden accessed by a grassed lane. To the road is a pair of roughly dressed one-piece granite gate piers, the gate now gone. To the front of the house, right and left, are ruinous outbuildings.

Historical development: The building shown on this plot in the 1835 Ordnance Survey map has no valuation, suggesting a small one-storey structure. Its valuation from 1862 onwards cannot be determined from the Valuation map. The house was probably raised to its present two-storey form in the mid-19th century, dating to approximately 1840-1859.