3 The Almshouses, Seaforde, Naghan, Downpatrick, Co Down, BT30 8NX

3 The Almshouses is a small, single-storey house with a gabled porch, forming one unit of a picturesque terrace of almshouses built in 1828, possibly to designs by English architect Peter Frederick Robinson. The building stands on the east side of Newcastle Road at the centre of the village of Seaforde, County Down.

The terrace was originally built at the bequest of Mrs Forde of Seaforde House and contained six almshouses to house elderly people, along with a small petty sessions court house at the south end. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1836 describe the dwellings as contributing greatly to the ornament of the village. Initially, each house comprised just two small rooms with an outside toilet. The court house ceased to be used in the mid-twentieth century, and by around 1970 the entire block had become largely vacant.

The front façade faces west and is symmetrical, with rendered and painted walls and a granite base. At its centre is a relatively large gabled porch with a slated roof and exposed rafter ends. The porch has a timber-sheeted door on its south face and a substantial mullioned and transomed window on its gabled front face. This window features three smaller upper lights with lattice panes containing four vertically arranged panes, above three much larger lower lights. A granite hood moulding crowns the window. Above this is a weathered red sandstone plaque inscribed: 'These Almshouses were erected and endowed at the bequest of the late Mrs Forde A.D. 1828'. To the north face of the porch return is a window similar in style but narrower; a doorway formerly existed here prior to the 1979-80 amalgamation. Windows of similar style to the porch window flank the porch on the main façade.

The main roof is hipped with a slated finish and exposed rafter ends. Two large six-sided granite chimneys with coping are positioned to the north and south (shared between paired houses). Metal rainwater goods are present throughout. The rear elevation features a relatively large single-storey return with a roof finished as the front but with a rendered recessed base. The south face of this return contains two timber-sheeted doors with four-pane fanlights, the right-hand door appearing to lead to a shed. A window similar in size to the front but with three tall lights with Georgian panes, and a matching hood, occupies the gable. The north face has an 8/8 sash window with Georgian panes, as does the main rear façade on each side of the return. A paved yard occupies the rear.

The entire terrace was acquired by Hearth (later Hearth Housing Association) and the National Trust between 1977 and 1980. During restoration, each pair of almshouses was amalgamated to form a larger property, of which this building is one. The former court house was split into two separate dwellings. A large, sympathetic single-storey extension was added to the rear of the whole grouping during this period, incorporating kitchens and bathrooms for each dwelling. A large lawn enclosed by a low rubble wall fronts the property to the west.

The building has significant group value with the other structures in the terrace and with other buildings on the Seaforde estate.