Glen House, Barmeen Road, Rathfriland, Newry, Co Down, BT34 5AW

Glen House is a derelict one and a half storey vernacular house situated up a long lane on the east side of Barmeen Road near Rathfriland. The building comprises three bays to the upper floor, with evidence suggesting the right bay is a later addition to an originally symmetrical structure. It is constructed of granite rubble with wet dashed lime render to the walls. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate and clay tiles, with four coped and rendered red brick chimneys—one to each gable and one on either side of the central bay. The chimney between the centre and left bay is a dummy, likely constructed to maintain visual symmetry when the right bay was added. All rainwater goods have been removed.

The principal elevation faces north-east towards a formal garden. The main entrance, positioned at the left on the central bay, is a tall blocked doorway (2.4 metres high) with all timbers now gone. To its right is a window opening, with the left and right bays each containing a similar opening. The left and central bay windows are symmetrically arranged around the door. All window frames are absent, though the openings retain their granite cills. The rendered advanced brick eaves course remains. The left gable is lined with cement render and features an upper floor window opening.

The rear elevation displays irregularly positioned openings, which are noticeably smaller than those on the front. The left and right bays each contain a single window opening, while the central bay shows render marks indicating a former narrow lean-to porch. Within this area is a recessed four-panelled door with timber lintel, with a window opening to its left (now infilled) and a small low window to its right. Above, at half-landing level, is a larger window opening. The right gable has a single window opening at upper floor level.

The setting comprises a small cleared garden to the north-east of the house, which overlooks the Newry Road and accounts for the formal treatment of the garden front. To the south-west lie the former rear yard and remains of a demolished outbuilding, with the access lane from Barmeen Road running into this yard. Cement rendered rubble stone pillars with moulded pyramidal caps flank a pair of ornate twentieth-century wrought-iron gates inscribed with "McIlroy / Lt York St / Belfast". The front garden has no separate access.

The building appears on the 1833 Ordnance Survey six-inch map for County Down. It was valued at £3 in circa 1862, indicating a small but substantial house for its time, with no change in valuation thereafter. The house in its present form, including the additional north bay, appears to have existed by 1860. The structure is likely a mid-nineteenth-century refurbishment of an earlier early nineteenth-century house, though the exact date of original construction is uncertain. Despite its former standing relative to most vernacular buildings of the period, many important features have been lost, including doors, windows and floors.