123 Greencastle Pier Road, Greencastle, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4LR

123 Greencastle Pier Road, Greencastle

This is the left one of a symmetrical pair of two-storey, three-bay semi-detached lighthouse keepers' houses, erected by the Commissioners of Irish Lights in the 1880s-1890s. It stands on the north side of Greencastle Pier Road near Greencastle Point, forming part of a significant group of related structures including an adjoining dwelling, a block to the east, and a boathouse. The houses were inhabited from 1889 onwards and are associated with Haulbowline Lighthouse, eventually superseding earlier keepers' houses at Cranfield Point which were used until around 1922. Their formalised design clearly distinguishes them from other houses in the area.

The house has a pitched natural slate roof with clay ridges. The left gable is raised and coped with moulded kneelers. Two painted rendered two-stage chimneys are positioned on the party walls: the one between the first and second bays has two pots, while that shared with the adjacent property has four pots. Cast iron ogee rainwater goods with decorative hoppers are supported by a decorative eaves course of three courses of yellow brick, the middle one saw-toothed. Circular downpipes are held in place by poppy head clasps. The walls are painted smooth cement render with a painted chamfered basecourse. All windows have painted dressed granite cills.

The front elevation faces south towards the sea. A single-storey porch with pitched natural slate roof, raised gable, and matching rainwater goods abuts the central bay. The porch front gable features a 6/6 sliding sash window with horns. The left cheek is blank while the right cheek has a framed and sheeted painted timber door with a modern electric light over. The ground floor left and right bays each contain a single 6/6 sliding sash with horns; three similar windows are positioned to the first floor in line with these ground floor openings. The left gable has a single narrow 4/4 sliding sash window set to the left on the ground floor, with a modern oriel window centred above it on two rendered brackets. The oriel has a flat roof, large picture window with stained sheeted apron below, and narrow but similar cheeks. All windows feature horns.

The rear elevation has a single yellow brick eaves course and is abutted to the left and centre by a single-storey lean-to surmounted by a 6/6 sliding sash window to the first floor centre. The lean-to has a monopitched natural slate roof and half-round metal rainwater goods. Its right gable is raised and concrete-coped, continuing as a yard wall. The yard-facing elevation is painted and rendered with two modern top-hung timber casement windows and a modern door. The right gable is a party wall with the adjacent property.

A Silurian rubble yard wall with dressed granite quoins continues as an outbuilding to the rear. Its side (west) wall has a sheeted door with brick-dressed reveal. The wall steps down twice and has a post-war railing added to its rounded concrete coping. The rear outbuilding is single-storey with a monopitched artificial slate roof sloping to the yard, with raised coped verges and decorative kneelers. The walls are coursed random Silurian rubble with granite quoins. The external wall to the north has a brick-dressed doorway (infilled with concrete blocks) and two small vent openings above. The yard does not enclose the rear right bay, which contains a driveway and a single-storey post-war garage.

The paved area to the front of the house is enclosed by an embattled mass concrete wall with a wrought iron pedestrian gate and a shared vehicular gateway. The gateway is flanked by a pair of rock-faced ashlar piers with pyramidal copings.

This property is of industrial archaeological interest and holds group value as part of the strategically located complex of related structures near the shoreline at Greencastle Point.