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

Four The Almshouses is a small, single-storey house with a gabled porch, forming one part of a picturesque terrace built in 1828, possibly designed by English architect Peter Frederick Robinson. The terrace was originally built at the request of Mrs Forde of Seaforde House and comprised six almshouses to house elderly residents, together with a small petty sessions court house at the southern end. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1836 described the dwellings as contributing greatly to the ornament of the village, and noted that the almshouses were occupied by six widows receiving charitable assistance. Each house originally consisted of only two small rooms with an outside toilet. The court house ceased to be used by the mid 20th century, and the almshouses remained occupied until around the same period, though by 1970 the entire block was largely vacant.

In the early 1970s, Hearth (later Hearth Housing Association) acquired the almshouse group from the Forde estate. Between 1977 and 1980, the terrace underwent comprehensive restoration by Hearth and the National Trust. During this process, the former court house was converted into two separate dwellings, of which this property is one. Each pair of the original almshouses was amalgamated to form a larger single property, creating three dwellings in total. Large sympathetic single-storey extensions were added to the rear of the whole grouping, each containing a kitchen and bathroom.

The house is idyllically situated on the east side of Newcastle Road at the centre of the small village of Seaforde. To the west front there is a large lawn enclosed by a low rubble wall. The front façade faces west and is symmetrical. At the centre is a relatively large gabled porch with slated roof and exposed rafter ends. The south-facing side of the porch has a timber-sheeted door. The front gabled face of the porch features a relatively large window with mullioned and transomed lights: three smaller upper lights with lattice panes containing four vertically arranged panes sit above three much larger lower lights. This window is surmounted by a granite hood moulding. To the north face of the porch return is a similar but narrower window. To the left and right of the porch on the main façade are windows matching the porch design. The front façade is rendered, painted, and has a granite base.

Roughly at the centre of the rear elevation is a relatively large single-storey return with a roof matching the rest of the building, finished with rough-cast render and a smooth recessed render base. The south face of this return bears a timber-sheeted door with a four-pane fanlight; to its right are two sash windows with Georgian panes (8/8). The gable of the return features a window similar in size to the front but with three tall lights with Georgian panes, topped by a hood in the same style as the front elevation. Sash windows matching those on the south face of the return are positioned on either side of the return on the main rear façade. The main roof is hipped, with the main roof, return roof, and porch roof all slated and featuring exposed rafter ends. Two large six-sided granite chimneys with coping are shared between the north and south elevations. Metal rainwater goods are present. The rear has a paved yard.

The building holds group value both with the other properties in the terrace and with the wider collection of Seaforde estate buildings.