With the development of the railway line to Warrenpoint, the Great Northern Railway Company planned on capitalising on the popularity of the area as a seaside resort. One method of achieving this was to buy several hotels in Warrenpoint, Rostrevor and Omeath and update them at a cost of £50,000. Two of the hotels became known as Great Northern Hotels. Between 1877 and 1915 a horse-drawn tramway linked the railway in Warrenpoint with the Great Northern Hotel at Rostrevor providing better public transport and connections between the two hotels.
The Great Northern Hotel at Warrenpoint was originally known as the Beach Hotel, which opened with fifty rooms on Easter Monday, March 1885. The building was designed by local architect W.J. Watson and built by Alexander Wheelan, at a cost of almost £5,000. Features of the hotel included baths, (hot, cold, salt, and freshwater options were available), a billiard room and a smoking room. The hotel offered an uninterrupted view of Carlingford Bay, Rostrevor, and the local mountains. The owner, Henry Stanley, went bankrupt in 1886 and the hotel was purchased by the Great Northern Railway Company, who took the initiative to enlarge the building. Watson was also behind the design of the gabled and turreted three-story section added to the hotel at this time. The name changed to the Great Northern Hotel at some point in the late 1890s.
Another method of attracting holidaymakers and day-trippers was the Pavilion. The Pavilion was built in the grounds of the Great Northern Hotel in 1906 and served as a tearoom, dance hall and entertainment centre. The Newry Reporter had several articles over the years listing the events that the Pavilion hosted such as a weekly dance in 1906 and a biweekly cinematograph exhibition during the winter months in 1912.
In 1923 the hotel closed. The local papers advertised a clearance sale which listed all room furnishings for sale including the billiard table (complete with accessories), the grand piano, silver and E.P. Ware. The hotel was sold to the Sisters of Mercy to use as a school which opened a year later as Our Lady of Lourdes Boarding School.
The school relocated in 1930 to the Convent of Mercy in Newry. In 1938 the former hotel became St. Joseph’s Home for elderly men. The home eventually allowed women to be admitted as residents in 1985 and is still operational today.
When the hotel was bought by the Sisters of Mercy, the Pavilion was converted into a classroom and then into a school. The Star of the Sea Girl’s Primary School then amalgamated with St. Peter’s Boy’s Primary School and the two became St Dallan’s Primary School which opened in September 2000.
