Cottage behind

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single storey, three bay, direct entry house with thatch under corrugated iron over the two right-hand (north-west) bays.

The building extends to the south-east with a corrugated iron roof covering over the bedrooms of the house and the open-fronted barn.

The building, that faces north-east with its back to the road, is situated on the north-east side of Ballyrory Road that leads off the road from Claudy to Park about 2.5 miles from the former village. In just under a mile the house is seen below the road and to the rear of a new dwelling

The walls are finished in roughcast with non-alternating quoins dressing the right-hand (north-west) corner and the left-hand (south-east) division line of the thatched part of the building.

The base projects and all openings on the front of the house are set in plain raised cement surrounds. The entrance is flanked by door blocks.

The roof is finished with corrugated iron of more recent application over the bedrooms and the barn. The right-hand (north-west) gable rises to a cement parapet. Rainwater goods are of light metal.

There is a roughcast corbelled chimney over the north gable and a similar feature serves the kitchen hearth. Each stack has a single pot.

The ledged, braced and sheeted entrance door is flanked to the right (north-west) by a modern metal-framed window. To the left (south-east) there is a similar window and beyond lighting the front bedroom there is a metal-framed window of reduced size. The sills of the main two widows are of traditional depths and the sill of the bedroom window is shallower.

Next the barn is accessed by means of a large opening that is not provided with a door and beyond this a small opening has been infilled with concrete blocks. This portion of the building and the adjacent gable are of exposed stone. An opening in the gable has been infilled with stone.

At the rear starting from the south-east corner the exposed stonework gradually assumes a light plaster finish before becoming almost fully smooth plastered on most of the thatched part of the building.

There are three openings in the rear wall of varying sizes. The kitchen annex with a plain metal-framed window with narrow sill is followed by a 6/3 vertically sliding window with brick reveals in the kitchen and after a small set-back in the wall surface there is a 3x2 metal-framed window with cement jambs and a sill of traditional depth.

Historical information

Owner states that he has researched the age of this building and confirmed that it was constructed in the late eighteenth century and that internal alterations to the central bay took place in the 1930s. Evidence is not to hand to substantiate the late eighteenth date of construction offered by the owner.
The building does not appear on the first Ordnance Map (the relevant section of Ballyrory Road was not made up at that time) and it is first shown on the 1st revision of 1848-52 in reduced size. The date of the two thatched bays of the building is between 1840 and 1859.

References – Primary Sources

1. OS map, 1st edition 1832, Co. Londonderry, sheet 29
2. OS map, 1st revision 1848-52, Co. Londonderry, sheet 29

Secondary Sources

Information from current owner (2004)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A single storey, three bay, direct entry, house with barn, having thatch under corrugated iron over the two right hand (north-east) bays.
The basic layout remains intact and the roof construction over the kitchen and the parlour is of high interest.