Brochan House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey former mill building on the rocks to the northern side of the Dogleap to the east side of Largy Bridge (HB02/03/009). Single storey elevation to the north and west adjacent to the approach road to the bridge. Brick lining to openings, stone quoins. Roof gone, building overgrown by vegetation.

On north elevation two semicircular openings (radius 700mm 450mm from ground) centred on the façade.A timber door is near the western end. The windows are infilled by recent grills.

On the west gable a similar semi-circular window is off centre. Above, a door opening breaks the apex. There are some brick repairs to the stone wall.

The opposite gable to the east has one small opening at low level to the south, and the ground level falls steeply to meet a stone wall above the river.

The south elevation overlooking the river, reveals the full height of the building. Two storeys of stone, extending out over the river in a concrete encased projection with corrugated asbestos roof and dropping another storey in height to the river’s edge. There are no obvious openings in the projection apart from at the base, the concrete of which seems to have been repaired at least once. On the stone building there is a central aligning group of openings. There is a semi-circular window at low level and a rectangular opening above, both trimmed in brick.

Historical information

The building is known as the ‘brochan house’ and presumably is the building mentioned in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1833-35 as ‘Bleach Mill in Deer Park. The houses attached to the mill are as follows: viz. the engine house, the rub-board house, the boiling house, two drying lofts, two store houses, a broughan house (or eating house) and the carpenters workshop all in good repair’. Country park literature claims that the name derived from an oatmeal porridge called brochan( Irish"brathan") made here and distributed to the hungry during the famine. (Though the Ordnance Survey Memoirs indicate that the name is from an earlier date). The buildings location on the river’s edge and the concrete extensions suggest that it had a role to play as more than an eating house. Though not mentioned in the authoritative ‘Electricity from the Red River’, it must have played some part in the improvements to Dogleap farm carried out in the 1920s by Miss Dorothy Robinson (see HB02/13/010 and HB02/13/007). Perhaps as a source of water for a second hydraulic ram?

References:

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol 9. p.53
Electricity from the Red River - J Stevenson (NIE)
Roe Valley Country Park Guides (D O E NI)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A picturesque ruin at the end of Largy Bridge which compliments its setting. Of interest as a piece of industrial archaeology associated with milling at the Dog Leap. Of interest historically for its association with famine relief work.