21 Boleran Park

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-storey three-bay vernacular house and attached outbuilding, built before 1830, with associated farm buildings located down a lane off the west side of Boleran Park. Rectangular plan; direct entry plan form.

Pitched fibre cement slate roof, three rendered chimneys. Gutters are half round metal. Walls are lime washed lime render. Openings are square headed. Windows are timber sashes 2/2 with projecting masonry cills. The entrance door is a replacement timber sheeted door, the outbuilding door is planked.

The front east elevation has 4 windows and 2 doors; the entrance door with a window each side is symmetrical between the central and R bay, the southern 2 windows are set closer together to the left bay; the outbuilding door is positioned to the south.

The side south elevation is abutted by an outbuilding.

The rear west elevation has 3 windows and 2 blocked doors.

The side north elevation is abutted by an outbuilding slightly set back from the east frontage.

Outbuildings:

The house is abutted by outbuildings both to the north (no.1) and south (no.6). Detached around the yard are 3 outbuildings (no’s.2, 3 and 4) and one located to the south (no.5). All are single storey with lime washed random rubble walls. Roofing to no’s 1, 3, 6 and part of 5 is corrugated metal sheeting, the others are natural slate and fibre cement slate to no.5. The windows to no.5 are metal framed. The doors are assorted replacements.

Setting:
The group of buildings is located in open farmland up a lane off the west of Boleran Park. The group of buildings encircle a large farmyard which sits just north of a modern bungalow.

Schedule:
Roof: fibre cement slate
Walls: random rubble
Windows: timber sash
RWGs: metal.

Historical information

A series of buildings forming a clachan is shown on the first edition OS map of 1832, some of which have survived to the present day. The group of buildings is not listed in the Townland Valuation, the dwellings being of a simple vernacular type which did not reach the threshold for inclusion.

The second edition OS map of 1849-53, captions the group ‘Upper Boleran’ and shows the dwellings encircled by tree planting. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) divides the clachan into four holdings. A house and offices to the south was valued at 15s and leased by John Dempsey, a house and offices in the centre was leased by Bernard O’Connell and valued at £1, a house to the north-east was leased by John O’Connell and valued at £1.15s and one to the south-east by Rev John McLoughlin, who was most likely the priest of the nearby Roman Catholic chapel, and valued at £2.10s.

The houses passed through a number of tenants and the 1901 census records four inhabited dwellings, three of which were thatched. Thomas Doherty, who lived in the most substantial of the four dwellings valued at £2.10s, which was not thatched and had four rooms, was a widower who lived at the house with his son, daughter-in-law and two young grandsons. Catherine Atkinson lived in a three-room thatched house with her son, daughter and a farm servant. William J O’Connell lived in a two-room thatched house with his sister Maggie who was a seamstress and Mary Connell was a widow of 60 who lived alone in the remaining two-room thatched house. By 1910 Catherine Atkinson’s son Thomas had taken over another of the dwellings on the site and by 1925 a third, leaving William J O’Connell in the remaining house.

Valuer’s notes of the 1930s, 40s and 50s show that the buildings, three of which were still thatched at this time and comprised a kitchen and one or two rooms, gradually fell out of domestic use and began to be used as agricultural outbuildings.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/18/1 First Edition OS Map 1832
2. PRONI OS/6/5/18/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-53
3. PRONI OS/6/5/18/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904-5
4. PRONI OS/6/5/18/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1924-33
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/13A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/L/1First General Revaluation 1933-57
8. Griffith’s Valuation online
9. 1901/1911 census online

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity

Evaluation

Direct entry single storey house and attached outbuilding, built before 1830, with associated farm buildings located down a lane off the west side of Boleran Park. The former house is of architectural importance as a relatively intact and rare survivor of a vernacular dwelling and the group as a whole is of historic significance as a clachan settlement.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age and S - Authenticity also apply.