41 FAIRHEAD ROAD

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached three-bay single-storey rough-cast rendered vernacular dwelling, built c.1830, with rear extension. Rectangular on plan facing north and located at the north end of Fairhead Road, forming part of a cluster of four similar dwellings (HB05/04/016A, B, & C).

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles (catslide roof to rear) and three rendered chimneystacks with terracotta pots. No rainwater goods. Unpainted rough-cast cement rendered walling. Square-headed window openings with remnants of steel casement windows.

Three-bay north front elevation with off-centre square-headed door opening having replacement vertically-sheeted timber door. Remnants of windows to openings.

Blind east gable, roughcast and terminating in a chimney stack. Projecting single storey extention to LHS (south), which is a 20th century addition.

Rear elevation partially collapsed with single storey lean-to extension to the east which projects beyond the east gable end. The lean-to roof projects beyond the extension to form a canopy above the kitchen door.

Blind west gable (roughcast) with some boulders evident to the base.

Materials
Roof Natural slate
RWG None
Walling Rough-cast cement render
Windows Steel casement (remnants only)

Setting:
Located at the north end of Fairhead Road and forming part of a group of four similar dwellings informally arranged around the end of the road. Partially collapsed outbuilding to the north with random coursed rubblestone walling and pitched corrugated iron roof. Partially collapsed two-bay outbuilding to the east with random coursed rubble-stone walling and natural slate roof (to bay furthest from house only).

Historical information

No. 41 Fairhead Road, a single-storey vernacular farmhouse located in the townland of Cross, was constructed along with the neighbouring nos 38-40 Fairhead Road prior to 1832. This clachan of single-storey dwellings was known as Coolanlough and was first recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey map (1832). Nos 38-41 Fairhead Road were not recorded in detail in the contemporary Townland Valuations (c. 1834) as there were no dwellings in the townland of Cross worth the £3 per annum required for inclusion in that source. In the mid-19th century No. 41 Fairhead Road was valued at 15 shillings under Griffith’s Valuation (c. 1859). The valuer noted that all the farmhouses in the group were leased by the Boyd family of Ballycastle and that No. 41 Fairhead Road was initially occupied by James McLeese, a local famer.

Unlike the rest of the farmhouses at Coolanlough, the occupants of No. 41 Fairhead Road changed with frequency during the late-19th century. Under the 1901 Census of Ireland the farmhouse was occupied by John Jameson, an agricultural labourer who was also employed as a caretaker by the McCarry family of Knockbrack House. In that year the census building return described No. 41 Fairhead Road as a 2nd class dwelling that possessed a slate roof, consisted of three rooms and possessed a stable, two cow houses, two piggeries and a barn amongst its outbuildings. The value of the farmhouse was increased to £1 and 10 shillings under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57) which noted that No. 41 Fairhead Road was purchased outright by the McCarry estate. The value of the site was further raised to £5 and 15 shillings by the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956-72) at which time the McCarry family were recorded as both occupants and owners.

In 1972, the UAHS Guide for the Glens of Antrim described the clachan at Fair Head in the following terms: ‘The small group of windswept cottages near the lough, on the plateau of Fair Head, is of considerable character and merit. [Nearby] the oval crannog, 120ft by 90ft is of uncommon interest and charm, it is less altered than most of its kind and more beautifully sited than any other’ (UAHS Guide, p. 54). No. 41 Fairhead Road was listed in 1980 (NIEA HB Records).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/1/5/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1832)
2. PRONI OS/6/1/5/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1855)
3. PRONI OS/6/1/5/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1904)
4. PRONI OS/6/1/5/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1922)
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/1/5 – Townland Valuation Map (c. 1834)
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/133 – Townland Valuations (c. 1834)
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/1/27A – Griffith’s Valuation (c. 1859)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/2/11A-F – Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/1/5 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
10. PRONI VAL/4/B/1/11 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1861-1918)
12. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
13. First Survey Record – HB05/04/016 (1972)
14. NIEA HB Records – HB05/04/016D

Secondary Sources
Brett, C. E. B., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings and areas of architectural importance in the Glens of Antrim’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1972.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
Z. Rarity
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached three-bay single-storey rendered dwelling, built c.1830 and nestled at the foot of a hill within a rural setting SW of Lough na Cranagh, Fairhead. The house is laid out in a traditional linear plan form and its proportions are relatively unchanged, despite a 20th century lean-to addition. No.40 has strong group value with another three farmhouses (HB05.04.016A, B & C), irregularly arranged to make up a traditional clachan, known as Coolanlough. Of the four, No. 40 is the least well preserved however it is intrinsic to the group and it is further enhanced by the survival of ancillary outbuildings. The settlement is distinctly vernacular in character, enclosed by low dry-stone walling within the surrounding open countryside and representing a way of life once commonplace in the province of Ulster and now increasingly rare.