Killymain House,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

This is a developed, rendered single-storey farmhouse, built c.1830. The character of the building is vernacular with a formalised front façade, in a vernacular interpretation. It is long and rectangular in plan with a single-storey return to the rear. There is a single-storey outbuilding to the North gable. There is a further single-storey lean-to to the South gable.

External walls are ruled-and-lined cement render to the front elevation. The rear elevation is painted roughcast render. The roof is pitched with artificial ‘fish scale’/diamond pattern tiles. There are three chimneys set on the ridge line of the roof. Chimneys are brick with profiled stepped capping. Rainwater goods are cast-iron.

The front East elevation is six bays in width. There is a projecting single-storey porch to the fourth bay; the door is square-headed with a rendered surround; the roof is pitched with artificial ‘fish scale’/diamond pattern tiles to its roof. There are decorative carved timber fascia boards to the gable of the porch. The side windows are 1/1 timber sliding sash set on painted concrete sills. The front façade rests on a rendered plinth.

The side South elevation is obscured to the ground floor by the single-storey lean-to. There are no openings to the gable.
There are three square-headed windows to the left, and two to the right of the porch . The windows have projecting painted concrete shouldered and heeled square-moulded surrounds with a central keystone over. Windows are set on painted concrete sills. Frames are 2/2 timber sliding sash margin panes.

The side North elevation is unpainted roughcast render with no openings.

The rear elevation is roughcast render with an assortment of square-headed windows. Windows are 1/1 or 2/2 timber sliding sash frames set on cut-stone sills. Some windows have margin panes.

Returns:

Rear Return:
The single-storey return to the rear has a square-headed replacement uPVC window to the rear. There is a square-headed timber sheeted door to the North. The roof is pitched with artificial tiles, as previous. External walls are painted brick.

South lean-to:
The single-storey lean-to to the South gable is painted roughcast render. There is a square-headed timber door to the East elevation. The roof is sloped with corrugated metal.

Outbuildings:
North outbuilding:
The single-storey outbuilding to the North has a square-headed timber sheeted door. There are no openings to the gable-ended North elevation. The rear elevation has a single square-headed opening. Walls are painted roughcast render. The roof is pitched as before, sagging slightly to the centre.

Setting:

The house fronts onto a farmyard enclosure with a series of outbuildings to the Northeast. A small single-storey lean-to links the North outbuilding with an L-shaped outbuilding. To the South of the L-shape is a single-storey lean-to, with a water pump located immediately opposite. There is a single-storey painted corrugated metal shed with a rounded roof to the South. Across the main Maloon Road to the East are larger concrete and metal sheds, built, c.1960. The shed to the north is pitched with a metal roof. The shed to the South has a rounded metal roof.

L-shaped outbuilding:
This outbuilding is abutting the house to the North via a single-storey lean-to. The lean-to has a square-headed timber sheeted door facing the yard. It has a painted corrugated metal roof.
The North wing of the L-shaped outbuilding has a timber sheeted half-door to the South elevation.
The North elevation is largely blank, with ventilator openings to the walls.
The East elevation is gable-ended with a single square-headed opening at high level. The roof is pitched with a corrugated metal roof.
The South wing has two timber sheeted doors facing the yard, as previous. There are two small square-headed timber casement windows at high level. The roadside eastern elevation has no openings. External walls are painted rubble stone and roughcast render.
The South gable is partially obscured by a single-storey projecting lean-to. There is a square-headed opening to the gable. A wrought-iron wind vane surmounts the apex of the gable.

Historical information

A house is shown on this site on OS map of 1833-34, but not noted in the near contemporary valuation. In the second valuation of 1857 the occupant is listed as a William Faulkner with Messrs Gunning & Moore, (local mill owners who bought much of the Stewart family’s Cookstown estate in 1852), the immediate lessors, and the rateable value a very modest £1-5-0.

The property remained with the Faulkner family up until 1942, when a John Gourley is recorded as the owner. Mr Gourley was still in residence in 1957.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/6/29
2 PRONI VAL/2A/6/29A OS map, Co Tyrone sheet 29, 1854-57
3 PRONI VAL/2b/6/22B Second valuation, Derryloran parish, 1857
4 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5A Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1860-63
5 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5B Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1864-68
6 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5C Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1868-81
7 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5D Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1881
8 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5E Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1881
9 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5F Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1882-90
10 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5G Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1882-88
11 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5J Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1889-94 [The reference number for this book is out of sequence in the
PRONI catalogue- the dates it covers are actually earlier than VAL/12B/37/5H.]
12 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5H Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1895-99
13 PRONI VAL/12B/37/5K Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown ED, 1889-99
14 PRONI VAL/12B/37/6A Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown rural ED, 1899-1911
15 PRONI VAL/12B/37/6B Annual valuation revision book, Cookstown rural ED, 1912-23
16 PRONI VAL/3C/7/5 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Lissan Lower ED, 1936-57

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This is an unusual example of a vernacular farmhouse that has been gentrified in, perhaps, the 1930s. Overall the effect is of an individual interpretation of a robust formality, expressing the historic development of the property. With vernacular houses becoming increasingly rare, one with such decorative elements is even more atypical. The setting amongst a well preserved set of mainly vernacular outbuildings is also of note.