21 Carrickatane Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The building faces south-east and occupies a roadside position with its rear to a minor road that proceeds in a general north-easterly direction off the road from Dunnamanagh to Londonderry and about two miles from the former town. From the intersection a turn is made to the leftwithin less than half a mile and the dwelling is seen after travelling for a further mile. The rear of the building, a little below the roadway, is protected by a timber post and three-barred fence.

The house is one and a half storey, direct entry, three structural bay, and thatched, with accommodation in part of the roofspace. The walls are finished in roughcast with a whitened finish and the roof is thatched with flax between concrete copings. Each gable rises to a corbelled chimneystack constructed of modern brickwork and a similar feature is over the position of the original kitchen hearth. The termination of a metal flue protrudes from this stack.

All of the fenestration is modern but occupying the original openings apart from that serving the present kitchen that is of increased dimension.

The flush entrance door with glazed upper part is flanked to the left (south-west) by one window with top opener above two vertical panes, and to the right (north-east) firstly by a similar window and then by a window with central mullion and top opener in the left hand section. The sills are of intermediate depths at the leading edges. The north-east gable contains a small top hung window lighting the single bedroom in the roof space. The sill is of intermediate depth. The south-west gable contains a small single pane top hung window with a narrow sill.

At the rear starting from the right hand (south-west) corner there are two small top hung windows, then a plain top hung sash and finally the window of larger proportion that is made up of three vertical sections with a top opener in the central unit. Sills are of more traditional depths.

Historical information

A building matching the location and plan of the current structure is shown on the OS map of 1832. In the valuation of December 1833 this building is recorded as a thatched house of at least twenty years old in the hands of a William Rankin and measuring 52½ft x 22½ x 8S, with thatched single-storey outbuildings close by. The pencil annotations to the map accompanying the second valuation of 1859 make it difficult to determine what houses are actually being referred to in this townland, this house may be that noted as home of one Mitchell Woods, leased from Jonathon Holmes.

The Historic Buildings Council recommended listing of this building on 2 September 1988 and statutory listing took place on 26 June 1989.

Re-thatching was carried out in July 1992 by Billy Kilpatrick using flax, with further re-thatching in 1996. Another re-thatching scheme was carried out in 2001, but as yet, (October 2003), the second part of this scheme has not been completed.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/6/3 OS map, County Tyrone sheet 3, with valuation
references, (1832-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/639A First valuation, Donaghedy (1833)
3 PRONI VAL/2A/6/3A Revised OS map, County Tyrone sheet 3, with valuation references, (1858-c.59)
4 PRONI VAL/2B/6/42C Second valuation, Donaghedy (1859)

Other references
1 EHS files
2 EHS Survey of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick, 1992
3 EHS Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, report by Michele McFaul to EHS, 2 June 1994
4 EHS Report by John McIlhagga to EHS, 21 October 1999

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A one and a half storey,direct entry, three structural bay thatched house with accommodation in part of the roof space.The walls are white roughcast and the roof is thatched with flax.The modernisation that has taken place has not affected the most important elements ie the original layout and the roof structure. The windows have been altered but the original openings remain.