208 Gorticashel Road,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached two-bay single-storey direct-entry dwelling, built c.1810, located to the north side of Gorticashel Road, Omagh. Direct-entry rectangular plan.

Roof is natural slate, blue/black clay ridge tiles; single rubble stone gable chimneystack. Walls are roughly coursed rubble stone (lime-rendered at west). Windows are 2/2 timber sliding-sashes with stone heads and cills. Most openings are now empty with only a few timber frames remaining.

Principal elevation faces west and contains wind-break porch at centre flanked by window at each side. Wind-break porch is natural slated with vertically sheeted timber entrance door.

Left (north) gable is blank.

Rear (east) elevation has out-shot at right; exposed section has single window opening at left; out-shot is blank.

Right (south) gable contains single opening at left (attic).

Setting:-
Located in a remote rural location, and possibly connected with two-storey mill building at south.

Roof: Natural Slate
Walling: Rendered / stone
Windows: Timber
RWG: N/A

Historical information

The building is shown on the first edition OS map of 1833, as is a corn mill to the north of the site.

The Townland Valuation map includes the house under the plot reference for the mill to the north. This is recorded as a ‘dwelling house, office, corn mill, kiln and land’, which is occupied by Patrick Donnelly. A marginal note reads ‘this mill would let for ten guineas per annum. We think £7 a fair value for it independent of any of the tenants being bound to grind in it’.

Griffith’s Valuation records the property as a ‘corn mill, kiln and land’, with a value of £8.10s occupied by Cornelius McCrea and leased from William Hope. There are three houses associated with the plot and leased from Cornelius McCrea and the current house appears to be one that is valued at 4s. A marginal note reads ‘in six months of the year there is nothing done here, average working time of the remaining six months say 6 hours per day’. The mill’s valuation increases to £12 in 1875 and the buildings on the plot appear to be valued together from this point onwards.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/19/1-4 - Ordnance Survey Maps (1833, 1854, 1906, 1952)
2. PRONI VAL/1/A/6/19 - Townland Valuation (1820-1840)
3. PRONI VAL/1/B/643 - Townland Valuation (1820-1840)
4. PRONI VAL/2/A/6/19A - Griffith’s Valuation Map (1858)
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/6/45B - Griffith’s Valuation (1858)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/39/13A-D - Valuation Revisions (1867-1923)
7. PRONI VAL/12/D/6/19C - Valuation Revisions Map (1896-1925)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached two-bay single-storey direct-entry dwelling, built c.1810. Largely intact in plan form and detailing, this building is a survivor of the small vernacular of rural Northern Ireland. However, it is of a relatively common type and is not among the best examples of a traditional rural dwelling.