Inver Orange Hall

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-storey Orange Hall with central projecting porch. Aligned roughly E-W within a maturely planted garden to NE of Inver Lough.

Pitched natural slate roof with brick chimney to each gable. Advanced eaves course supports half-round metal rainwater goods. Walls are wet dashed and painted over rubble stone.

Principal elevation faces N. It is abutted to centre by a projecting entrance porch detailed as main block with decorative timber bargeboards. To either side of projecting porch on main block, is a semicircular-headed window without cill; all windows are now boarded over. N face of porch contains the entrance door set within a semicircular-headed opening – door is modern timber sheeted with plainly glazed transom over. Above is a painted stone shield reading “INVER HALL/ A.D. 1868/1690”. Its left and right cheeks are blank.

Left gable is completely abutted by a lower extension detailed as main block with curved corrugated metal roof. The exposed section is blank. The N face and left gable of the return each have a window. Rear elevation is blank.

Rear elevation of main block has two windows with stone cills.

Right gable is blank.

After a visit early in 2004, the hall was described as

This Orange hall was extended and completely renovated c.2002 and now has a sharp, modern appearance. The building is now considerably longer than that recorded in 2000, stretching further to the W, with the previous extension to the W gable completely demolished. The front elevation is now asymmetrical, with the entrance porch now to right (E) of centre with three windows to its left and one to its right. The walls are finished in painted roughcast with a recessed base course finished in plain cement render, and the windows have PVC frames. The gabled roof, (which one assumes was entirely rebuilt), is covered in artificial slate and has plain bargeboards and a small, rendered chimneystack (to the E end).

The hall was largely rebuilt following an arson attack in summer 2011. Officially reopened in July 2014, the building now has a symmetrical frontage with a central porch and two window openings either side of this.

Historical information

The datestone (relocated to the present porch) reads 'Inver Hall 1868' with '1890' inscribed directly below this. As ‘Inver Orange Hall’ is mentioned to in a newspaper report of April 1870, we may assume that the earlier date is likely to represent the date of construction; however, it is possible that the latter year may indicate rebuilding at this time. It is marked - as ‘Inver Hall’ - on the OS map of 1907.

Originally symmetrical in plan with a central entrance porch, the building underwent a major refurbishment in c.2002 when it was extended to the west. The hall was gutted in an arson attack of June 2011 and was subsequently largely rebuilt in its present form, officially reopening in July 2014.

References – Primary sources
1 Datestone on hall
2 ‘Belfast Weekly News’ – 16 April 1870, p.5
3 ‘Fermanagh Times’ – 25 July 1901, p.2
4 OS map, county series Fermanagh sheet 36 – 1907
5 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-13988517 [BBC News website - 1 July 2011, accessed 18 September 2025]
6 https://fermanaghherald.com/2014/07/fresh-start-for-border-community-three-years-after-sectarian-thugs-burnt-their-hall-to-the-ground/ [Fermanagh Herald website – 12 July 2014, accessed 18 September 2025]

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Later 19th century single-storey Orange hall, largely rebuilt in c.2014 following extensive fire damage.