68 Cavan Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single storey three bay direct entry thatched house with small hips on end gables and two chimneys on ridge rising from internal walls. Projecting porch to north end of central bay with thatch carried over top. Small two pane sash windows without projecting cills – one to each bay. Curve of former entrance projection before addition of the porch visible to its south side.

Building is located perpendicular to and below the adjacent main road, a small barn of similar size to the house is located to the near and roofed in concrete tiles. The yard between has been filled with a modern extension to the house forming a triple pile arrangement.

The south elevation has a blank gable to the original house and barn and a pitched glazed entrance to the modern extension.

The north west elevation of the original house is now obscured. There is a door and modern window to the barn.

To the north a small path separates the building from a steep slope to the road. There is a long metal window to the modern extension.

To the rear of the building a small courtyard is terminated by a row of farm buildings with one side open in a colonnade to the yard. The building is reached via a steep road from the east dropping from the main road through a pair of 1970’s metal gates

Historical information

The owner (December 2000) stated that this house was always considered to be of great antiquity, however it is not shown on the 1834 / 35 OS map, first appearing on that of 1857. It is also thought that the house originally consisted of a single room, extended firstly to the north and then to the south. The room to the south has slightly narrower walls suggesting it was probably a later addition, but there is no physical evidence to show that the north end was also. The owner also said that the wall containing the hearth, (once the south gable wall), was built of turf until it partially collapsed about 25 years ago; it was rebuilt in concrete block. The rest of the walls are built in stone.

The building is noted in the second valuation of 1862, when it was leased from John Brady Esq by one James Browne, with the rateable value recorded as £1-5-0. The present occupants have lived in the house since 1981 when it was bought with 9 acres of land. Before that it was occupied by a Mrs Armstrong and prior to that her aunt, Mrs Elizabeth Lee.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/4/40 OS map, County Fermanagh sheet 40, with valuation
references, (1834 / 35-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/4/40A Revised OS map, County Fermanagh sheet 40, with valuation references, (1857-c.62)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/4/6 Second valuation, Drumully (1862)

Secondary sources
1 Information supplied by the owner (December 2000)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A well preserved thatched building built post 1835, with most walls and render. Of interest for its scarcity, attractiveness, and importance as an example of a vernacular type with its plan form intact in the historic parts of the house.