Railway watch house

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one-storey/ three-bay former railway crossing keeper's house, aligned E-W on the north side of the line of the former railway.

Pitched natural slate roof with exposed rafter tails and scalloped eaves boards. The bargeboard to the east gable is similarly detailed, but that to the west gable is plain. Half-round metal gutters. Walls are random rubble and rendered with painted wet-dash lime mortar. Rendered chimney on east gable and a second, taller one (rendered brick) between left and middle bays (as viewed from south).

The principal elevation faces south and is five openings wide. At left is a t+g door, with window to its right, both serving the left bay. The middle bay is lit by a single window, and the right bay by two windows. The windows are regularly spaced and are 2/2 sliding sashes (with horns). They have flat brick heads, stepped brick jambs, and sandstone cills.

The left (W) gable is blank.

The rear (N) elevation has a metal downpipe to centre. It is blank save for a narrow t+g door at extreme right; this opening was subsequently completely infilled with random rubble).

The right (E) gable is blank.

Immediately to the left of the left gable is a pair of square one-piece stone pillars, from one of which hangs a wrought-iron 'sunburst' gate.

Although the line of the railway is no longer obvious in the vicinity of the house, it is traceable as an embankment a short distance to the east.

Historical information

This railway-related house is on the line between Clones and Cavan. This section was opened in 1862 by the Clones & Cavan Extension Railway. The line was absorbed into the Great Northern Railway network in 1876. The line remained in use until 1960. The house itself was not built until c.1887 and was occupied until the mid 1980s.

Primary sources:
1. Valuation Revision book, 1887 (PRONI VAL 12B/25/2C, p.3).

Secondary sources:
1. S. Johnson, Johnson's Atlas & Gazetteer of the Railways of Ireland (Leicester, 1997).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

This building is of significant interest in being the only such gatehouse on the Clones-Cavan line to lie within Northern Ireland. The embellished eaves and bargeboards give strong character.