431 Belturbet Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A storey-and-a half, six window bay, lobby entry, thatched vernacular house with mature garden to front and farmyard containing stone barns to rear. Former main Cavan to Derrylin Road to front of garden wall, this has now been rerouted to the rear of the building at a higher level. A small rubble stone wall and cast iron Victorian gates compliment the
setting. The two stage gates have reeded side columns to each side with sub Doric style capitals. Rambling roses along the wall contribute to the setting.

To the south of the building is the Woodford River which curves around the site at low level. The house is visible from the river and adds to the character of this tourist route.

The front façade faces south east onto the garden and is six bays long. Two Georgian style six over six sash windows to the south west, a sheeted and painted entrance door in the third bay, three six over six sash windows as before in the remaining three openings. All windows have sandstone cills, walls are rendered in wet dash and white washed. Unusually for a vernacular house, the windows are large and are of the full Georgian size. Three rendered and painted chimneys are located on the ridge: one at each gable and one in a central location. The central chimney is higher and is surmounted by two pots rather than the single pot of the other two. Each chimney has a projecting stringcourse detail at approximately the same level.

To the south west gable there is a smaller six over six window at high level centred on the facade. Below, a six over six sash of square proportion lights the rear of the kitchen inside.

To the rear a flat roofed extension of two metres depth sits out from the building along most of the façade. The end bay is as original and has a single six over six sash. In the extension are three windows and a rear door. Though of modern proportion all have had sash windows installed and sandstone cills to match the main building.

The north east gable is blank apart from a central six over six window at high level which lights the gable.

Thatch on the roof at the time of the survey [2001] was in rye straw. Scallop fixings hidden except at the ridge and eaves . Three lines of hazel rods (liggers) fixed along the ridge with a single ligger along the eaves. Sand cement parging at gables and chimneys. Thatch sits up from gable by approximately 100mm. The thatched roof is cut back horizontally at the eaves.

The stone farm buildings adjacent to the house are complimentary to its setting. A single storey slated stone barn is situated to the south west a storey and a half barn is located to the rear and has a corrugated metal roof. These buildings are unrendered and rubble sandstone is exposed.

Historical information

A building matching the present is shown on the first edition OS map of 1834 / 35 and recorded in the contemporary valuation as a ‘house and offices’ occupied by a Owen Donigan, with the relatively high rateable value of £5-5-0. Farrell Donigan is listed as the occupant in the second valuation of 1862, with the Earl of Erne recorded as the lessor. By this point the rateable value had risen slightly, to £5-10-0.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/4/42 OS map, County Fermanagh sheet 42, with valuation
references (1834 / 35-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/1B/413 First valuation, Kinawley (c.1835)
3 PRONI VAL/2A/4/42A Revised OS map, County Fermanagh sheet 42, with valuation references (1857-c.62)
4 PRONI VAL/2B/4/8A Second valuation, Kinawley (1862)
5 Ordnance Survey 1970 Edition Sheet 271/8

The building is considered to date from circa 1720 with modifications in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The plan form is largely unchanged today from the first edition map with the exception of some barns to the rear and the flat roofed extension noted. The building was originally designed to command the view over the nearby Aghalane bridge which is now gone.

Building first recorded by EHS in 1984 and the extension existed at that time though it is not indicated on the 1973 OS map. The building was listed in 1992 and thatched in straw in 1995 to the front. In 1996 the rear slope was thatched and in 1999 another coat applied both in wheat straw.

In the works of renovation of 1996 a mud wall was discovered in the western bay (the majority of the building is constructed from rubble sandstone). This collapsed during the works. These works formed the new dining area in a previously external recess under the rear extension roof. The fireplace was substantially rebuilt. Internal walls and ceilings were replastered and floor structure largely replaced. Sash windows were added to replace former casements to the rear and sides.

The house has been in the ownership of the present family for a number of generations.

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

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A large picturesque thatched house of probable eighteenth century date in a mature setting beside a river. Internal plan partly altered but main external appearance unchanged since the nineteenth century. Historic roof structure largely intact. Of interest as a now rare survival of a large thatched house in this part of Northern Ireland .