McBrien’s

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one and a half storey direct entry thatched house with roughly plastered and whitened walls. The thatched roof covering terminates in cement skews and there are two corbelled chimneystacks without pots. One serves the kitchen and the parlour fireplaces and the other takes the flue from the bedroom fireplace.

The house faces south-west and is approached by a short lane that proceeds to the north-east from the Derrylin/Belturbet road about a mile and a half from the former village.

The timber sheeted entrance door fronts a gabled porch, with timber bargeboard and natural/fibre cement slates, is flanked to the left (north-west) by two, and to the right by one, metal-framed window with sills of traditional depth all in original openings. There are no openings in the gables and a small opening in the rear wall of the kitchen now contains an electrical control box.

A store abuts the north-west gable. It is roofed with corrugated iron and entered by means of a timber ledged braced and sheeted door.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834 / 35, but not recorded in the first valuation of c.1835. It is included in the second valuation of 1862, with Patrick Kearn listed as the occupant, William Thomas Mulvanny the lessor, with a rateable value of 10/-. The house is shown without outbuildings on the former OS map, but one outbuilding, to the southeast, is shown on the latter.

When surveyed in 1992 the condition of the thatch was recorded as fair and was maintained with some patching, by Seamus Curry, in 1994. In the same year it was noted that further attention was required, particularly on the rear slope. Re-thatching was carried out in 1999 by Frank Gilligan using rye straw.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/4/38 OS map, County Fermanagh sheet 38, with valuation
references (1834 / 35-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/4/38B Revised OS map, County Fermanagh sheet 38, with valuation references (1857-62)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/4/8C Second valuation, Kinawley (1862)

Secondary sources
1 EHS Survey of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick, 1992
2 EHS Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, report by Michele McFaul to EHS, 23 April 1994

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A one and a half storey three bay, direct entry thatched house with roughly plastered and whitened walls. The layout is unaltered and apart from the insertion of metal-framed windows the detailing remains intact. The kitchen hearth, the staircase position and especially the retention of the completely unaltered roof structure are noteworthy.