257 Mullylusty Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single storey three bay direct entry thatched house with windbreak porch and whitened harled finish on rubble stone walls.

The site is entered by a pair of spear-headed iron gates, hung on square concrete pillars and by a stone stile into a gravelled forecourt. Flagging in front of the entrance extends as far as the wall on the left (south) side. The house faces east a short distance off the road that travels from Belcoo to Boho just over two miles from the former town.

The thatched covering that terminates at the gables with cement skews has two rows of scollops exposed at the ridge and one at the eaves. The thatch projects over the porch to protect the entrance. A flaunched chimneystack to right of centre on the ridgeline serves the kitchen hearth.

The hared finish is made up of a traditional mix that includes cow manure, pig’s blood and hot lime from Carson’s Quarry.
A timber sheeted entrance door, recessed within the porch, is flanked to the left (south) by one and to the right by two small vertically sliding windows with sashes divided into two vertically. Sash stops are splayed and the sills are of traditional depths. The entrance is provided with door blocks. There are no openings at the rear or in the gables.

Historical information

A house, without outbuildings or any formal access to the road, is shown on this site on the OS map of 1834 / 35. It is not recorded in the (near) contemporary first valuation. On the revised map of 1857 an outbuilding is shown to the front of the house as well but no access from the road is yet indicated. The property is included in the second valuation of 1862, with James McGrory listed as the occupant, William Nixon the immediate lessor, with the rateable value calculated at the modest sum of 5/-.

The thatched covering was repaired in 1989 and 1991, with re-thatching carried out in 1993 by Thatching Advisory Services Limited using combed wheat straw. Another re-thatch was undertaken in 1998, this time by Billy Kilpatrick using rye straw, with repairs carried out in 2003.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/4/25 OS map, County Fermanagh sheet 25, with valuation
references (1834 / 35-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/4/25A Revised OS map, County Fermanagh sheet 25, with valuation references (1857-c.62)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/4/2A Second valuation, Cleenish (1862)

Secondary sources
1 EHS Survey of Thatched Buildings, Colin Hatrick, 1992
2 EHS Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, Michele McFaul, May 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

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

A single storey, three bay, direct entry thatched house with windbreak porch under an extension of the roof covering. The finish is harled and whitened. All of the early features are retained including the layout, floor level hearth, roof structure and thatched covering together with the windows and windbreak porch below an extension of the thatch. This house is an unique example of its type and is of international interest.