159 Tullysaran Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single storey, three bay, lobby entry thatched house with walls of whitened stone and mud construction.

The house faces south-west behind a low roughcast wall with projecting saddle back coping, square pillars with pyramidal caps and a hoop iron gate overlooking the junction of the Tullysaran and Maydown roads about one and a half miles south of Benburb.

The thatch is contained within raised parapet gables both of which rise to a chimneystack and there is another stack above the position of the kitchen hearth.

The entrance in a windbreak porch under an extension of the thatch covering is flanked on either side by two plain sashed windows with exposed frames and small sash stops. Those on the left (north-west) are more widely spaced.

There is a similar window of reduced dimensions without a sill in the left-hand (north-west) gable and the building extends on the opposite side in corrugated iron roofed construction.

At the rear starting from the north-east corner there is a plain sashed vertically sliding window without a sill and then two metal-framed windows with sills of traditional depths. Finally a lean-to extension is roofed with corrugated iron.

Historical information

The house appears on the 1834 OS map without outbuildings.
A building matching the present, is shown on this site on the OS map of 1835, but not noted in the near contemporary valuation. On the revised map of 1860 a small structure to the south side is also shown.There is no alteration in the shape of the house on the 1860 OS map and the remainder of the site is indistinct.
The property is recorded in the 1862 valuation, but the confusing referencing system on the accompanying map makes it difficult to be certain whether the house was occupied by a Sarah Killane or an Ellen Boyd; whatever the case, it is certain that the property was leased from a John Kilpatrick and possessed the modest rateable value of 10/-.

The building was noted as derelict in 1994, with the structure together with the roof covering in very poor condition at the time. In the same year the new owner was reported as sympathetic to carrying out restoration and Enterprise Ulster were contacted to ascertain if a partnership scheme similar to that at Relagh Guinness, County Tyrone, could be considered. At present, (September 2000), the massive deterioration that has taken place is considered to preclude repair.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/2/7 OS map, County Armagh sheet 7, with valuation
references (1835)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/2/7 OS map, County Armagh sheet 7, with valuation references (1860 [-c.62])
3 PRONI VAL/2B/2/41 Second valuation, Eglish (1862)
4 OS map, 1st edition 1834, Co. Armagh sheet 7.
5 OS map, 1st revision 1860, Co. Armagh sheet 7.

Secondary Sources

Survey of Thatched Buildings 1992, report by Colin Hatrick to EHS
Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick to EHS on 26 April 1994
UAHS, buildings at Risk, 1997, Vol. 4, page 31

Other references

1 EHS Survey of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick to EHS, 1992
2 EHS Monitoring of Thatched Buildings, report by Colin Hatrick to EHS, 26 April 1994

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A single storey, three bay, lobby entry thatched house with walls partly of whitened stone and partly of mud construction. Deterioration has reached a point where massive rebuilding would be required for restoration. This would mean that the building could no longer be considered of special architectural or historic interest.