52 Lisnagat Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An asymmetrical, two-storey, two-bay farmhouse with attached outbuildings, built c.1800 and located on the south side of Lisnagat Road, west of Markethill. Rectangular plan without abutments.

Roof is pitched natural slate with redbrick gable chimneystacks having cogged caps. Rendered eaves band to front; slightly advanced rubble stone eaves to rear. Gutters are gone but iron drive-in brackets remain. Walling is random rubble stone with lime mortar to rear (vestigial to front); rusticated cast-cement quoins to north end. Variety of timber sash windows, including 8/8 windows which are likely to be original, also 2/2, 1/1 and 3/3 to front; rubble stone voussoirs and stone cills to front; rear windows generally without cills.

Principal elevation faces east has timber sheeted door in windbreak porch to left side; three windows to each floor, those to right bay at a slightly lower level, and those to first floor diminished in height.

South gable is abutted by the lower central outbuilding (see later).

Rear elevation has four windows of different dimensions to ground floor rear. Two timber lintels evident to first floor, but no openings visible. One 8/8 window has thick panes of crown glass with hubs; there is also one replacement window with plain glazing.

North gable is blank.

The outbuildings are arranged in a linear plan, detailed from right:
1) Single-storey central range with tin roof, limewashed rubblestone walling built up at eaves with brick indicating former thatch. Timber sheeted door to front, cement render (possibly rebuilt in concrete block) to rear.
2) Two-storey range with limewashed rubblestone walling and pitched slate roof having a large hole. Timber sheeted doors and loft openings. Rear built up with corrugated iron enclosures.
3) End block with tin roof and concrete block walling and metal windows, of no interest.

Setting:
Set on a steep site in rural
setting with farmland to all sides. Main buildings flank the west side of an irregularly shaped sloping concrete yard; east side is bounded by an additional rubblestone outbuilding having pitched tin roof and timber doors. Variety of agricultural buildings to rear, of rubble stone built up in concrete block with tin roofs.

Roof: Slate
Walling: Rubblestone
Windows: Timber
RWG: Missing

Historical information

No. 52 Lisnagat Road, a two-storey rubble stone farmhouse with associated outbuilding in the townland of Damoily, was constructed prior to 1835. The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps for Co. Armagh (1835) depicts a rectangular-shaped building occupying the layout of the current building; the map also records that the outbuilding range adjoining the farmhouse along its south gable, as well as the detached outbuilding located to the east of the dwelling, had also been constructed by the 1830s. In addition to the buildings that continue to stand, the Ordnance Survey map also depicted a third building to the east of the current farm; this was demolished in the 1870s. Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) records that in the parish of Kilcluney (or Kilclooney), one of the major occupations of the population was the weaving of linen and cotton cloth (Lewis).

There was little discernible alteration to the farm between 1835 and 1860; in the latter year the second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps continued to depict the farm and its outbuildings along their previous layout. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1863) records that the farm was occupied by two tenants; along with the majority of the land in the townland and parish, the farm’s plot was owned by the Earl of Charlemont who leased the site out to separate lessors. In 1863 James McGaughey, a local farmer, occupied the two-storey farmhouse and also occupied all the outbuildings that continue to survive on site; Griffith’s Valuation valued McGaughey’s farm at £3. Ankram Marshall, a farmer who resided in a farm to the immediate north, leased the remaining section of the farm (consisting solely of the now demolished eastern building) from the Earl of Charlemont; Marshall continued to reside at his much larger farm and leased the eastern building (which the valuer recorded as a house valued at 10 shillings) to a Mr. Robert Lawson. Robert Lawson continued to reside at his small dwelling to the east of McGaughey’s farm until 1878 when the valuer states it was demolished.

James McGaughey’s son, Joseph McGaughey took over the farm in 1890 and continued to reside there until 1902 when his relative, a Ms. Eliza Jane McGaughey briefly took possession of the site. In 1907 Joseph McGaughey’s son, also named Joseph, became sole occupant of the farm. The 1911 census building return described his farmhouse as a second class dwelling that consisted of five rooms; the numerator recorded that the farms outbuildings were utilised as a stable, a cow house, a piggery and barn. In 1913 Joseph McGaughey purchased the farm outright from the Earl of Charlemont’s estate; his family continued to reside at the site until the death of the last resident. The First Revaluation increased the value of No. 52 Lisnagat Road to £5 in 1935; this was slightly decreased to £4 10s. by the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) which continued to note Joseph McGaughey as both occupant and owner.

There has been little major change to the layout of the farm since the 1830s; in the five decades between the third edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1906) and the fourth edition (1954-55) the general layout remained unaltered and no subsequent changes to the site appear to have been carried out since that time. No. 52 Lisnagat Road is currently vacant. The current owner, and a neighbour, each state that the house was a local ‘ceilidh house’ in the early twentieth century, and possibly earlier, hosting people from throughout the local community for social gatherings.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/2/17/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1835
2. PRONI OS/6/2/17/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/2/17/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1906
4. PRONI OS/6/2/17/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1954-55
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/2/9B – Griffith’s Valuation 1863
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/10/13A-D – Annual Revisions 1864-1929
7. PRONI VAL/3/B/2/1 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland 1935
8. PRONI VAL/4/B/2/2 - Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland 1956-72
9. Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837)
10. Census of Ireland (1911)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
12. Listing Query Files (HB15/LQ086)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An asymmetrical late 18th / early 19thC vernacular farmstead comprising a linear range with two-storey two-bay house and outbuildings arranged around an irregular yard to west of Markethill on the Lisnagat Road. The house is robustly constructed of traditional materials and retains much of its historic fabric and detailing both externally and internally. Its front elevation has a variety of timber sash windows and an irregular fenestration pattern, and is unusual in that the entrance door is positioned to the extreme left. The house is enhanced by the adjoining outbuildings. The group is representative of a building type once common in the Ulster countryside, now increasingly rare.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age and S - Authenticity also apply.