House at Redmond's Cross

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The house faces south-eas tand is set on rising ground above Redmond's Cross about eight miles from Newry travelling in a south-westerly direction towards Crossmaglen.

The roadside boundary is made up of a roughly topped random stone wall with round stone pillars supporting a pair of timber gates.

A single storey, two-bay, direct entry house. The thatch roof covering oversails the gables and a rendered corbelled chimneystack rises above each of these features. The wall construction is of rubble stone with a whitened finish. The roof timbers are sawn.

The timber framed and sheeted half entrance door, recessed within a windbreak porch under an extension of the main roof, is flanked on either side by a fixed timber 1/1 plain sashed window with exposed framing but without a sill. There are no openings in the rear wall of the house. A cart shed with lean-to corrugated iron roof occurs on the north- east gable.

The outbuilding close to the main road is thatched also with the material draped over the gables. Metal straps are used to secure the roof structure at the sides.

The entrance that faces the main house has a timber framed and sheeted door to the left of a plain sashed vertically sliding window, with moulded sash stops but without a sill, set in horizontal timber boarding finished by means of a timber bargeboard. This construction is enclosed within stone jambs a form of construction that continues below the window on the right hand side.

The area between this building and that at the rear is entered by a flat iron gate and the surface is of concrete.

The block at the rear has a lean-to corrugated iron roof, with two full length plastic rooflights. Metal straps are in evidence to secure the roof and a pair of doors is timber framed and sheeted.

The walls of this group of structures are of random stone, part whitened. The walls of the front and the rear buildings have been raised.

On the south-west side of the site there are remains of a dancing platform.

Historical information

The house appears on the OS maps of 1835 and 1862. The outbuildings are not shown.

The premises were presented to the parish that in turn passed it on to the Mullach Ban Folklore and Historical Society which undertook a restoration in 1971.

References – Primary Sources

1. OS map, 1st edition 1835, Co. Armagh, sheet 28.
2. OS map, 1st revision 1862, Co. Armagh, sheet 28.

Brett C E B., Buildings of County Armagh, UAHS, Belfast 1999, item164, page 214, colour-plate XIVb.

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

Z. Rarity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A single storey, two-bay, direct entry thatched building. The layout is unchanged and the detailing including windows, doors and fireplaces remains intact.