16 Drumlee Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one-and-a-half storey two-bay direct-entry farmhouse pre-dating 1834; rectangular plan form with gabled windbreaker porch, lower adjoining byre and further detached outbuildings. Located at the end of a long lane to the north side of Drumlee Road approximately 4 miles west of Castlewellan.

Pitched natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles and cement skews; ruled-and-lined rendered chimneystacks with corbelled upper courses and clay pots; corbelled red brick eaves and no rainwater goods. Lime render over rubble masonry walling. 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with exposed sash-box, horns and concrete cills (unless otherwise stated). Replacement flush timber front door set into earlier timber frame encompassing over-light with vertical margins and central paired glazing bars. Gabled front porch with natural slate roofing, timber wave bargeboards.

Asymmetrical principal elevation facing southwest on an inclining site from right to left. Centrally positioned entrance porch with single window to the left and tripartite window to the right (largely obscured by dense vegetation in deep masonry planter).

The left gable is abutted by linear single-storey byres (former door located on the right side of the gable visible from inside. The byres have natural slate roofing with clay ridge tile and corbelled brick eaves course; exposed brick chimneystack and lime render over rubble masonry walling. Painted timber sheeted doors with timber lintels and ventilation/waste openings to the northeast external wall adjacent to internal stone lined drain.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged with a variety of sash and fixed lights with no cills. Single sash window ground floor right; fixed 9-pane light ground floor central; irregular 3/1 sliding sash with vertical glazing bars first floor right of centre.

The right gable is symmetrically arranged. Ruled-and-lined cement rendered. Two timber casement first floor windows; right window largely obscured by dense sprawling vegetation. Projecting corner stones.

Setting

Rural
setting away from the main road and accessed via a long lane that bypasses two modern dwellings. Single and two-storey rubble masonry outbuildings west of dwelling. Stepped single-storey range running perpendicular to the byres, natural slate and corrugated-iron roofing; timber lintels to sheeted door. The two-storey range runs parallel to the lane; has a natural slate roof with brick flat-arches to openings with a double-leaf round-headed arched doorway formed in brick to the northwest gable. Further large twentieth-century corrugated iron shed to the south. Cobble stone paving with flag stones addressing the front entrance to the farmhouse. Cylindrical rubble masonry piers supporting. Wrought-iron gates adjacent to the east and south of the site.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: stone/render
Windows: timber
RWG: None

Historical information

Buildings are shown on the first edition OS map of 1834 which correspond to the dwelling house and stone-built outbuildings present on the site today. Some minor additions have been made to the site over the years, most notably a mid-twentieth century barn, but the essential form of the farmyard has remained unaltered.

The farmhouse does not appear in the Townland Valuation (1828-40) as it would not have reached the threshold for inclusion. Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) lists the tenant as Hugh Magill Junior who leased a farm of around 12 acres from the Marquess of Downshire at a rent of £9.2s annually. The buildings were valued at £3 and a pencilled note in the fieldbook suggests that the dwelling house was rebuilt or remodelled at around this time. Hugh Magill increased his land holding to 23 acres in 1867 and in 1871 the valuation of buildings on the site was increased to £7.10s, suggesting further additions or improvements at this time. However, during the following decades this valuation was increasingly considered unreasonable and by 1897 had been reduced again to £4.

At the time of the 1901 census, resident in the house were widow Eliza Magill and her four children aged 16 to 26. The five room house with eight outbuildings was slated and designated second class. Eliza’s son Robert R Magill became the owner in fee of the farm in 1922, under land purchase legislation and remained resident at the time of the 1933/4 revaluation. The accommodation then comprised two receptions, a kitchen and two bedrooms upstairs, the valuer commenting that there was no ceiling on the first floor in the 1930s, although it has subsequently been ceiled. The interior decoration of the house suggests that it was inhabited until at least the 1970s but it is currently vacant.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/42/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/42/2 Second Edition OS map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/42/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/3/42/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-20
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/51B Griffith’s Valuation (1863)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/20A-E Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
7. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/1 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/D/5 First General Revaluation (1933-57)

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

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A one-and-a-half storey two-bay direct-entry farmhouse pre-dating 1834. Overall the historic character and detailing of the farmhouse and associated outbuildings has survived. Modifications to the house illustrate the changing needs and general upgrading undertaken by owners to improve living conditions. The original setting also survives with features including wrought-iron gates and cobble paving This is a good complex of traditional vernacular buildings in a rural setting, including a developed house, which is becoming increasingly rare hereabouts.