Magherabeg Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached single-storey lobby-entry lime-rendered thatched dwelling, built c.1800. Rectangular on plan facing north and located at the end of a lane to the west of Magherabeg Road with incorporated byre to the east and further rubblestone byre abutting the west gable.

Pitched corrugated iron roof over original straw thatched roof with brick chimneystack and plastic guttering on iron brackets to redbrick eaves course. Lime render over rubblestone walling. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills and timber window frames.

Front north elevation is four windows wide with a central gabled windbreaker entrance projection. The entrance contains a square-headed door opening with early twentieth-century timber glazed door. The byre to the west has a square-headed door opening with timber sheeted door.

Blank east gable.

Rear elevation is five windows wide, largely boarded up.

West gable abutted by lower rubblestone byre having corrugated iron roof and two door openings.

Setting

Set on an elevated site to the west of Magherabeg Road at the end of a long lane.

Roof Corrugated iron over thatch
Walling render/stone
Windows timber
RWG Plastic

Historical information

A single-storey vernacular house on the Magherabeg Road in the townland of Ballynaris. First appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1833 which depicts the farmhouse as an oblong building possessing a small outbuilding to its north-west side (now demolished). The dwelling was not included in the contemporary Townland Valuations of the 1830s as it was not worth the minimum £3 required for inclusion.

There was little alteration to the site by the second edition of the maps in 1859; however the north-west appears to have been enlarged as it was depicted as a larger structure than in 1833. Griffith’s Valuation (1861) valued the site at only £1 10s. and noted that it was occupied by Samuel Gracey, a local farmer, who leased the farm from a Mr. Robert Dickson.

Samuel Gracey resided at the farm in Ballynaris until 1882 when his son James Gracey came into possession. The 1901 Census notes that Gracey (79, Methodist) was employed as a farmer and resided in Ballynaris with his wife Eliza (60) and their three daughters who were employed as hemstitchers; the census building return described Gracey’s farmhouse as a 2nd class dwelling consisting of three rooms and possessing a stable, two cow houses, a piggery and a barn located in the outbuilding to the north-west of the farmhouse. James Gracey died in 1905 leaving possession of the farm to his widow Eliza (PRONI Wills).

By 1911 the farmhouse had passed into the possession of Thomas J. Arlow (39, Presbyterian), a farmer who resided in Ballynaris with his wife Mary (40) and their four young sons. The census notes that Arlow’s farmhouse still possessed its thatched roof in 1911. Thomas Arlow purchased the farm from the estate of Robert Dickson in 1919, however the farmhouse was occupied by a Mr. Robert L. Smith in 1928 who was the last occupant recorded in the Annual Revisions which ended in 1930. The only addition to the site since 1833 was the construction of a second outbuilding to the west of the single-storey farmhouse between 1903 and 1919-20 when it was first depicted on the fourth edition of the Ordnance Survey maps. This outbuilding was taken down in the mid-20th century sometime before the current edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1971 which only depicts the farmhouse and the north-western outbuilding.

The single-storey farmhouse’s original thatch is now covered with a corrugated-tin replacement roof; field inspection of the interior has found the remains of the original thatched roof. The vernacular cottage is currently laying vacant and has fallen into a state of disrepair.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/21/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/21/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/21/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/21/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map 1919-1920
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/21 – Townland Valuation map 1830s
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/342 – Townland Valuations 1830s
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38A – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10A – Annual Revisions 1864-1878
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10B – Annual Revisions 1879-1891
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10C – Annual Revisions 1892-1898
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10E – Annual Revisions 1899-1908
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10F – Annual Revisions 1909-1930
13. PRONI Wills Catalogue (1 Feb 1905)
14. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
15. Ordnance Survey map – 183-16 (1971)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached single-storey lobby-entry lime-rendered thatched dwelling, built c.1800. Rectangular on plan facing north and with incorporated byre to the east and further rubblestone byre abutting the west gable. Original early thatched roof structure survives with lime rendered walls and original plan form with lobby that is worthy of record. Although of note, insufficient fabric survives to merit listing and there are other, better, examples listed.