1 Dornan’s Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

The building occupies a roadside frontage, behind a simple iron fence, on the north side of the road that leads from Lower Ballinderry to the church ruin beside Lough Beg. The front elevation faces south.

The house is single storey with a hipped reed thatch roof that is in poor condition.

Only the base of the red brick chimney stack remains. The walls are constructed of fieldstone with mud, and brick, infill. The section of the front to the left (west) of the entrance has been reconstructed with modern material, and has been roughcast. The construction to the right (east) remains in fieldstone and brick. At the rear the fieldstone construction returns at the ends between which there is a section of mud walling. The right hand (east) gable is a fine example of mortared fieldstone.
On the front elevation the ledged and sheeted door is flanked to the left (west) by two window openings now boarded up. There are loose window frames set within the building. The opening to the right (east) contains the remains of a nine pane fixed window frame.

The rear elevation starts from the left (east) with two empty openings, and concludes with the remains of a six pane fixed window divided 2/2/2.

There are no openings in the ends of the building.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS map of 1832-33, but not included in the near contemporary first valuation. Unfortunately the map accompanying the second valuation of c.1860 is damaged, so we cannot be sure of the details regarding the property at that point. However, the house may be that recorded as occupied by a Thomas Langty, with Jacob Culbert the immediate lessor and the rateable value calculated at 15/-.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1A/1/62 OS map, County Antrim sheet 62, with valuation
references (1832 / 33-c.38)
2 PRONI VAL/2A/1/62B OS map, County Antrim sheet 62, with valuation references (1857-c.60)
3 PRONI VAL/2B/1/58B Second valuation, Ballinderry (c.1860)

Secondary sources
1 Gailey, Alan, ‘Rural Houses of the North of Ireland’ (Edinburgh, 1984), pp.69, 77 and 88.
2 EHS Monitoring of thatched buildings, 16/ 6/1994

Corrospondence and letters in EHS file since listing.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
F. Structural System
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

This house, which faces south, occupies a roadside frontage on the north side of the road that leads from Lower Ballinderry to the church ruin beside Lough Beg. The continuing existence of a form of hipped roof construction is rare in this location which is a considerable distance from the areas where it survived in parts of Fermanagh and Cavan.The building is of at least early 19th. C origin but could be much older.
The timbers are exposed throughout the interior, and the cruck blades add significantly to the interest of the house.
It will be possible to retain, and strengthen, most of the roof structure. Some rebuilding of the walls will be required, including the sections of mud walling. The view of the stonework that is used to construct the right hand gable illustrates the quality that may be achieved.