Farmhouse

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached direct-entry two-bay single-storey painted rubblestone thatch-under-tin dwelling, built c.1800 with single-bay byre to south gable. Rectangular on plan facing northwest accessed via shared lane on elevated site to the southwest off Edentrillick Road.

Pitched corrugated iron over straw thatch roof with two rendered chimneystacks and redbrick eaves course. Painted rubblestone walling. Square-headed window and door openings formed in redbrick with concrete sills and timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes. Pitched natural slate roof to rear pitch of south byre.

Front elevation is three windows wide with horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sash windows and a square-headed door opening to the right bay with plywood glazed door. The byre to the south gable extends the front elevation by a further bay with a vertically-sheeted timber half-door.

Blank north gable abutted by a lower roofless rubblestone byre.

Rear elevation is five windows wide with corrugated iron sheeting to all opes.

Blank south gable wall.

Setting:
Set on an elevated wooded site accessed via shared bitmac lane to the southwest of Edentrillick Road.

Roof Thatch under tin
RWG Removed
Walling Painted rubblestone
Windows 2/2 timber sash

Historical information

This single-storey vernacular farmhouse situated in the townland of Aghandunvarran south of Hillsborough first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 where it was depicted as a single oblong building. The house does not appear in the Townland Valuation of the 1830s, however by 1861 Griffith's Valuation records that it was occupied by a Mr. Robert Sterling who let the £1 5s. building from the Marquis of Downshire. The contemporary second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1859 records that the small outbuilding currently situated to the west of the house was constructed sometime between 1833 and 1859. The north-east facing extension to the building appears to have been constructed at the same time as the farmhouse and was used as a stable block.

It is unclear when Robert Sterling vacated the farmhouse, however the 1901 Census records that a Mr. John Sterling, a local Methodist farmer, occupied the house with his sister Elizabeth who was employed as a house maid. The census building return described the house as a 2nd class dwelling which consisted of three rooms and possessed a thatched roof; according to the census out office return the farmhouse did not possess any out offices aside from the west outbuilding. Neither the farmhouse nor John Sterling appear in the 1911 Census making it difficult to ascertain the later history of the building, however field research has found that the originally thatched roof of the farmhouse has been substituted with a slate roof whilst a corrugated tin replacement has been placed over the adjoining stable block. The farmhouse is currently unoccupied and has fallen into a state of disrepair, primarily used as a storage space by the current owners.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/21/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/21/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/21/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/21/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45B – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
6. Census of Ireland 1901 / 1911

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached direct-entry two-bay single-storey painted rubblestone vernacular dwelling, built c.1800 with single-bay byre to south gable. A modest dwelling no longer in residential use which retains some evidence of a thatched roof under the corrugated iron. The interior and exterior retain some features of a vernacular house but there has also been loss of historic detailing and fabric.