Farmhouse

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Long single storey vernacular house of probable pre 1834 construction, with roughcast and whitewashed rubble façade. The property is situated in the isolated surroundings of Mid Island, a small island just off the eastern coastline of Strangford Lough to the west of Greyabbey, attached to the mainland by a narrow rocky causeway. This house is situated on the NE corner of this small and largely wooded island.

The front façade, the NE gable, the return and the left hand side of the rear are finished in rough cast, the rest of the facade painted, except for the SE gable. The gabled roofs are covered with roughly hewn ‘Tullycavey’ slates to the main house and Bangor blues to the return. The main house has stone parapets and two rendered chimney stacks. Cast iron rw goods.

The front elevation faces roughly NE and is asymmetrical. To the right of centre is a timber sheeted house door with a sash window, with horizontal astragals, to the right and two the left. To the left of the far left window are two plain timber sheeted doors, leading to the byre or store areas of the building. To the far right on the front elevation is another plain timber sheeted door, presumably leading to another store room. Above this door the roof level of the house drops roughly 0.3m (in stepped fashion).

The NW and SE gables are blank.

To the rear there is a small single storey gabled return. The gable of the return has a sash window, with Georgian panes, and a rendered projection which supports a small iron water tank to the right side of the gable. There is a timber stable door to the SE side of the return. To the right of the return on the main house there is a small modern looking lean to boiler-house and a tiny boarded up window to the far right. To the left of the return is a sash window, with a small boarded window opening to the far right (at the rear of the stepped section).

There is a small rubble built outbuilding a few metres to the SW of the main building, with (foundation) evidence to suggest that this outbuilding was once longer.

Historical information

A building is shown on this site on the OS Map of 1834, which corresponds with that we see today. This house is known as ‘Jack McAvoy’s farmhouse’ a local man who appears to have lived in the property for most of the twentieth century. The house is now owned by the National Trust. The current resident believes that the house once belonged the Rosemount estate and was then used as the Mid Island gamekeeper’s residence.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI OS/6/3/11/1 OS maps, Down 11, 1834
2 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), pp.67-72 [1834]
3 PRONI VAL/1B/33 1st valuation, Greyabbey, c.1834-38
4 PRONI VAL/2B/3/4 Second valuation, Greyabbey, c.1859
5 PRONI VAL/2B/3/4 Second valuation, Greyabbey, c.1859
6 PRONI OS/6/3/11/2 OS maps, Down 11, 1860
7 PRONI VAL/12B/23/16a-f Annual valuation revision books, Greyabbey, 1866-1930

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

Long, well preserved, single storey vernacular house of probable pre 1834 construction, with roughcast and whitewashed rubble façade.