farm house

Detached three- or four-bay single-storey lobby entry thatched farmhouse with dormer attic, extant 1840, on a rectangular plan off-centred on single-bay single-storey gabled windbreak. Occupied, 1990. Vacated, 2004. Now disused. Hipped oat thatch roof overhanging lean-to roofs to window openings to dormer attic with chicken wire-covered degraded stretchers to ridge having exposed scallops, central chimney stack now missing, and exposed wire stretchers to eaves having exposed scallops. Limewashed lime rendered battered walls with limewashed buttress to rear (west) elevation. Square-headed off-central door opening in round-headed recess with concealed dressings including timber lintel framing timber boarded or tongue-and-groove timber panelled door. Square-headed window openings with concrete or rendered sills, and concealed dressings including timber lintels framing two-over-two timber sash windows having part exposed sash boxes. Set in courtyard.

A farmhouse identified as an integral component of the vernacular heritage of south County Wexford by such attributes as the rectilinear lobby entry plan form off-centred on a characteristic windbreak; the construction in unrefined local materials displaying a battered silhouette with a failing surface finish revealing evidence of "daub" or mud; the somewhat disproportionate bias of solid to void in the massing; and the high pitched roof showing a degraded oat thatch finish. A prolonged period of unoccupancy notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the historic or original fabric, thus upholding much of the character or integrity of the composition. Furthermore, adjacent limewashed outbuildings (extant 1840) continue to contribute positively to the group and setting values of a neat self-contained ensemble having long-standing connections with the Browne family (NA 1901; NA 1911).