farm house

Detached four-bay single-storey direct entry thatched farmhouse, extant 1894. Now disused. Part mesh-covered pitched reed or rye straw thatch roof on collared timber construction with remains of exposed stretchers to degraded ridge having exposed scallops, rendered dwarf chimney stack having stringcourse below capping, concrete or rendered coping to gables, and remains of exposed stretchers to eaves having exposed scallops. Limewashed rendered battered walls over coursed rubble limestone construction with hammered limestone flush quoins to corners. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills[?], and concealed dressings framing one-over-one timber sash windows having part exposed sash boxes. Square-headed opposing door openings with rough hewn limestone lintels framing timber boarded doors. Interior including kitchen retaining hearth with rusticated surround, opposing doors now missing, and timber boarded vaulted ceiling; parlour (south-west) retaining timber surrounds to window openings framing timber boarded splayed reveals, and timber boarded vaulted ceiling; and bedroom (north-east) retaining hearth with rough hewn lintel. Set in unkempt grounds perpendicular to road with rendered piers to perimeter having segmental capping supporting flat iron "farm gate".

A dilapidated farmhouse identified as an important component of the nineteenth-century vernacular heritage of south County Mayo by such attributes as the alignment perpendicular to the road; the rectilinear direct entry plan form; the construction in unrefined local fieldstone displaying a feint battered silhouette; and the high pitched roof showing a degraded thatch finish. A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the elementary form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the historic or original fabric, both to the exterior and to the interior, thereby upholding the character or integrity of a farmhouse making a pleasing, if increasingly forlorn visual statement in a rural street scene.