Fortland

The saved account records: Detached three-bay two-storey over basement farmhouse, built 1810

The saved account records: extant 1838, on a U-shaped plan with single-bay two-storey lean-to bows to end bays on elliptical plans

The saved account records: three-bay full-height rear (south) elevation.

The saved account records: Hipped slate roof on a U-shaped plan extending into lean-to slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, paired rendered central chimney stacks having chamfered capping, and cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered cut-limestone eaves retaining cast-iron octagonal or ogee hoppers and downpipes.

Fortland matters for the exact reasons given in its official assessment, rather than merely because it is an old structure. The source records: A farmhouse erected for Major Oliver Cuff Jackson (d. 1845; Lewis 1837 I, 438) representing an integral component of the early nineteenth-century domestic built heritage of County Mayo with the architectural value of the composition, one rooted firmly in the contemporary Georgian fashion, suggested by such attributes as the deliberate alignment maximising on scenic vistas overlooking landscaped grounds; the compact plan form centred on an understated doorcase, albeit one largely obscured by a later porch; and the somewhat disproportionate bias of solid to void in the massing compounded by the diminishing in… This explains what the place adds to local life, the street or the surviving built history.