Holly Cottage

Detached four-bay single-storey direct entry thatched house with dormer attic, extant 1838. Disused, 1999. Extensively renovated, 2000. Pitched roof with replacement reed thatch, exposed steel lattice stretchers to decorative raised ridge having exposed scallops, cement rendered dwarf chimney stack having stringcourse below capping, and concrete or rendered coping to gables. Roughcast battered walls with rendered strips to corners. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills, and concealed dressings framing two-over-two timber sash windows having part exposed sash boxes. Square-headed opposing door openings with concealed dressings framing replacement glazed timber panelled doors. Interior including kitchen retaining hearth, timber boarded opposing doors, loft ladder with reeded timber balusters supporting timber banister terminating in timber newel, and timber boarded vaulted ceiling; and loft bedroom (south-east) with stencilled timber boarded vaulted ceiling. Set back from line of road in landscaped grounds.

A house identified as an integral component of the vernacular heritage of south County Mayo by such attributes as the rectilinear direct entry plan form; the construction in unrefined local fieldstone displaying a feint battered silhouette; and the high pitched roof showing a replenished thatch finish. Having been well maintained, 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 house making a pleasing visual statement in a rural street scene.