house

Detached three-bay single-storey direct-entry vernacular house with attic level, built c. 1820, having central flat-roofed windbreak porch to the front elevation (south-east), single-storey flat-roofed extension to the north-east, and with single-bay single-storey flat-roofed addition to the rear (north-west). Now out of use. Pitched flax thatch roof having overhanging eaves, metal pegs below eaves level and to gable ends for securing ropes over thatch, and having rendered chimneystacks to the gable ends (north-east and south-west). Roughcast rendered walls over smooth rendered plinth course. Square-headed window opening having replacement timber casement windows and painted concrete sills. Square headed door opening to windbreak porch having battened timber door. Set back from road in own grounds to the east of Rosnakill and to the south end of the Fanad Peninsula. Detached four-bay single-storey outbuilding\byre to the north-west having pitched flax thatched roof with pegs below eaves level, rubble stone walls, and square-headed doorways with battened timber doors. Additional single-storey outbuildings to site having pitched corrugated with roof with raised rendered verges to gable ends, rubble stone walls, and square-headed openings with timber fittings. Site approached via narrow tree-lined laneway from the east. Gravel forecourt to south-east.

Although no longer occupied, this charming and well-maintained thatched vernacular house retains its early form and character, and is an appealing feature in the rural landscape to the west of Rosnakill. Modest in scale, it exhibits the simple and functional form of vernacular building in Ireland. It retains some characteristic features of the vernacular tradition to the area including a windbreak porch. Of particular interest in the survival of the flax thatch roof, although recently renewed, which is now sadly becoming increasingly rare in Donegal. The rounded roof is a typical feature of thatched houses located close to the sea in exposed areas in the north-west of Ireland, while the pegs to the eaves were used to tie ropes (and sometimes nets) over the roof to secure it against the prevailing winds, as is the case here at Aghadreenan. The form of this building and location of the chimneystacks suggests that this building is of the ‘direct entry’ type that is characteristic of the vernacular tradition in north-west Ireland. The outbuildings to site, particularly that thatched outbuilding, add significantly to the context and setting, and is an important vernacular survival in its own right. This house represents a fine surviving example of a once ubiquitous building type in the rural Irish countryside, and is one of the better and more attractive surviving examples of its type in County Donegal.