house

Detached five-bay single-storey vernacular house, built c. 1780, with windbreak porch to front, outshot to rear and single-bay single-storey corrugated-metal roofed outbuilding extension to gable. Rounded thatched roof with netting restraint and metal stays to eaves, and roughcast rendered chimneystacks with stepped coping. Roughcast rendered walls to front and whitewashed rubble walls to rear; smooth rendered walls to porch. Square-headed window openings with two-over-two horned timber sash windows and timber casement windows to rear. Square-headed door openings with replacement battened timber doors. Detached single-storey outbuilding to north-east comprising of pitched corrugated-cement roof and roughcast rendered walls, square-headed window openings with timber framed windows and ashlar sandstone sills. Detached single-bay single-storey outbuilding to rear comprising of pitched corrugated-metal roof and roughcast rendered random rubble walls. Well surrounded by dry-rubble wall to rear. Fronts directly onto street.

A thatched vernacular house, surviving in fine condition. A good example of its type, and a valuable addition to the architectural heritage of the area. Its continued use of this and sympathetic maintenance have safeguarded its character and enhances its appreciation, and contribution to the historic environment of Ballymagaraghy. The rounded pitched roof is designed to minimise the impact of high winds, demonstrating the subtle adaptation of more common thatch detail to accommodate local climatic variations in exposed areas such as the Inishowen peninsula. The house is marked on the Ordnance Survey first edition six-inch map of c. 1837 map, forming part of an extensive, named, vernacular clachan settlement.