house

Detached four-bay single-storey vernacular house, built c. 1860, having windbreak porch to the main elevation (north-east). Pitched peg-and-rope reed thatched roof with smooth rendered chimneystacks and with stone pegs below eaves level (for securing thatch with ropes). Limewashed rendered walls. Square-headed window frames with stone sills and replacement windows. Square-headed doorway to windbreak porch having stone plinth blocks and timber door. Set back from road in own grounds on sloping site to the east of Gleann Cholm Cille/Glencolumbkille. Rubble stone boundary walls to site. Single-storey outbuilding to the north.

Although now altered, this vernacular house retains much of its early form and character, and is an appealing feature in the rural landscape to the east of Gleann Cholm Cille/Glencolumbkille. Modest in scale, it exhibits the simple and functional form of vernacular building in Ireland. Of particular interest in the survival of the thatched roof, 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. This house represents a fine surviving example of a once ubiquitous building type in the rural Irish countryside, and is a valuable addition to the vernacular heritage of County Donegal.