house, TULLYNAVINN

Detached four-bay single-storey vernacular house, built c. 1800, with two-bay single-storey slated extension to north gable. Pitched thatched roof, smooth rendered gable ended chimneystacks with rendered coping; cast-iron rainwater goods to extension. Smooth rendered walls with smooth rendered plinth course. Square-headed window openings with timber casement windows and painted sills. Square-headed door opening with replacement door. Set at side of laneway with multiple-bay single-storey outbuildings to south with pitched thatch and corrugated-metal roofs, roughcast rendered and whitewashed walls, and square-headed openings with matchboard timber doors.

Despite the loss of original fenestration, this is a good vernacular thatched house, significantly enhanced by the retention of its thatched outbuildings. Thatched buildings, although still relatively common in Inishowen, nationally are becoming increasingly rare, making their survival a matter of importance. 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 shown on the Ordnance Survey first edition six-inch map of c. 1837.