Outbuilding in Carrowmenagh

Attached three-bay single-storey vernacular outbuilding, built c. 1780. Rounded thatched roof with netting restraint and timber and metal rope stays to eaves, and concrete block chimneystacks with stepped coping. Whitewashed random rubble walls with random rubble walls to rear. Square-headed window openings with horned timber sash windows. Square-headed door openings with stone lintels and battened timber doors. Detached single-storey farmyard outbuildings to rear. Fronts directly onto west side of street.

Although thatched houses are an increasingly rare type, thatched outbuildings are particularly rare. Despite the evident deterioration of the thatched roof, this building, which may originally have been a dwelling, retains a great deal of architectural integrity including timber sash windows and battened timber doors, and its intrinsic scale and form. 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 part of an important group of vernacular structures (40901246 - 40901250). It is marked on the Ordnance Survey first edition six-inch map of c. 1837, forming part of a named extensive vernacular clachan settlement.