Outbuilding in Drumbern

Detached three-bay two-storey outbuilding, built c. 1880, having flight of steps to the north-west gable end giving access to doorway at first floor level, and with half-dormer\loading bay opening to the centre of the main elevation (south-west). Possibly originally associated with a pound that lay adjacent to the east. Now in use as an agricultural outbuilding. Pitched natural slate roof with exposed rather ends and clay ridge tiles. Mono-pitched natural slate roof to half-dormer loading bay opening. Rubble stone walls with flush red brick block-and-start quoins to the corners. Square-headed window openings with brick block-and-start surrounds, some stone sills, and with timber fittings and shutters. Square-headed doorways with red brick block-and-start surrounds and battened timber doors and half-doors. Square-headed carriage-arch to the north end of the west elevation having red brick block-and-start surround, red brick voussoirs or relieving arch over, and with replacement corrugated-metal gates. North-west gable end faces on to road. Metal guard rails to flight of steps to the north-west gable end. Located to the north\north-west outskirts of Milford. Field to the west and field and former pound to the east. Rubble stone boundary walls to road-frontage to the west and rendered boundary wall to the north-east. Gateway adjacent to the west having a single squared and coursed rubble stone gate pier (on square-plan), and with wrought-iron flat bar gate.

This substantial utilitarian two-storey outbuilding, of late nineteenth-century appearance, retains its original form and character. Its visual appeal and integrity are enhanced by the retention of salient fabric such as the natural slate roof and battened timber doors. The use of red brick for the quoins to the corners and the surrounds of the openings is typical of many late nineteenth-century stores and outbuildings, and helps add some textural and tonal variation to the main elevations. This building is similar in style and form to a number of other stores in the Milford area (see 40818023), which were probably originally associated with a former corn market at Milford that was developed by the Fourth of Leitrim, the proprietor of the town at the time. The Fourth Earl, Robert Bermingham Clements (1847-92), carried out a great deal of industrial development in his Donegal estates in the 1880s, which included the construction of an hotel at Rosapenna as well as industrial development in the form of mills and the establishment of steamer services to Glasgow from Milford. This development was continued by the Fifth Earl from the 1890s into the twentieth century. It is possibly that this substantial building formed part of this industrial development. This building may have some association with a former pound, which lay adjacent to the east (Ordnance Survey twenty-five inch map of c. 1905). This building makes a positive contribution to the streetscape to the north-west fringes of the town, and is an addition to the built heritage of the local area.