Oxford House

Detached five-bay two-storey farmhouse, extant 1777, on a symmetrical plan. Sold, 1831. Occupied, 1901. Sold, 1906[?]. Occupied, 1911. Vacated, 1977. Derelict, 1996. Now in ruins. Pitched roof now missing with rendered chimney stacks having cut-limestone stringcourses below lichen-covered capping supporting terracotta pots, and no rainwater goods surviving on overgrown cut-limestone eaves. Ivy-covered rendered battered walls. Square-headed central door opening with no fittings surviving. Square-headed window openings with cut-limestone sills now missing, and red brick block-and-start surrounds now missing with no fittings surviving. Interior in ruins. Set back from line of road in unkempt grounds.

The ivy-enveloped shell of a farmhouse representing an interesting component of the eighteenth-century domestic built heritage of the rural environs of Kiltimagh with the architectural value of the composition, one annotated as "Oxford [of] Joice Esquire" by Taylor and Skinner (1778 pl. 220), suggested by such traits as the compact rectilinear plan form centred on a featureless doorcase; and the very slight diminishing in scale of the openings on each floor producing a feint graduated visual impression. Although reduced to ruins following a prolonged period of neglect, the elementary form and massing largely prevail, thereby upholding some of the character of a farmhouse having historic connections with the Joyce family including John Joyce (m. 1764), jurist at the trial (1786) of George Robert "Fighting FitzGerald" FitzGerald ("A Gentleman of the County Mayo" 1786, 144); the Tuohy family including Patrick Tuohy JP (NUIG) and Thomas Tuohy (NA 1901); and the O'Donnell family including John O'Donnell (b. 1876), 'Farmer' (NA 1911).