The Thatch

Detached four-bay single-storey vernacular house, built c. 1800, with modern extension to rear. Rounded pitched thatched roof with netting restraint and metal rope stays to eaves, and yellow brick on stretcher bond chimneystacks to gables with cogging stringcourse and terracotta pots. Roughcast rendered walls. Square-headed window openings with rendered patent reveals, uPVC windows, and painted concrete sills. Square-headed door opening with rendered patent reveals, and half-glazed battened timber stable door. Set within own grounds with grassed garden area to front; ruined and derelict outbuildings to south comprising pitched slate roof and random rubble walls. Rubble stone boundary wall to west of site with modern gate mounted on roughcast rendered piers with rendered pyramidal coping.

Despite the loss of some of its historic fabric this is a fine example of a vernacular thatched dwelling. Thatched buildings, although still relatively common in Inishowen, nationally are becoming increasingly rare. 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 forming part of a named settlement. The yellow brick chimneystacks probably date from a late nineteenth century refurbishment. They are similar in detail and materials to those in the nearby house (40902115).