62-68 Dundrum Road, Tassagh, Keady, Co. Armagh, BT60

A terraced row of three two-storey, two-bay former mill workers' cottages, built before 1834 on Dundrum Road in the townland of Tassagh, north-east of Keady, County Armagh. The terrace stands on a narrow plot of land between Dundrum Road and the Callan River, in a rural setting, and is of considerable social and historical importance to the development of the linen industry in south-west Armagh.

The terrace is rectangular on plan and constructed of random rubble stone bedded in lime mortar, with surviving fragments of lime harling and traces of pigmented limewash. The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with angled ridge tiles and brick chimneystacks, though one chimneystack has been removed or has collapsed. Cast-iron gutters survive to the right-hand cottage only; drive-in brackets remain elsewhere without gutters. The principal elevation faces south-west. Window openings are irregularly arranged across all three cottages: No. 68 (right) has a door to the right with two windows to the left, and offset windows above; No. 64 (centre) is a mirror image of No. 68; No. 62 (left) has aligned windows to the ground and first floor in the outer left bay, while the right bay has a door with a narrower window to its right at ground level and an offset window above. The left gable is blank and shows ghost marks of a lower abutment. The rear elevation generally has a window to each bay; the central cottage, No. 64, also has a rear door to the left bay; the left opening of No. 62 has been infilled with rubble stone and retains its timber lintel. The right gable is blank.

Original doors and windows are largely missing. A single timber sheeted door survives at No. 68 only. Timber window frames remain in several openings, including a nine-paned fixed-frame timber window to the right cottage and a four-pane timber window to the rear of the centre cottage; some metal-framed casements survive to the rear. It is considered likely that the original windows would have been small-paned sliding sashes.

Each cottage retains its jamb-wall with peep-hole and traditional hearth, characteristic features of Irish vernacular dwellings, along with a wealth of evidence of traditional construction techniques more broadly.

The terrace first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey maps of 1834–35, depicted as a rectangular building to the south of Tassagh Bridge, in close proximity to a number of corn and beetling mills along the Callan River, which had supported successful milling activity in the area from the mid-18th century onward. The terrace was not specifically mentioned in the contemporary Townland Valuations or the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of the 1830s, though the Townland Valuations record that three of the mills in Tassagh were owned by a Mr. Joseph McKee and were valued in total at £57 11s.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1862, McKee had leased his holdings — including the terrace — to William, John and Henry Kirk, who owned a number of mills and factories in the parish of Keady. The Kirks operated the beetling mill immediately to the north of the terrace, valued at £50, and leased the three two-storey dwellings to Thomas McDowell, Andrew Trudden and William McDowell, all of whom were almost certainly employed at the nearby mill. Each cottage was then valued at £2 5s. From 1871, John Kirk was recorded as sole lessor; he had resided at Millmount House within the parish of Keady but vacated the site in 1871. The Kirk family also owned the nearby Annvale factory and had been established in the Keady area since the 1840s. One cottage was reduced in value to £2 in 1874.

McDowell, Trudden and McDowell continued to reside at the terrace into the early 20th century. The 1901 census recorded three occupying families: William McDowell, and the Spence and McMoran families. Despite the proximity of several mills, all tenants were employed in the textile trade at this time — William McDowell and Joseph McMoran worked as Linen Butlers, engaged in the bleaching process, while other occupants worked as weavers or seamstresses. Each cottage was described in the census building return as a second-class dwelling consisting of three to four rooms, with simple sheds as the only outbuildings. By the 1911 census, fewer tenants were engaged in the linen trade; most were employed as maids and farm labourers, with only one occupant, Mrs. Elizabeth Donnelly, remaining in the textile industry as a Flax Scutcher.

Occupancy changed frequently during the early decades of the 20th century. The value of each cottage remained unchanged until the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930, but by the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland in 1935 each had been reduced in value to £1 10s. By that decade the terrace was owned by a Mr. Alexander Wallace, a local magistrate in Keady. By 1956, during the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), ownership had passed to a Mr. M. Short, who continued to lease the cottages to tenants, and the three dwellings were increased in value to £3 each. Among the notable occupants was William King, a farm labourer, who first took possession of one of the cottages in 1916 and was among the longest residents in the history of the terrace.

The terrace was depicted on the current edition Ordnance Survey map of around 1970 in its original layout, indicating that no major changes had been made to the site since its erection in the early 19th century. At the time of survey, the terrace was recorded as derelict and in a state of advanced disrepair, though each cottage retains a significant body of evidence of its original construction and vernacular character. A new house was under construction to the south of the site at the time of survey.