Gobhan Cottage, 21 Seagoe Road, Portadown, Co. Armagh, BT63 5HW

Gobhan Cottage is a single storey, four bay lobby entry thatched house built between 1820 and 1839, located on the left-hand side of Seagoe Road, a short distance north of the main road to Lurgan and about one mile from the centre of Portadown. The building sits behind a small lawn and low boundary wall with gates to the front and side.

The walls are finished in whitened roughcast. The thatch covering oversails at the verges and is finished with timber bargeboards. Each gable rises to a chimneystack with narrow projecting corbels, and there is a similar feature over the position of the kitchen hearth. Each stack is provided with two pots.

A glazed timber-framed porch with a course of dentils below the cornice contains a raised and fielded four-panel door finished with stain. The door is flanked by two windows of unequal division with the smaller pane at the top, and there are two similar windows at the sides of the porch. On the main wall face there are two windows on either side of the porch, with the lower parts divided into two vertically and with a narrow opener at the top. The openings are dressed by plain surrounds with curved and eared heads, and the sills are of intermediate depths.

The rear kitchen extension is roofed with cedar shingles, and rainwater goods are of plastic. The entrance has a six-paned (two by three) panel above a plain lower section. To the right of this projection there is one window similar to those at the front but with a plain surround. To the left are four windows: the first, lighting the living room, has three panes above two larger panes below; then there are two windows similar to those at the front but with plain surrounds. The end window, lighting the rear of the sitting room, is divided vertically into two panes and is infilled with Art Deco coloured glass. Corrugated iron roofed sheds extend at right angles from the left-hand end of the rear elevation.

The original layout remains clearly discernible and the roof structure is in traditional form. A building matching the present structure, but without outbuildings, is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834–35. It was included in the second valuation of 1862, when it appeared to have been leased by John Wolsey from the Manchester Estate, and was noted as an old single-storey thatched house fifteen yards in length.

The building was re-thatched in 1979 by Gerry Agnew using straw, with repairs carried out by him in 1985, again using straw. In 1985 the rest of the building was renovated with assistance from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which included the addition of sawn timber framing to support a fractured purlin and the replacement of two window frames to the front in existing style. The roof structure was strengthened in 1987 and the thatch repaired. In 1992 the rear extension was added; during the work a section of the rear wall of the original building collapsed (about three metres) and was rebuilt. The thatch was repaired by Gerry Agnew in 1994 using flax, with repairs undertaken in 2000.

Later alterations include the addition of the porch, replacement of windows, and the overhanging verges finished with bargeboards. The kitchen extension complements the character of the main house.

The extent of listing includes the house, two gates, fire gate pillars and walling.