Vernacular Dwelling, South of Lough Shark, off Bann Road, Scarva, Banbridge, Co Down, BT63 6NR

A single and one-and-a-half storey early nineteenth-century vernacular house, built between 1820 and 1839, occupying a remote rural setting on the low-lying shores of Lough Shark, north of Poyntzpass. The house is a rare example of a hearth-lobby entry dwelling, representing an evolved vernacular homestead with several traditional construction techniques evident both internally and externally. However, significant loss of historic fabric has compromised its architectural and historic interest, and the building is currently vacant and in a state of disrepair.

The rectangular structure, probably originally extended to the right with a later rear addition and loft over the right bay, is built of rubble stone walling with vestiges of ochre-pigmented limewashed lime render. The roof retains vestigial thatch structure beneath tin cladding to the central and left bays, with natural slate covering the loft to the right bay. A rendered chimneystack to the party wall between the central and left bays stands exposed; the remainder of the chimney is concealed by vegetation. The principal elevation faces north-east and comprises three bays. The right bay contains a large window opening and an area where the wall has been knocked through. The central bay features a window to the left of a windbreak porch with remains of a collapsed panelled timber door. The right bay has a single window. Remains of timber sash windows with exposed sash boxes survive throughout, with the most complete being a 3/6 sash, glazed with granite cills. The south-east gable is blank. The rear south-west elevation is abutted by a later addition of little architectural interest, accessed by a door opening with a margin-paned transom light and timber architrave, with a collapsed sheeted door. The left bay of this rear elevation has been knocked through. The north-west gable contains a four-paned attic window.

The house is remotely sited within a wooded copse immediately south of Lough Shark, surrounded by agricultural land. It is accessed from Bann Road via a farm lane, now largely given over to pasture. The section immediately south of the house is straight, lying below the surrounding ground level with earthen banks and completely sheltered by hedgerow trees. An outbuilding stands immediately to the north-west. The prehistoric earthwork known as the Dane's Cast lies to the east, and Newry Canal to the west.

The building predates 1834, appearing on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of that year. Griffith's Valuation lists the house, offices and seven acres of land, with the building valued at £1 and occupied by William Fleming as a tenant of local landowner A J R Stewart, paying rent of 38 shillings. Following Fleming's death around 1893, the farm was taken over by his widow Esther Fleming, who died in 1908. The 1901 census records Esther living at the farmhouse with her two daughters, Essie Jane and Maggie, designating it third class due to its small number of rooms (three) and its perishable wall and roof materials, suggesting the farm comprised both thatch and mud or turf construction, although census records of materials are not always reliable. By 1911, however, the house, while still thatched, is recorded as stone or brick-built. Esther left the farm to her elder daughter Essie Jane by will, with £30 bequeathed to Maggie. By 1911 Essie Jane had married John Thomas Lyttle and lived at the farm with him and two young sons aged three years and seven months respectively. The Lyttle family remained resident until at least the 1950s.

The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860 shows an approach driveway lined with trees, which are no longer present by 1903. By the fourth edition of 1903–18 the house had been extended to the rear. At the time of the First General Revaluation in the 1930s–1950s, the house was revalued at £16 10 shillings, with agricultural buildings valued at 10 shillings. The accommodation then comprised two bedrooms, a reception room and a kitchen, with dimensions recorded for three sections roofed in slate and corrugated iron.