98 Dromore Road, Waringstown, Craigavon, Co Armagh, BT66 7QX

98 Dromore Road, Waringstown is a rare and architecturally attractive thatched house of probable late 17th-century origin, and one of the very few survivors of a once common rural building type in this part of County Armagh. The listing covers the house itself, the converted barn, the gate pillars, gates, and the boundary wall. It faces south-west onto Dromore Road and sits at a junction with the road from Waringstown, at a bend in the Dromore Road, where it contributes great character and atmosphere to its surroundings.

The main house is a storey-and-a-half building of three structural bays, with a lobby-entry plan form and smooth rendered and painted walls — formerly whitewashed. A storey-and-a-half former barn of two bays extends to the north-west and has been incorporated into the house; this section is naturally slated rather than thatched. The thatch covering the main house is flax, laid in the scallop style with hazel ligger rods at the ridge and eaves in a simple pattern. It is cut back at the eaves to sit perpendicular to the walls, and at the gables it is parged onto concrete copings that sit slightly lower than the thatch. There are three rendered but unpainted chimneys on the ridge: one at each gable, and a third positioned almost in line with the entrance door.

On the south-west front elevation, a sheeted timber door sits approximately centrally and is flanked by two twelve-pane timber sash windows (double-glazed and spring-balanced) to the south-east and one to the north-west. At first-floor level, six-pane sashes align with those below on the south-east side; on the north-west side, the six-pane sash is positioned closer to the door. The incorporated barn to the north-west replicates a similar window arrangement, with two windows at ground level and two aligning above. The north-west gable of the barn has French windows at ground level and a six-pane sash above, which does not align with them.

The rear elevation features a centrally placed eyebrow window — a recent addition — containing a twelve-pane casement escape window. Below this is a twelve-pane sash. In the north-east bay there is a similar sash. The rear of the barn section is narrower than the house and is largely featureless, apart from a small chimney rising from the centre of the back wall. To the south-east of the eyebrow window, a twelve-pane sash is set within a slated lean-to extension, and further to the south-east a row of naturally slated stone barns returns. The south-east gable is flush with these stone barns. The rear of this gable elevation has two sashes that do not quite align with one another: a nine-pane sash at first-floor level sits higher than the corresponding windows on the front elevation, and below it a taller nine-pane sash. To the rear, a small slated return connects the house to the barn, with a similar window. Further to the south-east, simple cylindrical gate piers with conical caps connect to the front façade by a short stretch of wall. The gates themselves are of simple wrought-iron construction, with regularly spaced vertical members interspersed with intermediate verticals that finish above a horizontal member at the mid-point of the gate. The unrendered single-storey stone boundary wall of the farmyard abuts the north corner of the building.

The history of the building is one of gradual evolution. Physical evidence uncovered during recent renovation work indicates that it probably began as a single room corresponding to the central structural bay, built from large basalt walls. A second phase added the south-east bay, creating a two-room plan, which was then extended upwards to become a storey-and-a-half. The third bay shows different construction again, suggesting it came next, with the lower barn section to the north-west added last. Various sources have proposed construction dates ranging from around 1680 to after 1700, and at least one writer has described it as a yeoman planter's house, though no documentary evidence has been produced to support any of these specific claims. It is considered likely, given the history of the area, that the core of the house dates from Plantation times.

The main section of the house and a separate outbuilding to the south-east are both shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834. The contemporary valuation records the property as being more than twenty years old at that date, occupied by a William Gryston (almost certainly Gregson), and measuring 44 feet by 21½ feet by 12 feet, with the outbuilding recorded as 40 feet by 19½ feet by 6 feet. The valuers' quality letter indicates the property was in poor condition at this time, reflected in its relatively modest rateable valuation of £3-14-0. By the Ordnance Survey map of 1858, the barn extension to the north-west had been constructed and the return connecting the house to the outbuilding had also been built, suggesting the building had reached its present form by the later 1850s. The 1861 valuation lists the occupant as Thomas Gregson, with George Douglasse as the immediate lessor and a rateable valuation of £4-5-0, a figure retained until the 1920s. The house has remained with descendants of Thomas Gregson ever since.

The building was listed in 1977 and rethatched in wheat straw in 1978. In 1991, rethatching and repairs to the roof structure were carried out. By 1999 it was considered a building at risk and in a very vulnerable condition. A major renovation was undertaken in 2001, during which the rear window to the first floor of the north-west bay was uncovered, along with a chimney flue at the centre of the adjacent gable, which has now been brought back into use. The fire had previously been moved to allow the creation of a second room to the rear of this structural bay, and a similar partition had also divided the north-west bay. The renovation maintained the historic plan form throughout, aside from these alterations, and incorporated the former barn to the north-west into the house. Changes made during the renovation include the addition of two windows to the former barn portion, French windows to its gable, a chimney to the rear, and window cills added to all first-floor windows along the front elevation. The current thatch coating is in flax. The renovation is considered to have successfully rescued the building from near dereliction while preserving its historic character.