1 Derryloughan Road, Loughgall, Co. Armagh, BT61 8PH

Dan Winter's Cottage is a single-storey, six-bay, dual lobby-entry thatched house of plastered and whitened mud wall construction, dating from between 1780 and 1799. It stands at the Diamond, situated at the north-west corner of the intersection of a minor road with the road travelling south from the main Portadown to Moy road, approximately four miles from Portadown. The building is now used as a gallery and museum.

The front and left-hand (west) gable walls have a black painted base. The thatched roof is retained between raised parapet gables, with exposed scollops forming a decorative pattern at the ridge and a further row of scallops immediately below. The eaves are square-cut and have no exposed scollops. Three plastered chimneys rise from the roofline: one beside the left-hand (west) gable and two others positioned above the two main hearths.

The front elevation has three entrances and eight window openings, arranged from the left-hand (west) corner as follows: three windows, then a curved jamb windbreak porch with an extension of the thatched covering and a timber-sheeted half door; then three more windows; then a timber-sheeted door; then two windows flanking a second curved jamb windbreak porch, also protected by a thatched extension and fitted with a timber-sheeted half door. A Victorian Royal cypher (VR) post box is set into the wall to the right of the central entrance, which lacks a windbreak porch. A painted timber sign above this entrance reads "DAN WINTER, Grocer, Spirit Merchant, Tobacconist". To the right of the first windbreak porch there is a blue plaque inscribed "Dan Winter's Cottage 1795". All windows on the front elevation are six-over-six vertically sliding sashes with splayed sash stops and sills of traditional depth.

The rear elevation has seven windows, all six-over-six vertically sliding sashes with splayed sash stops but without sills. They vary in size and height. Starting from the right-hand (west) corner: two windows at a lower level; two windows set somewhat higher; one similar window on the far side of a timber-sheeted door; one window at a lower level; one at the general higher level; and a final timber-sheeted door. There are no openings in either gable.

Internally, the layout retains all of its original features, including two lobby entries and four fireplaces. The continuing existence of the extensive original roof structure is of particular special interest, as the early roof timbers have been identified as having been in place at the time of the Battle of the Diamond in 1795.

The building is of considerable historical significance. No structure is recorded on this site in John Rocque's 1760 survey of County Armagh, but a building appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834–35, though it was not included in the near-contemporary valuation of that period. By the second valuation of 1862, the property was recorded as occupied by Francis Winters (listed with that spelling), who was leasing it from the Cope (Loughgall) Estate, with a rateable value of £2. It is accepted that the building was standing in 1795 at the time of the Battle of the Diamond, when, following a skirmish between the Protestant 'Peep o'Day Boys' and the Catholic 'Defenders', a number of the victorious Peep o'Day Boys met either in this building — believed at the time to have been an inn belonging to Dan Winter — or at a nearby house to the east, also belonging to the Winter family, and resolved to form what would become the Orange Order. An extensive renovation of the property was carried out in 1918 by the Reverend John Winter.

In the mid-1990s, in preparation for the bicentenary celebrations of Orangeism, moves were made to restore the building and add an interpretive visitor centre to the site. In July 1993, the Ulster Society sought planning approval to restore this house and construct a two-storey interpretive building. In November 1994, Dan Winter's Heritage Trust applied for listed building consent for the restoration of the house and the addition of a visitor centre. Both listed building consent and planning permission were granted in November 1994. Funding was subsequently secured, and restoration work began in March 1998. During the restoration, the existing roof structure was retained, with the thatcher installing barrier foil and applying fire retardant. Reed was agreed as acceptable for the re-thatching, with the material sourced from Austria and confirmed as passing the nitrogen content test. In 1999, a mud wall that had collapsed was replaced in blockwork, and the existing roof structure was retained beneath a foil barrier.

This building, along with the property at 9 Derryloughan Road, represents the first example of the removal of corrugated iron roof covering followed by re-thatching in the area, and it is intended to serve as a model for similar work on so-called Thatch Under Tin (TUT) buildings.