30 Carnkenny Road, Newtownstewart, Strabane, Co. Tyrone, BT78 4LN

An asymmetrical two-storey three-bay house built around 1820, located on the east side of Carnkenny Road in Newtownstewart. The building is rectangular on plan, facing west, and retains much of its original character, representing a developed vernacular house from the early nineteenth century.

The main house has a pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and three rendered chimneystacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods are supported on drive-in brackets over rendered brick eaves. The walling is painted roughcast lime-render with contrasting smooth render corner banding and smooth plinth. Windows are timber sashes with cylinder glass set in contrasting smooth rendered surrounds over painted stone sills. The principal elevation, facing west, is asymmetrical: the left and right bays each contain a window at both floors, with those on the left set at some distance from the others. The central bay has two closely spaced openings per floor, including a door opening with contrasting rendered surround and modern panelled door with narrow transom light, accessed by a stone step. Upper floor windows are 6/6 sashes; those on the first floor are 3/6 sashes without horns. The north and south gables are blank.

The rear elevation has been significantly altered. A two-storey sanitary extension with monpitched asbestos sheeted roof and timber casement windows bridges the rear entrance at first floor level. The right bay contains a modern sheeted loading door to first floor and modern window insertion to ground floor. The remaining bays retain windows matching those on the principal elevation but with painted reveals only. Field evidence suggests the house was extended to the east by incorporation of a former byre into the main building, possibly accompanied by raising the building a storey. A twentieth-century addition extends to the rear.

The house is set back from the road in a lawned garden bounded by a roughcast lime-rendered boundary wall with concrete saddleback coping. A wrought iron pedestrian gate stands on painted rendered piers with pyramidal caps, flanked by mature shrubs, leading via a small gravel path to the principal entrance. The site is otherwise bounded by mature trees.

A two-storey outbuilding stands to the north, with pitched corrugated asbestos roof and lime-washed rubble walling with tooled ashlar quoins. Timber sheeted openings have red brick dressings, and there are two circular openings fitted with cast-iron spoked windows. The outbuilding is fronted by meadow and is partially overgrown by ivy.

Historical records show the house present on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833. A barn to the east appears on the 1854 second edition. The Townland Valuation of 1828-40 records a house and offices occupied by Matthew Nelson, valued at £4 8s. Griffith's Valuation of 1859 lists it at the lower valuation of £3 15s, with the Marquis of Abercorn as lessor. Post-1864 records show the valuation increased to £5 15s, possibly reflecting the addition of the barn as an outbuilding. Matthew Nelson (presumably a son) became owner in fee in 1914. By 1934, Robert J Neilson was the owner; the valuation was then raised to £10 and 2s for outbuildings, suggesting substantial changes to the house in preceding years. A 1934 valuation record describes the house as good but lacking bath or water closet facilities, with clean water carried some distance. The building comprised a kitchen, pantry, five bedrooms, two rooms, a box room and an agricultural store on the first floor, with a recorded frontage of 54 feet 6 inches. The property included a two-storey barn and a further one-storey outbuilding, all of rubble masonry and slated except for a barn extension roofed with corrugated iron.