97 Lettercarn Road, Clare, Castlederg, Co Tyrone, BT81 7RA

A detached three-bay single-storey direct-entry vernacular dwelling with attic, built circa 1840, located on the south side of Lettercarn Road in the townland of Meencargagh. The building is rectangular in plan with a windbreak porch to the east and an attached shed to the south and byre to the north. The roof is pitched corrugated metal; the chimneys are lime-rendered, except for the northern chimney which is cement rendered. The walls are lime-rendered over rubble construction. Windows are timber-framed 2/2 sliding sashes with exposed sash boxes and painted masonry sills. The principal elevation faces east, with the left and right bays each containing a single window; the central bay contains a single window to the left, flanked to the right by a windbreak porch with concrete roof containing a door opening. The south gable is abutted by a rubble shed with a large square-headed opening to the east, and further abutted by the remains of a rubble outbuilding. The west elevation contains two windows to the central bay and one to the right. The north gable is abutted by a byre containing a square-headed vertically-sheeted timber door and timber casement windows to the east and west elevations, with a lean-to shed further abutting to the north. The building sits within a yard with a detached single-storey farm building to the north; the dwelling appears to have been extended to the west and is abutted at the north by a lean-to. The site is accessed from the road at the north, with a road running through the yard to farmland beyond.

The building first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1855. Field and map evidence suggests the dwelling was extended to the south in the early twentieth century, with an attached outbuilding also dating from this period. A separate outbuilding to the north of the house has been present from the second edition and seems to have been extended or rebuilt in the early twentieth century. Griffith's Valuation of 1856-64 records a house, offices and land at the site, with buildings valued at £1 5 shillings. Samuel McKeon Junior leased the property from Audley Caldwell; the lessor became Sarah Caldwell in 1862. Samuel McKeon purchased the house in 1909 under early twentieth-century land purchase legislation. After 1933, the valuation was raised to £1 10 shillings, with outbuildings valued at 10 shillings. In 1933, the house comprised a kitchen, two rooms, and one small room with an earth floor, later altered to concrete, though the date of change is unrecorded. A 1933 valuation survey recorded the house as rubble masonry and thatch measuring 47 by 20 by 11 feet, with a note from the valuer stating "Water close. House recently repaired…reroofed", indicating the roof had been replaced with corrugated iron, though the date of this change is also unrecorded.