Byres at Holy Hill House, 78 Ballee Road, Artigarvan, Strabane, Co. Tyrone, BT82 0AA

Byres at Holy Hill House, Artigarvan

This is a vernacular agricultural outbuilding dating from around 1810, forming part of an extensive farm complex within the demesne of Holy Hill House, a country house situated north-east of Strabane town. The building has limewashed rubblestone walls and pitched natural slate roofs, and retains its original vernacular style and proportions throughout. It sits within the farmyard enclosure as the western wing of the yard, and holds group value with the other listed buildings on the Holy Hill estate, which has Plantation origins.

Form and Layout

The building is a long, single-storey, multi-bay range comprising four pig byres and a turnip house, rectangular on plan. The turnip house is set at a skew angle at the north end, projecting beyond the byre range at its west elevation. The main range has a pitched, naturally slated roof, except at the south end where asbestos slates have been used as a replacement. Brick eaves run along the roofline, and there is a decorative finial at the north apex. The turnip house has a pitched corrugated metal roof.

Walls and Windows

The walls are of limewashed rubble stone with some red brick and a painted contrasting base course. Windows are replacement timber and metal casements.

Elevations

The west elevation is asymmetrical, with five windows, four doors, and a through-passage at the left end where the building abuts the stable range. The doors on this elevation are tongue-and-groove sheeted, with the exception of the leftmost door, which has six shaped panels and a beaded muntin — this was originally an internal door from the main house — and a tongue-and-groove sheeted timber secondary door above it. The turnip house at the north has a door in its south elevation and is abutted to the west by a modern farm building. The north elevation is blank. The east elevation faces into the farmyard and has three irregularly spaced windows.

Setting

The building stands on the west side of the farmyard at Holy Hill House. Together with its associated outbuildings, it is set within the demesne of Holy Hill, surrounded by lawns, mature parkland, and farmland on undulating land north-east of Strabane town. As a group, the farm buildings reflect the development of farming techniques necessary for the efficient running of a large estate.

Historical Background

The outbuilding is shown on all three editions of the Ordnance Survey map, dated 1833, 1854, and 1905. Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 records the following outbuildings on the estate with measurements: two dairies, a granary house, a coach house and associated structures, a fowl house, a boiler shed, two stables, a shed, a cow house, and two offices.

The Holy Hill estate has a long ownership history. John Sinclair commissioned William Starrat in 1736 to draw up a map of the estate, though this omitted all buildings. An estate map in the Abercorn papers dated 1804 identifies the property as belonging to George Sinclair but again shows no buildings. The estate is likely to have been cultivated and the house enlarged during the 1730s and 1760s under John Sinclair, who owned it from 1718 until 1770. His son George, who had trained as a linen merchant and owned the estate from 1770 to 1804, continued to cultivate the land, and a mill was likely established after 1779. It was under the ownership of George's nephew James, a Justice of the Peace who held the estate from 1804 to 1865, that the property was greatly developed: many estate buildings were erected during this period, including the walled garden. James's son William — formerly High Sheriff of County Donegal in 1854 and later Deputy Lieutenant of Tyrone from 1876 — probably continued improving the estate until his death in 1896, after which it is considered unlikely that subsequent owners undertook further new building.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs speak highly of James Sinclair, describing him as the only resident proprietor in the parish of Leckpatrick and praising his skill across every department of agriculture. Turnips in particular are singled out as having "long been cultivated with much success by Mr. Sinclair." The farmyard as a whole appears to have been largely constructed in a single phase of improvement, with some later additions. Their vernacular character makes precise dating difficult, but their appearance is consistent with an early 19th-century date, supported by the historical record of agricultural improvement under James Sinclair from 1804 onwards.