6 Balbane Road, Donemana, Strabane, Co. Tyrone, BT82 0RW

6 Balbane Road is a detached, two-bay single-storey former thatched house built around 1840, located on the east side of Balbane Road in an isolated rural setting. The building is rectangular on plan, facing west, with an attached two-bay outbuilding to the south that has been partially converted.

The house displays a symmetrical two-bay front elevation with a central windbreaker entrance porch featuring a lean-to concrete roof and a vertically-sheeted timber half-door, which opens onto a large flagstone. The outbuilding to the south gable retains an early 6 over 6 timber sash window with exposed sash box. The north gable is blank except for a single small window opening at attic level. The rear elevation contains a single lean-to extension and a smaller window opening with a timber casement window. The outbuilding's south gable has exposed stone walling and a door opening at loft level with a timber-sheeted door and stone steps.

Both the house and outbuilding have pitched corrugated iron roofs, with that of the converted barn being higher than the main house. Rendered brick chimneys stand at either gable end, with cement barge to the north gable. Plastic rainwater goods are present. The external walls are lime-washed rubblestone, with square-headed window openings and concrete sills. All windows are timber sash. The setting is notably unspoiled and rural, with a gravelled front area enclosed by mature trees and a short lane opening onto Balbane Road.

Internally, the house retains original features including its hearth, boarded doors and ceilings. According to historical records, the interior comprises a kitchen, two bedrooms, a pantry and small loft.

The building first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854 as a simple rectangular structure, replacing an earlier building shown nearby on the first edition map of 1832–3. By the third edition of 1905, the building had gained an extension joining it at right angles to the north west. Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 lists a house, offices and land occupied by Michael Devine, with the buildings valued at 15 shillings, later raised to £1. The Devine family remained the occupiers throughout the period covered by Annual Revisions from 1860 to 1929. By 1933 Eliza Devine was the occupier under early twentieth-century land purchase legislation, at which point the house value was raised to £1 10 shillings and the outbuildings to 10 shillings.

The house retains its essential character both externally and internally, making it an increasingly rare example of a mid-nineteenth century vernacular dwelling.