9 Lislaird Road, Mournebeg, Castlederg, Co Tyrone, BT81 7XX

A single-storey three-bay direct-entry vernacular house dating from the early nineteenth century, aligned west to east on the north side of Lislaird Road near Castlederg. The building is rectangular on plan with a small extension to the rear, and is set in a simple farmyard with outbuildings to the west, within a rural setting accessed by an earth lane.

The house is constructed of random rubble stone with lime-rendered and lime-washed walling. The roof comprises thatch laid over scraws, supported on rough-hewn purlins spanning between cross walls and rough-hewn collar trusses. The trusses are pegged and feature scallops piercing the scraws. The thatch remains intact but is covered with corrugated metal sheeting. Concrete skews protect the roof at the eaves. Lime-rendered rubble stone chimneys with stone slab coping rise to the gables and party wall.

The principal elevation faces north. The left bay contains a single 1/1 sliding sash with flush fieldstone sill. The central bay has a timber-sheeted door with timber lintel and stone threshold to its left, and a window to its right. The right bay contains a single window. The gables are blank. Windows throughout are generally 6/6 timber sashes with horns and tooled stone sills. Rainwater goods are half-round cast iron.

A lean-to extension is attached to the rear, containing a 2/2 sash to the south face, a 2/4 sash to its left, and three diminutive single-pane windows with flush fieldstone sills.

The interior demonstrates considerable historical interest, containing original features including a traditional fireplace, box bed, horizontally-sheeted partition walling used to divide structural bays into smaller sleeping compartments, and lime-plastered walling retaining traditional pigment in places. The house comprises a kitchen, three rooms, pantry and store.

The outbuildings to the west consist of a two-storey byre and loft abutted at the south by a single-storey range. The byre has a pitched slate roof with concrete skews; lower ranges have corrugated metal roofs and are partially open to one side with roofs supported on rubble stone piers. All buildings are constructed of lime-rendered and lime-washed rubble stone. The byre features a door opening and metal-framed window to the ground-floor east elevation; the first floor has a slightly off-centre loading door flanked by equally spaced windows. Ventilation holes are formed from fieldstones. The north gable is abutted by external stone steps with stone slab treads and a kennel opening leading to a timber-sheeted loading door. The east elevation has a timber-sheeted door, a casement, and an opening to the loft.

The property has a documented history spanning from at least 1828. Buildings were present on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, and one of these has survived as the current house. The Townland Valuation of 1828-40 records a dwelling house and office occupied by Hugh Monteith, valued at £2.19s.9¾d. Griffith's Valuation lists the property as a house, office and land leased by Hugh Monteith from Sir Robert A Ferguson Baronet, later amended in 1862 to William Knox. The property remained in the Monteith family throughout the Annual Revisions from 1860 to 1929. By 1933, William Monteith was recorded as the owner in fee. An outbuilding to the west of the main house first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904-5.

The house constitutes a rare survival of a thatched roof preserved beneath corrugated metal sheeting, with an extensive array of original vernacular features intact. It retains its unspoiled rural setting and demonstrates considerable architectural and historical interest both in its structural system and in its surviving details and interior arrangements.