31 Essan Road, Castlederg, Co Tyrone, BT81 7YN

A small single-storey direct-entry thatched dwelling built around 1830, located on an elevated site north of Essan Road in a remote rural setting. The house forms part of an intact vernacular group with its thatched outbuilding, retaining exceptional original fabric despite interior modifications.

The main house is a detached three-bay structure on a rectangular plan, facing east with lime-washed rubble stone walling and a pitched straw thatched roof with cement verges and rendered chimneystacks to either gable. A shallow windbreaker entrance porch with lean-to concrete roof projects centrally from the front elevation, featuring a square-headed door opening with replacement vertically-sheeted timber door incorporating a glazed panel, opening onto a concrete step to a gravel front area. The three-bay front elevation has square-headed window openings with concrete sills and replacement timber casement windows. The south gable end contains a large cement-rendered chimneystack and a single square-headed window opening to the former attic level with timber casement window. The rear west elevation incorporates a small outshot to the northern end with a single square-headed window opening and replacement timber casement window. The north gable end has a cement-rendered chimneystack with pebbledash cement render.

The interior retains an early rough-hewn timber roof structure of significant architectural importance, comprising unsawn ridges, sawn and unsawn A-frames, unsawn purlins and rafters, and peat scraw underthatch.

A multi-bay single-storey thatched outbuilding stands to the north, set perpendicular to the main house. It has a pitched rush thatched roof and lime-washed rubble stone walling with vertically-sheeted timber doors. The interior contains an early rough-hewn timber roof structure with sawn A-frames and purlins, unsawn rafters, and peat scraw underthatch, with a single former chimney remaining at the centre.

The buildings appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833. The Townland Valuation of 1828-40 records no houses in the townland valued at five pounds a year. Griffith's Valuation lists the buildings as "house, offices and land", occupied by John Byrne and leased from Michael and Frederick Smith, valued at 15 shillings. By 1886, Annual Revisions raised the valuation to £1, with the Byrne family remaining as occupiers. The site is accessed via a gravel lane enclosed by a raised ditch.