Dervaghroy House, 18 Church Road, Beragh, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT79 0UR

Dervaghroy House is a detached late Victorian house built around 1890 on Church Road in Beragh. It replaced an earlier dwelling on the opposite side of the road and is set within its own grounds on the west side of the road. The house presents a suburban architectural style that contrasts notably with the vernacular character of the earlier outbuildings to the north, together forming a group of some interest. However, the house is a common type of its late date and not among the best examples of the type.

The building is a three-bay two-storey rendered house facing east, rectangular on plan with a front entrance porch, two-storey rear return and an extensive range of two-storey stone outbuildings arranged around a yard on the north side. The roof comprises a pie-ended lead roof on hipped natural slate with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and two yellow brick chimneystacks. Ogee-moulded cast-iron rainwater goods are carried on paired stone corbels. The walls are ruled-and-lined cement rendered with a projecting plinth course and rusticated rendered quoins. Window openings are square-headed on the ground floor and segmental-headed on the first floor, all with moulded architrave surrounds, stone sills and 2/2 timber sash windows with ogee horns and some cylinder glass.

The symmetrical three-bay two-storey principal elevation has a central entrance porch with flat roof behind a rendered parapet and moulded cornice. The porch has cast-iron hopper and downpipe with rusticated soldier quoins and projecting plinth course, square-headed window openings to both cheeks with single-pane timber sash windows, and a square-headed door opening containing an original four-panelled timber door and rectangular overlight flanked by a pair of moulded cement pilasters with egg-and-dart moulding to plinth blocks, moulded capitals and architrave surround above with square rosette panels to the corners. The door opens onto a concrete platform and step to the front bitumac area.

The two-bay two-storey south side elevation is detailed as per the front elevation with a pair of iron skylights to the roof, opening onto bitumac rear access. The three-bay two-storey rear elevation features an off-centre gable-ended two-storey return with square-headed window openings containing 2/2 timber sash windows, except for the centre first floor window lighting the stair hall which has a single-pane timber sash window with coloured glass margin lights, and some timber casement windows. The two-bay two-storey north side elevation is abutted by a single-storey wing with pitched natural slate roof attached to the south range of the yard, extending to the rear as a self-contained single-storey dwelling built around 2000.

The outbuildings have pitched natural slate roofs, rubble stone walling with cut stone quoins, red brick window and door surrounds and vertically-sheeted timber doors. The south range forms an open shelter to the kitchen door of the single-storey north wing. The two-storey west range has a flight of stone steps and a primitive date stone. Further rubble stone outbuildings lie to the north and a substantial two-storey multi-bay range to the east encloses the yard to the road. A short bitumac drive opens onto the road to the southeast through a pair of cast-iron gates on octagonal cast-iron posts, with a separate entrance to the former farm yard further north through two pairs of tall rendered piers.

According to historical records, buildings appeared on this site on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, some of which appear to have survived as part of the current outbuildings. Further buildings are shown on the second edition (1854), but the present house first appears on the third edition captioned 'Dervaghroy House'. Annual Revision records dating from 1860 show James Rollestone leasing the property from the Earl of Belmore. The house, offices and land were valued at £3 10 shillings. By 1877 this valuation had increased to £5, perhaps indicating the addition of outbuildings. In 1894 a 'new slated house' was built on the plot, measuring 43½ by 31 by 24 feet with a return of 15 by 15 by 11 feet. The new building was valued at £8, and as all old buildings remained, this was added to the previous valuation of £5, making a total of £13. John Rollestone became the owner in fee in 1907 under the land purchase Acts of the early twentieth century. In 1913 John D. Watson became the owner; he was a noted pig breeder whose Ulster White named 'Dervaghroy Star of Peace', farrowed 16 August 1918, appeared in a herd book of 1920. In 1934 the valuation of the house was raised to £16 with £4 10 shillings for outbuildings. At that date the house comprised a porch, dining room, kitchen, scullery, pantry and on the first floor five bedrooms and a bath and water closet, with a dairy adjoining the house to the rear. The buildings were all of rubble masonry, mostly slated, though some outbuildings were roofed with corrugated iron. The owner stated that the outbuildings pre-date the house, as they were the farm buildings of the earlier house situated on the opposite side of the road.