Cottage, Cloncorr, Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh, BT92 6GN

Cottage at Cloncorr, Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh

An interesting lobby-entry vernacular building dating to the period 1820-1839, built on a slope and occupying a pleasant and isolated site.

The cottage is a single-storey, three-bay structure aligned west to east on a lane to the north of Cloncorr Townland, with the principal elevation facing south. The building slopes with the gradient of the ground. The pitched roof is of corrugated metal with two whitewashed cement-rendered chimneys, one to the party wall between each bay. Rainwater goods are half-round metal. The walls are lime-rendered and whitewashed throughout.

The principal south-facing elevation comprises a central bay with a windbreak porch featuring a flat cement-coped roof, a glazed and timber door accessed by a single concrete step, and blank cheeks to left and right. To the right of the porch is a window. The left and right bays each contain two windows, set progressively lower due to the topography, with those to the right bay at the lowest level. All windows are 2/2 (horizontally divided) sashes with horns, contrasting painted reveals, and painted stone cills. The left gable is abutted by a lean-to shed of concrete block and brick construction with a corrugated metal roof, built into a bank. The exposed section of the apex contains a 1/2 top-hung casement window with cement cill. The west gable is blank. The right gable features a large corrugated metal door with fixed corrugated metal sheeting above; the right end is fixed tongue-and-groove sheeted. The left cheek has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door.

The rear elevation is partly rendered as the facade, partly of whitewashed concrete blocks. A single-storey lean-to return is positioned to the left of centre, with a monopitched corrugated metal roof and concrete block walls. The central bay has a large timber top-hung casement with cement cill. The return features top-hung casements to either side of its rear face (without cills). The right cheek of the rear has a tongue-and-groove sheeted door, and the left cheek has a fixed pane 2/2 window without cill. The right gable is abutted by an outbuilding. The exposed apex has a window with timber lintel, though details are obscured by vegetation.

To the right gable is a corrugated metal lean-to shed open to the east, without openings. Adjacent is a further outbuilding with a pitched corrugated metal roof and limewashed concrete block walls. Its south face contains a large corrugated metal door to centre and tongue-and-groove sheeted doors to left and right ends. The left gable abuts the house. The rear elevation has a boarded-over window to centre.

To the east of the group, aligned north to south, are two further outbuildings. The one nearest the house has lime-rendered rubble-stone walls with decorative contrasting painted stepped quoins and base course, a pitched corrugated metal roof, and tongue-and-groove sheeted openings. To its right is a large corrugated metal hayshed constructed on a timber frame.

The group occupies an isolated site with pasture to the rear and mature woodland to the left. Opposite the house is a maturely planted garden enclosed by a whitewashed cement-rendered wall and accessed by two small cast-iron gates.

A building is shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map and may well be the present one.