Ulster Bank, 2 & 4 Main Street, Gortin, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT78 8PH

Ulster Bank, 2 & 4 Main Street, Gortin, Omagh, Co Tyrone

A detached corner-sited stone bank building of circa 1845, now functioning as a bank. The building is T-shaped on plan, comprising a three-bay single-storey front elevation facing south onto Main Street, with a three-bay two-storey return to the rear. It was originally built as a rectory to the church occupying the opposite corner site on the elevated west end of Main Street.

The front elevation is symmetrical with three bays and a central gabled entrance porch added circa 1980. The porch has a timber bargeboard and painted ruled and lined cement rendered walls. The entrance features an elliptical-headed door opening with a hardwood panelled door, glazed hardwood sidelights and fanlight, opening onto a concrete paved platform with a wheelchair ramp to the left. A low rubble-stone wall with saddle-back coping and matching piers with pyramidal capstones encloses a small raised front area to the street. The windows are square-headed with stone sills, red brick surrounds and 6/6 timber sliding sash windows, though the surrounds and windows appear to have been replaced with machine-made red brick and replacement timber sash. An ATM machine is inserted into the right bay. A granite sill sits to the left.

The walling is squared and snecked random coursed stone with tooled stone quoins and red brick surrounds to all openings and chimney flues. The pitched roof is covered with artificial slate and has black clay ridge tiles. Stone ashlar chimneystacks with clay pots sit to all gables. Half-round cast-iron guttering runs to timber boxed eaves, with decorative cast-iron hoppers and cast-iron downpipes with decorative trefoil brackets.

The west side elevation is gabled with a single window opening to the left and a projecting flat-roofed entrance porch with a felt covered roof, timber fascia and plastic gutter to a decorative sandstone blocking course to eaves. The right cheek contains a square-headed door opening with a replacement sheet-iron door opening onto a concrete paved area. This area is enclosed to Culvacullion Road by a low rubble-stone wall with saddle-back coping and a pedestrian wrought-iron gate to the street.

The two-storey return is centred on the rear elevation, with the entrance porch occupying the inner corner. All windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with ogee horns. A three-sided canted oriel window to the upper floor comprises multi-pane timber casement windows, possibly replacement, with a timber cornice above and resting on a large carved sandstone corbel below. The rear north elevation comprises the large rendered gable of the return with sandstone ashlar quoins and a chimney stack. A two-storey flat-roofed extension is visible to the left. The east side elevation is a rendered gable with timber bargeboard and sandstone ashlar quoins, containing a single square-headed window opening with a 6/6 timber sash window.

The site includes a small enclosed paved area and a rubble-stone screen wall with concrete coping enclosing the rear, extending from the rear return along Culvacullion Road. A further screen wall of the same type abuts the east gable, with a timber door and a pair of steel gates providing vehicular access to the rear.