Altamuskin Post Office, 177 Altamuskin Road, Sixmilecross, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT79 9JA

Altamuskin Post Office is a detached three-bay two-storey house built around 1900, located on the west side of Altamuskin Road, Sixmilecross. It was designed as a combined house and post office on a symmetrical rectangular plan, with a single-storey windbreak porch positioned off-centre at the right.

The building has a pitched natural slate roof with blue and black clay ridge tiles, three brick corbelled chimneystacks, timber eaveboards, and u-profile cast-iron rainwater goods. The walls are constructed of ruled-and-lined rendered random rubble, with the principal east elevation rendered smooth and decorated with shell and pebble insets. The windows are square-headed two-over-two timber sliding sashes with projecting masonry cills and decorative architraves that match the rendering technique. The rear windows are replacement timber casements with projecting masonry cills.

The principal east elevation contains a single-storey windbreak porch off-centre to the left with a replacement timber door accessed by a single masonry step and blank cheeks. A wall plaque above reads "ALTAMUSKIN / POST OFFICE". To the left of the ground floor windows, a cast-metal painted post box is set into the wall. The ground floor has two windows to the left and one to the right, with first floor fenestration identical to the ground floor arrangement. The left south gable is blank. The rear west elevation contains a timber sheeted entrance door to the right and three windows to the left at ground floor, with three windows at first floor. The right north gable is blank.

The house is accessed via four stone steps from the road edge to a cobbled path leading to the principal entrance. The site is bounded on the road side by random rubble walling. Adjacent to the main building on the north and south are random rubble outbuildings aligned east-west with corrugated metal sheeted roofs, appearing to date from around 1830. Directly opposite on the east side of Altamuskin Road is a two-storey random rubble outbuilding, also with corrugated metal sheeted roof and external stone steps. An original cast-metal painted telephone kiosk is located east of the post office inside the boundary wall.

A building has been present on the site since at least 1834, recorded on the first edition Ordnance Survey Map. However, the building is first captioned "Altamuskin Post Office" on the third edition map of 1906-7. Griffiths Valuations from 1858 record a house, office and land occupied by Daniel O'Donnell and leased from Sir William Verner, Baronet, with buildings valued at £2. The occupier changed to Patrick Shiels in 1864, and in 1895 the valuation was raised to £4, probably corresponding to a rebuilding of the property. James Shiels became owner in fee in 1906. Valuers' notes from 1933 list a house, shop, post office, offices, land and bog owned by Patrick Shiels, who occupied it from 1929. The building is described as a roughly finished rubble masonry farmhouse in medium-poor condition, with one room used as a post office and shop. The accommodation includes three bedrooms, one reception room, kitchen and pantry. The two-storey house measured 150 square yards, while the shop occupied only a single floor at 13 square yards. The house value was subsequently raised to £4 5 shillings.

Internally, the house is well preserved with many original features remaining largely intact, including the post office itself. Despite minor alterations, the building retains much of its original fabric and character. The wall-inset post box and adjacent telephone kiosk are unusual survivals representing a rural service of considerable social importance, and the building remains in virtually original condition.