The Rectory, 119 Clanabogan Road, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT78 1SN

The Rectory is a detached, three-bay two-storey Gothic Revival former rectory built circa 1875, located on the west side of Clanabogan Road in a rural setting. The building represents a good example of a mid-Victorian rural rectory in the Picturesque style and survives in largely original condition.

The main structure has a rectangular plan with a projecting bay to the east, a single-storey porch set into a re-entrant angle, and a single-storey bowed bay serving the east and north elevations. A two-storey double-gabled return projects to the west, abutted by a single-storey lean-to extension dating from circa 1980. The walls are constructed of coursed rubble over a projecting plinth, with sandstone quoins and string courses. Windows are square-headed timber-framed 1/1 sliding sashes set in chamfered sandstone surrounds with splayed flush sills. A few windows employ Tudor arched heads.

The roofline provides considerable ornamental interest. Half-hipped roofs are clad with artificial slates and feature deep overhanging eaves on exposed rafter ends. Fretted bargeboards with dropped motifs decorate the gable ends. Rendered chimneys with varied clay pots pierce the roofline. Cast-iron balconettes adorn the porch and bowed bays at first-floor level.

The principal elevation faces east. The left bay contains a single ground-floor window and a half-dormer with a single first-floor window. The central bay features an ornate single-storey porch at ground level. The porch is nicely detailed with a Tudor-arched entrance flanked by collonettes and surmounted by hood moulding and keyblock, alongside an original brass doorbell. The double-leaf timber entrance doors are diagonally sheeted below the lockrail and vertically sheeted above. A Tudor-arched window opens to the south. The exposed section at first floor contains a single window. The projecting right bay is abutted by a bowed bay containing three ground-floor windows and a Tudor-arched window at first floor. The south elevation contains a single ground-floor window to the left, a further ground-floor window to the right with a blocked first-floor window above. A return abuts the left side, containing two windows to each floor. The west elevation is abutted on the right by a return with a single first-floor window in a yellow brick surround; the elevation is fully abutted at ground floor by the extension, with only a blank exposed section to the left. The north elevation comprises two bays: the left contains a single ground-floor window and a half-dormer with a first-floor window; the projecting right bay is abutted by a bowed bay with three ground-floor windows and a pair of Tudor-arched windows at first floor.

The property sits within mature gardens on a rural site. An L-shaped single-storey outbuilding stands to the rear, roofed with hipped natural slate and featuring fretted timber bargeboards to the north gable. It retains original timber-framed windows, square-headed vertically-sheeted timber doors to the north and west, and a loading door at attic level to the north. A modern garage stands to the north-west. The site is bounded on all sides by hedging and is accessed from the road to the north-east through a pair of square rubble pillars supporting recent steel gates.

Historical evidence indicates a caretakers house and land previously occupied the site. The current rectory is first recorded in the 1874 Valuation Revisions, when it was newly built and occupied by the Reverend Walter Henry Scott, leased from John Galbraith and valued at £23 10 shillings. By 1906, the Reverend Heuson is recorded as occupier. A cottier's house was added to the site in 1879. The building is first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905-6, captioned 'Rectory'. The property formed part of Clanabogan, a typical mid-Victorian gentleman's estate in Ulster, created by Samuel Galbraith Esquire with a house, family church for a specially created curacy, and this modern rectory.