126 Drumlegagh Church Road, Drumquin, Co Tyrone, BT78 4PP

Detached three-bay two-storey rendered house built around 1890, set on an elevated site overlooking a valley on the east side of Drumlegagh Church Road. While the modest dwelling does not fit neatly into the vernacular tradition because of its more formal composition, the level of intactness is of particular note. Details throughout are simple, robust and unaltered. In its picturesque setting, the house constitutes an example of a once common late nineteenth-century rural house that is rare in its survival and completeness.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing west with a front entrance porch, single-storey rear return and corrugated iron structure to the south gable. A range of two-storey stone outbuildings to the north forms an informal rear yard.

The building has a pitched natural slate roof with brick chimneystacks rising from either gable end, black clay ridge tiles and cast-iron rainwater goods to wrought-iron brackets. Steel rainwater goods serve the rear. The front elevation is finished with ruled-and-lined cement render and rusticated quoins. Other elevations are rough-cast lime over rubble stone. Window openings are square-headed with concrete sills and fitted with 2/2 horizontally-glazed timber sash windows featuring exposed sash boxes and concave horns. The three-bay front elevation has a central shallow lean-to windbreaker porch with concrete roof and replacement hardwood glazed door opening onto a concrete step. The north gable is blind. The three-bay rear elevation includes a central single-storey return with pitched natural slate roof, steel rainwater goods and a timber casement window to the gable. A vertically-sheeted timber door to the north opens onto a stone flagged rear area. The south gable is blind.

Set perpendicular to the rear of the house is a detached multi-bay two-storey rubble stone outbuilding on a rectangular plan. It has a pitched roof with natural slate to the west, topped with black clay ridge tiles, and corrugated iron to the east end. Cast-iron rainwater goods are mounted on iron brackets. The walling is whitewashed rubble stone with square-headed window and door openings finished with stone and concrete lintels. The ground floor has vertically-sheeted timber doors and steel casement windows, while the first floor features timber shutters.

The house was first recorded on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map (1939-50), though a structure has stood on the site since the first edition map of 1833. Part of this earlier building may be incorporated into the present house. Some lime mortar visible on the side and rear elevations covering rubble stone suggests the cement render to the front elevation was part of a remodelling process, possibly explaining the crudely inscribed date '1912'.

Historical records show that in Griffith's Valuation (1858) and subsequent Annual Revisions the property was occupied by the McElhill family and leased from Sir James M. Stronge Baronet. A significant increase in building valuation from £0.15s to £2.5s occurred in 1914, with a new plan and measurements recorded for the building at that time.