70 Croaghrim Road, Florencecourt, Co Fermanagh

70 Croaghrim Road, Florencecourt

A storey and a half lobby entry thatched house, built of brick and rendered in lime and whitewash, located parallel to Croaghrim Road with a small garden separating it from the road. The building faces north-east and is sheltered to the east by mature planting along the roadside, with standard height hedgerows to the west. To the south-west and rear stands a row of single-storey barns of similar brick construction but with metal roofing, aligned with the house. A larger timber and corrugated metal barn sits in the tree-lined paddock to the south-east.

The main front elevation features three six-over-six sash windows with horns, equally spaced across the facade, with the entrance door positioned as the second opening from the south-east corner. Wild roses grow between the openings. The entrance has a sheeted door with a four-pane rectangular fanlight above. Stone cills, painted, run beneath the windows. The thatch projects parallel with the ground, currently overhanging approximately 600 millimetres. The scallop thatch is secured by hidden fixings except for a single hazel ligger at the flush ridge and above the eaves. Two chimneys, equally spaced about the central room, rise approximately 300 millimetres above the thatch and are currently in need of repair. A single two-pane sash at high level in the north-west gable lights the roof space. Noticeable settling is evident in the brick courses towards the front of the house. The thatch is built up from the gables by approximately 200 millimetres and is stitched along the edge in hazel as well as parged in cement.

To the rear, a single-storey pitched return projects with corrugated metal roofing. A narrow timber casement lights the bay to the south-west of this return, which contains a back scullery and storage shed with a sheeted door and small casement on the south-east side. The rest of the rear elevation has a small window to each structural bay: a casement to the central room and a one-over sash to the other. The south-east gable features a single one-over-one sash at high level, with noticeable subsidence again evident in the brick coursing to the front of the building.

The house does not appear on the first or second edition Ordnance Survey maps but is shown on the 1906 map, indicating construction in the second half of the nineteenth century. However, the primitive form of the fireplace construction is usually associated with much earlier buildings. The bricks were manufactured at nearby Florencecourt. The building has undergone little modification since construction, with the exception of the single-storey return to the rear. It was likely built as a farm worker's cottage by the Florencecourt Estate; nearby buildings of similar type have now been removed. The building was recorded by the Environment and Heritage Service in 1975 and listed in 1991. The thatch was replaced in 1991 using rye straw, and in 1995 repairs were carried out to the ridge and chimneys.