House to west of 42 Tallysallagh Road, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT78 5ER

A detached three-bay single-storey direct-entry vernacular dwelling built around 1830, located on the north side of Tattysallagh Road in Omagh. This is a well-preserved example of a once-common rural building type, now increasingly rare, retaining much of its original detailing both externally and internally.

The house has a direct-entry rectangular plan with a small wind-break porch to the east and a lean-to return to the west, added around 1920. The pitched corrugated metal roof has stone verges and is topped by a rendered stone chimney to the north and a replacement concrete block chimney at the centre. The walls are rubble construction with lime render. Windows are timber-framed 2/2 sliding sash with painted masonry sills. The principal elevation faces east, with the central bay containing a single window flanked to the left by the wind-break porch. The porch has a cat-slide roof and contains a vertically sheeted timber entrance door surmounted by a transom light. The left and right bays each contain a single window, though the left window lacks a sill. The south gable is blank and cement-rendered. The west elevation is abutted at the left by lean-to returns containing four windows, with a blank section at the right. The north gable is blank with exposed rubble walling. An unusual wall-hearth with stepped detailing is retained internally, along with original windows and doors, though some replacements have been made.

The house sits perpendicular to the road, accessed through a lime-rendered wall abutting the south-east corner from a lane to the south. The setting is bounded to the east by rubble walling alongside farmland, to the west by timber fencing, and to the north by hedging. A single-storey rubble outbuilding stands to the east, with a recent farm building to the south.

Historical records show the house was present on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833. By the third edition of 1905 it had been extended to the north, and by the fourth edition of 1937 it had also been extended to the rear. The original structure was probably a two-bay vernacular dwelling, later expanded. The roof was likely originally thatched, though the roof timbers have since been replaced with corrugated metal.

At the time of Griffith's Valuation (1856–64), the house was occupied by two tenants from the same family, valued at 10 shillings and 15 shillings respectively, with part described as a workman's house. Felix Kearney became owner in fee of part of the building in 1907, together with a building to the south. By 1934, the plot remained divided, though the valuation map showed the current house as a single dwelling. Francis Barrett owned the main house in fee at that time, valued at £4, comprising three rooms and a scullery built of rubble masonry with a corrugated iron roof. The rear extension was then built entirely of corrugated iron. A separate building to the south, owned by John Kearney Jr., comprised two rooms and a kitchen, also of rubble masonry but thatched at that period.

The original form and proportions of this rural dwelling remain intact and representative of its building type.