431 Belturbet Road, Aghalane, Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, BT92 9BR

A large picturesque thatched house of probable eighteenth-century date, situated in a mature riverside setting. The building is a storey-and-a-half structure with a six-window bay façade, lobby entry plan, and vernacular construction. Though the internal plan has been partly altered, the main external appearance remains largely unchanged since the nineteenth century, and the historic roof structure is largely intact. The house represents a now rare survival of a large thatched dwelling of this type in this part of Northern Ireland.

The house sits beside the Woodford River, which curves around the site at low level, making it visible from the river and contributing to the character of this tourist route. A mature garden occupies the front, with a farmyard containing stone barns to the rear. A rubble stone wall with cast iron Victorian gates—featuring two-stage construction with reeded side columns and sub-Doric style capitals—fronts the property. Rambling roses grow along the wall. The former main Cavan to Derrylin Road originally ran in front of the garden wall but has since been rerouted to the rear of the building at a higher level.

The south-east facing front façade is six bays in length. It contains two Georgian-style six-over-six sash windows to the south-west, a sheeted and painted entrance door in the third bay, and three further six-over-six sash windows in the remaining openings. All windows have sandstone cills. The walls are rendered in wet dash and whitewashed. Unusually for a vernacular house, the windows are large and of full Georgian proportions. Three rendered and painted chimneys sit on the ridge: one at each gable and one in a central location. The central chimney is higher and is surmounted by two pots rather than the single pot on the other two. Each chimney has a projecting stringcourse detail at approximately the same level.

The south-west gable features a smaller six-over-six window at high level centred on the façade, with a six-over-six sash of square proportion below lighting the rear of the kitchen. To the rear, a flat-roofed extension of two metres depth extends from the building along most of the façade. The end bay is original and has a single six-over-six sash. The extension contains three windows and a rear door, all with sash windows and sandstone cills matching the main building, though of modern proportions. The north-east gable is blank apart from a central six-over-six window at high level lighting the gable.

At the time of survey in 2001, the roof was thatched in rye straw. Scallop fixings are hidden except at the ridge and eaves. Three lines of hazel rods (liggers) are fixed along the ridge with a single ligger along the eaves. Sand-cement parging is applied at the gables and chimneys. The thatch sits up from the gable by approximately 100 millimetres. The thatched roof is cut back horizontally at the eaves.

The stone farm buildings adjacent to the house complement its setting. A single-storey slated stone barn is situated to the south-west, while a storey-and-a-half barn to the rear has a corrugated metal roof. These buildings are unrendered, with exposed rubble sandstone.

The building is considered to date from circa 1720, with modifications in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A structure matching the present house is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834–35 and is recorded in the contemporary valuation as a 'house and offices' occupied by Owen Donigan, with the relatively high rateable value of £5–5–0. Farrell Donigan is listed as occupant in the second valuation of 1862, with the Earl of Erne recorded as the lessor. The rateable value had risen slightly to £5–10–0 by that point.

The plan form has remained largely unchanged from the first edition map with the exception of some barns to the rear and the flat-roofed extension. The building was originally designed to command the view over the nearby Aghalane bridge, which is now gone. It was first recorded by the Environment and Heritage Service in 1984 (the extension already existed at that time, though it does not appear on the 1973 Ordnance Survey map). The building was listed in 1992 and thatched in straw in 1995 to the front. In 1996 the rear slope was thatched, and in 1999 another coat was applied, both in wheat straw.

During renovation works in 1996, a mud wall was discovered in the western bay (the majority of the building is constructed from rubble sandstone). This collapsed during the works. These works created a new dining area in a previously external recess under the rear extension roof. The fireplace was substantially rebuilt. Internal walls and ceilings were replastered and the floor structure largely replaced. Sash windows were added to replace former casements to the rear and sides. The house has been in the ownership of the present family for a number of generations.