15 Main Street, Beragh, Sixmilecross, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT79 0SY

This detached asymmetrical three-bay one-and-a-half-storey house at 15 Main Street, Beragh, dates to around 1840 and was originally built as a police barracks by the Earl of Belmore, the local landlord. It now serves as a private residence.

The building is L-shaped in plan and faces north towards Main Street, set back from the main line of development with a narrow garden to the south. The right bay is gabled with a perpendicular ridge, and there is a single-storey gabled entrance porch to the north. The roof is covered in natural slate with blue-black clay ridge tiles and features three stepped chimneystacks with lower parts rendered and upper parts in red brick, topped with clay pots. The eaves are deep and overhanging, with serrated fascias and scalloped bargeboards supported on exposed decorative rafter ends. Rainwater goods are cast-iron with cast-iron hoppers, though some rear sections have been replaced with uPVC.

The walls are constructed from roughly coursed squared-and-snecked rubble stone with stepped quoins and a projecting chamfered plinth. The windows are mostly replacement double-glazed square-headed 1/1 timber sliding sashes set within stepped chamfered droved and stugged sandstone surrounds with splayed cills. The first-floor windows are diminished in size. All ground-floor windows except those on the principal elevation retain painted vertical cast-iron security railings, an original and important feature of the period.

The principal north elevation is notable for its picturesque design—unusual for a police station. It is centred by a single-storey entrance porch with a pitched natural slate roof. The right gabled bay contains a tripartite window at ground floor with plain chamfered sandstone mullions, and a dipartite window at attic level. The left bay has dipartite windows at both ground and attic levels, with the attic window set within a wall-head dormer. The central bay contains a single window within a wall-head dormer. The round-arched-headed timber sheeted entrance door retains original ironmongery including decorative strap hinges, with a projecting flat archivolt above. The porch cheeks are detailed to match the main block and feature a projecting decorative plinth wall with saddleback coping.

The east elevation is ruled-and-lined rendered with exposed sandstone quoins and window surrounds, containing single windows at each floor level. The rear elevation includes a one-and-a-half-storey gabled return to the left with pitched natural slate roof, and a single-storey entrance porch with lean-to roof to the right. The west elevation matches the east in design, with single windows at first floor and an extended flush return to the south. This southern return has smooth rendered walls and a mix of timber and uPVC windows. The wall-head dormer on its east elevation contains a 1/1 timber sliding sash window.

The building retains much original fabric and important design features from its period of construction. Original cast-iron security bars remain at the windows. An entrance door to the rear entrance porch also retains original decorative strap hinges.

The property first appears in Griffith's Valuation Lists of 1856–64 as a "Police barracks, yard and garden" leased from the Earl of Belmore and valued at £12. No changes in use occurred until 1896, when an amendment recorded a change from police to constabulary barracks, followed by another amendment in 1917 to Royal Irish Constabulary. An 1891 inspection note records that the yard wall was enclosed with fences and garden in good order, the barracks in good repair with the landlord attending promptly to complaints. The property had a pump in the yard, though drinking water was obtained from the public pump. Drainage was described as good, with a pipe running from the barracks to a stream at the foot of the garden.

A parish history records that the sandstone-fronted house was built in 1830 by the Earl of Belmore as landlord and was leased to the Royal Irish Constabulary as barracks, remaining in police use until their disbandment in 1920. The Royal Ulster Constabulary subsequently used it as their barracks until relocating to their present barracks in 1939. An Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows a former building on the site, suggesting this structure replaced an earlier one.

To the rear of the property is a series of single-storey outbuildings. Those to the west have pitched natural slate roofs with blue-black ridge tiles, timber sheeted doors and casement windows, and corrugated metal sheeted roofs. Those to the east retain original timber fenestration. Pedestrian access to the rear is gained through a painted cast-iron gate supported on a sandstone pier at the north-east corner of the house. The yard is bounded to the east by a painted random rubble wall with random rubble coping.

Some alterations have occurred, including the replacement of certain rainwater goods with uPVC at the rear and some window replacements with modern double-glazing and uPVC casements. Despite these changes, the building retains significant original and important architectural features characteristic of the mid-19th century, and its history as a purpose-built police barracks constructed by the landlord makes it of particular interest in the development of police stations and barracks.