Farmhouse, Movarran Road, Kesh, Co Fermanagh, BT93 1FA

Farmhouse, Movarran Road, Kesh

This is a fine, largely original example of a two-storey vernacular dwelling dating from around 1880, retaining much of its internal layout and detailing as well as most of its outbuildings and an unspoiled rural setting. This type of building is becoming increasingly rare and this particular house, standing in a largely unaltered state, remains a good illustration of the type.

The farmhouse is a vernacular, two-storey structure with a symmetrical frontage and attached single-storey outbuildings arranged in linear fashion. The property sits within a rural location at the end of a lane north-east of Movarran Road. The front façade faces south-east (referred to as south for description purposes). At the centre of this front façade is a shallow projecting porch with a lean-to corrugated-iron roof. Window openings are regularly arranged with one to either side of the ground floor and three to the first floor; the frames are 1/1 painted timber sliding sash windows. The west gable is largely obscured by the adjoining outbuilding. The rear north façade has two irregularly arranged window openings, one at ground floor level and one at first floor level. The roof is pitched and framed with skews, covered with natural slate and dark grey fireclay ridge tiles. Each gable rises to a small chimneystack set on the line of the ridge. The walls are constructed of rubble field stone with roughly dressed granite quoins, which appear to have been originally covered with lime render, though this has mostly fallen away. To the west side stands the remains of a single-storey, now roofless, outhouse. To the immediate east side is a single-storey byre with a corrugated-iron roof, and to the far east stands a now roofless byre.

Historical records show that a building matching the orientation of the present house appears on Ordnance Survey maps of 1835 and 1856, but without the attached outbuildings. The current configuration appears on the 1907 Ordnance Survey map. The property is marked on the 1835 map but is not recorded in the contemporary valuation. It is recorded in the valuation of around 1860 as the home of Arthur Armstrong, a tenant at will of the Archdall estate. The rateable value of 15 shillings at this date suggests a relatively small building, probably single-storey. There is no obvious physical evidence to suggest the present house has been raised in height, so it is likely to be a post-1860 replacement. The symmetry of the front façade, roof timbers, and internal detailing support this assessment. The window frames to the front and the staircase suggest construction post-1875, indicating the building may date from around 1885, when the lease was taken up by John Durnian. Subsequent occupants included Thomas Durnian (1865), John Durnian (1885), Thomas Glendinning (1912), Henry Humphrey (1919), William Armstrong (around 1932), and John McCutcheon (1944). Valuation records suggest the building ceased to be used as a dwelling house in 1958.