Oakfield, 23 Knockballymore Road, Mullyvannoge, Newtownbutler, Co. Fermanagh, BT92 6JD

Oakfield is a handsome and well-proportioned house built in the late 1790s by the Earl of Erne for one of his land agents. The building retains many interesting original features both internally and externally, particularly noteworthy being the staircase.

The house is a symmetrical two-storey structure with basement, arranged in three bays, aligned south-west to north-east on the west side of Knockballymore Road. It has a shallow hipped roof of natural slate with a distinctive central yellow brick chimney nine pots wide, running the full length of the ridge. The eaves are overhanging with timber soffit supported on modillions, and half-round metal rainwater goods complete the roofline.

The walls are wet-dashed and painted over a slightly advanced base course with a contrasting chamfered band. Windows throughout are timber sliding-sashes with horns and painted stone cills. The principal elevation faces south-east and features a symmetrical composition centred on an impressive entrance. The double-leaf four-panelled timber door is set within a semi-elliptical opening and flanked by 1x3 sidelights with panelled apron. Fluted quarter-attached Doric columns support an entablature with Greek-key frieze. Above is a shallow semi-elliptical fanlight with cast-iron spider-web glazing. Four diminishing stone steps provide access. The flanking bays either side contain 6/6 sash windows in contrasting shallow semi-elliptical recesses, with three 6/3 windows aligned above at first-floor level. The south-west gable is blank. At ground floor, a shallow projecting section with monopitched natural slate roof (two courses only) abuts the facade to the right of centre. Beneath this section at basement level, the ground has been cut away to expose a pair of 2x3 side-hung casement windows set within a deep semi-elliptical recess, with a coal-hole within the left inner cheek.

The rear (north-west) elevation is complex in composition. A return structure abuts the central bay, and an addition abuts the left bay at first-floor level only. The exposed right bay displays a 6/6 window at ground floor and a 6/3 window at first floor. The exposed ground-floor section of the left bay, beneath the addition, contains a pair of sliding-sash windows—the left is 2/2 and the right is 2/4—divided by a central timber mullion. Basement level is enclosed by a rubble stone wall with saddle coping and accessed down ten stone steps. The left bay basement has a window covered with corrugated metal. The central bay contains a timber-sheeted door with mouth-organ transom, and above at half-landing level is a 6/6 sliding-sash window visible through the arch of the rear return. The right bay has a similar window. The return is full height to the right side only; the left side rises from half-landing level and is supported on open segmental-headed arches on the north-west face and left cheek, leaving the central bay exposed from half-landing level between basement and ground floor. The return has a monopitched natural slate roof with timber-sheeted soffit, and its north-west face contains a timber-sheeted door accessed by four steps, with a fixed-pane lattice-glazed window to the right cheek at ground and first-floor levels. The addition is similarly detailed with a monopitched corrugated metal roof supported on a single cast-iron pole to centre. Its north-west face displays a row of seven 2/4 sliding-sash windows divided by timber mullions just below eaves level.

The north-east gable of the main block is abutted at its extreme right end by a two-storey farm building now incorporated into the house. This structure has a 6/6 sliding-sash window to the ground floor left and at each end of the first floor. To the left of the basement is a tripartite 6/6 sliding-sash window with 2/2 sidelights.

The rear yard is enclosed by a number of outbuildings forming an L-shape with the right gable of the main block. All have pitched corrugated metal roofs, lime-rendered and whitewashed walls, and timber-and-groove sheeted doors with window openings. The block to the north-east gable is single-storey, comprising from left a door, window, door and window. The block aligned south-west to north-east is two-storey with two segmental-headed carriage arches—one at the extreme left end and the other at centre.

Historical records confirm the building's identity and early occupation. It appears explicitly on the 1834 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map and all subsequent editions. The 1837 Valuation records describe it as occupied by John Hamilton and measuring 46 feet by 32 feet by 18 feet plus cellar. The 1860 Valuation confirms Hamilton's continued occupation and notes the building was in good repair and finish, though remarks that the upper storeys are low. Measurements given as 45 feet by 31 feet 6 inches across two storeys are virtually identical to the 1837 statistics, indicating minimal structural change over this period.