House, Drumswords, Rosslea, Co Fermanagh, BT92 7NQ

Drumswords is a well-proportioned mid-19th century house with farmyard to rear, aligned north-east to south-west and positioned roughly at the centre of Drumswords townland. The building comprises a two-storey structure with attic storey and three bays, with a two-storey return to the rear.

The principal elevation faces south-east. The pitched artificial slate roof is topped with brick chimneys to each gable, and advanced eaves boards support metal rainwater goods. Walls are pebble-dashed with smooth cement-rendered basecourse and vertical bands at each end. All window and door openings have cement-rendered reveals. The central doorcase is set within a shallow semi-elliptical headed opening and consists of two painted timber columns supporting a plainly detailed entablature with a spider-web fanlight above. A modern timber four-panelled door occupies the opening. Flanking the doorcase to the left is a 2/2 sliding sash window with horns and painted cills. Three similarly detailed but narrower windows are aligned above. All remaining windows follow this pattern unless otherwise stated. A painted keyblock with raised cross is set above the doorcase and below the first floor window. The left gable features a window to the first floor and two small attic windows.

The rear elevation is abutted to the right of centre by the two-storey return. The left bay has a window to each floor. The centre bay contains stairwell windows to each floor; the ground floor window matches those elsewhere, while those above are 1/1 fixed timber with concrete cills. The exposed right bay contains a narrow modern timber casement window. The return is detailed as the main house. Its north-east elevation has a modern stone-clad advanced chimneybreast to the left, with landscape timber casement windows to each floor to its right. The return's end gable is abutted by a lower outbuilding of no architectural interest. Its south-west elevation has a modern glazed timber door to the left and a timber casement window; a 2/2 sliding sash window is aligned above at first floor level. The right elevation has two windows at attic level only.

The original sashes and fanlight remain in situ, though the building has been recently refurbished, losing much of its original external character. A few other original internal features survive.

The farmyard to the rear contains a number of recently refurbished outbuildings, all with rubble stone walls featuring stepped dressed sandstone quoins and dressings. The outbuilding to the north of the house has a pitched corrugated metal roof and five door openings, of which only the extreme left remains open and is sheeted with tongue-and-groove boards; to its right end is a segmental-headed arched opening. A two-storey outbuilding to the east of the house has a pitched artificial slate roof with skylights, an external stone stair, and tongue-and-groove sheeted door and openings.

The house first appears on the 1859 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, confirming a mid-19th century construction date. A Historic Monuments and Buildings survey card cites a construction date of 1839, though no source is provided for this attribution. The property is recorded only, not formally listed.