81 Tullylammy Road, Drumskea, Killadeas, Co Fermanagh, BT94 1RZ

81 Tullylammy Road, Drumskea

A three-bay, single-storey direct-entry vernacular house, likely dating to the mid-18th century (1740–1759), with thatch and historic roof construction preserved. The house retains its historic plan and is a good example of a type increasingly rare in the region.

The building is constructed of two bays of mud and one bay of locally burnt brick. The mud wall is of unusual construction for Northern Ireland, being made of individual mud 'bricks' rather than a compressed mass. The house faces east onto a street frontage, with barns arranged in two rows perpendicular to the building on the opposite side. A lean-to shed abuts the lower northern gable.

The front elevation features a projecting flat-roofed entrance porch with mock ashlar coursing painted in bright blue, and the date 1955 in relief over the entrance door. The porch door is sheeted and painted. The front wall is harled and painted white with a projecting plinth course that betrays the irregular setting of the wall. A two-pane sash window lights the southern end, and two windows on the northern side of the porch face onto a low walled garden. The timber sash to the kitchen and metal window to the lower room are visible from this elevation.

The thatch is fixed by the scollop method with a flush ridge, with fixings hidden except for a single hazel ligger along the eaves. The southern gable is smooth rendered and painted white. A timber rail has been nailed to the wall three-quarters of the way up as part of a previous attempt to keep the render in place. The thatched roof is turned down over the top and sides of the gable wall. A small crack exists at the junction with the front wall, and a large crack, measuring 30mm wide in places, runs along the junction with the rear elevation.

The rear elevation has a concrete plinth carried around it and a wide seugh (900mm) before the ground slopes away from the building. It contains two small windows to the upper structural bay—one a two-pane sash and the other a four-pane casement, both painted white. The central bay has a single two-pane sash window directly opposite the entrance door. The lower bay contains two sash windows. The lower bay is constructed of brick which has been whitewashed. The other bays have smooth lime render, also whitewashed. Evidence of patching is visible in places, particularly over the whitened window areas. The plinth course and concrete seugh return along this elevation and end at the lean-to shed in a muddy field boundary. The wall leans outward along the upper part of the southern bay.

The northern elevation is constructed of brick, partly obscured by the lean-to shed, and is in poor condition. A small two-pane sash lights an attic room, with surrounding bricks on the exterior having crumbled away. The roof carries three chimneys on top of all walls except the southern gable. The thatch abuts a concrete parapet at the brick wall, with a deep overhang at the eaves of approximately 500mm.

Historical Development

The site is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834–35, with a corn kiln marked to the east side, though neither are recorded in the near contemporary valuation. By the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1859, the corn kiln had been removed, leaving only the house on the plot. The 1861 valuation records the occupant as Thomas Breen, with Henry Mervyn Darcy Irvine as the immediate lessor and the rateable value at £2.

The building was originally a two-roomed structure. The brick bay to the north was added in the late 19th century, as indicated on the 1907 Ordnance Survey map. According to the former owner, the bricks were made in a nearby field specifically for this work. The projecting entrance porch was added in 1955, as marked on the porch itself. The hearth fire and concrete floors were renovated during the 1970s, and the lean-to shed also dates from this period. A boundary wall around the garden, installed during the 1980s, replaced an earlier shed.

The building enhances its surroundings and represents a particularly good example of vernacular architecture of a type that is increasingly rare in this region.