52 Glassmullagh Road, Gortgorgan, Derrylin, Co Fermanagh, BT92 9LQ

A one-and-a-half-storey four-bay thatched house built between 1820 and 1839, located near a road junction at Glassmullagh Road, Gortgorgan, Derrylin, County Fermanagh. The building is Grade B1 listed for its architectural and historical interest, particularly its vernacular character, unusual roof structure variations, and preserved historic plan form.

The house is constructed of rubble stone, rough cast rendered and painted on its north-facing front elevation, with smooth rendered lime wash to the rear. It sits at the edge of Glassmullagh Road, which slopes along the front of the building, falling to the west. A horizontal smooth rendered plinth course emphasises the level, as do the windows and roof. The building is gabled with two brick chimneys equally spaced rising to the ridge from internal walls.

The north-facing front elevation features a simple matchboard entrance door on the west side of the central bay, with a two-over-two sash window to the east. A similar window aligns centrally in the upper bay to the east, and two similar windows align in the bay to the west. Window cills are painted stone. The roof is finished cut perpendicular to the slope, secured by a single hazel rod (ligger) at the eaves. The thatch is scallop thatch with a wrap-over ridge flush with the rest of the slope, and two liggers secure the thatch along the ridge. Natural colour sand cement parging covers the gables and chimneys. The thatch sits up from the gable by approximately 100mm, and a simple cement coping projects to form a drip at eaves level.

The south-facing rear elevation has an irregular window layout. A small tin-roofed concrete block and sand cement rendered return projects from the eastern end, covering part of the end and central bays. A casement kitchen window is centred on the end gable, with an adjacent top-hung casement lighting the living room in the central bay and a small sash above. Further west, two windows occupy the lower bay—a one-over-one sash and a smaller casement—with a one-over-one sash between these at first-floor level. The east gable has a single two-over-two sash at high level, placed centrally and blank below. To the rear, a small flat-roofed extension with a single small casement window abuts the return. Behind the building, almost perpendicular to it, stands a 'sister' building of once very similar appearance but now heavily remodelled. The two houses are separated by a small stream.

The house is recorded on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map, depicted alongside a parallel barn to the rear (still existing) and a small barn to the south-east (now demolished). A perpendicular house to the north-west, closer to the current building than its present neighbour, is also indicated. Contemporary valuation records show the building as a 'house and offices' occupied by Richard Philips, with a relatively high rateable value of £4-2-0. Richard Philips (or a relative of the same name) is listed as the occupant in the second valuation of 1862, with the Earl of Erne recorded as the lessor; by this point the rateable value had dropped slightly to £4. The cross roads north-west of the house were constructed between 1834 and 1857. The building is associated with a farm of 35 acres originally leased from the Crom estate. The current family acquired the farm in 1928.

Work to the roof trusses was carried out in 1950. The front roof was rethatched in rye straw in 1992, with repairs to the rear slope following in 1993 using the same material. Window repairs and some internal items were attended to in 1995. Further repairs to the rear roof in rye were undertaken in 1997, followed by repairs after storm damage in 1999. In 2002, repair works were carried out to the thatch mainly to the rear and also to the front under the chimneys, using wheat straw.

The building is situated at the edge of the road with a small farmyard containing corrugated metal and concrete block outbuildings to the west and rear.