Crevenagh House, 44 Crevenagh Road, Omagh, Co.Tyrone, BT79 0EH

Crevenagh House is a detached, three-bay, two-storey rendered country house built around 1840, set on an elevated, extensively landscaped site to the east of Crevenagh Road in Omagh, County Tyrone. It faces west, is rectangular on plan, and was significantly enlarged and embellished around 1880 with the addition of a single-storey entrance porch, a single-bay two-storey wing to the northeast, and a flat-roofed corridor connecting the two. The window mouldings and tripartite windows are also likely to date from this later phase. The house is recorded as early as the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854, where it appears as 'Creevenagh House', already accompanied by a gate lodge, summer house, outbuildings, and a formal garden. Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 lists it as a house, offices, gate lodge and land, occupied by the Hon. Andrew Stewart and leased from the Auchinleck family, valued at £60. Subsequent valuation revisions show the Auchinleck family as occupiers throughout, with the value rising incrementally to £84 10s by 1883, when a new addition was recorded as built. The house is understood to have been built by the Auchinleck family. Its most celebrated connection is Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck, described as the most famous son of that family.

Roofs and External Structure

The roofs throughout are hipped natural slate, with the main body of the house forming a U-plan with a central well. Half-round ridge tiles run along the main roof. To the front pitch, a symmetrically placed pair of rendered chimneystacks feature raised-and-fielded panels and decorative clay pots. Three further, more slender stone ashlar stacks rise from the rear pitch, each with moulded coping and octagonal clay pots. The northeast wing has its own hipped roof with raised lead ridges and a central rendered chimneystack with octagonal clay pots. The southeast return is half-hipped, set below the eaves of the rear of the main house, with lead ridges and a large rendered chimneystack fitted with octagonal clay pots.

The main house roof has overhanging eaves carried on paired brackets, with incorporated guttering and square-profile cast-iron downpipes. To the northeast return, a decorative moulded cast-iron gutter rests on a moulded eaves course, with round cast-iron downpipes.

The walling is generally in ruled-and-lined cement render, with rusticated render quoins to the corners of the main house and a projecting plinth course. Windows throughout are square-headed with stone sills and moulded architrave surrounds to the south, west, and east elevations, all fitted with timber sash windows.

Principal West Elevation

The symmetrical three-bay, two-storey principal elevation is centred on a single-bay, single-storey flat-roofed entrance porch. The windows are tripartite timber sash units, each comprising a 6/6 sash flanked by 4/4 sashes. At ground floor level, the window openings are finished with a plain frieze and cornice over each.

The central entrance porch is canted in plan, with overhanging eaves supported on diminutive brackets to a moulded drip course, and a further Roman cement moulding below. The front face of the porch has a bipartite window opening with 4/4 timber sash windows and a central sash box. Each side elevation of the porch contains a square-headed door opening with an elaborate Roman cement doorcase: an architrave surround flanked by a pair of semi-pilasters surmounted by a plain frieze and moulded cornice. The door opening to the south side retains a later glazed timber door; the opening to the north has been blocked.

North Elevation

The north side elevation is also three bays wide, with 6/6 timber sash windows to the flanking bays. The eastern ground-floor window in this elevation has been replaced with a uPVC unit. The wider central bay contains a tripartite window at first-floor level and a bipartite window at ground floor, the ground-floor opening having a plain frieze and cornice.

A flat-roofed corridor, slightly recessed with a running cornice, connects the main house to the northeast wing. This corridor has a doorcase matching those on the entrance porch, with a glazed timber panelled door opening onto a pair of rounded stone steps.

The northeast wing has a pair of window openings at first-floor level with architrave surrounds and single-pane timber sash windows. At ground floor, a three-sided canted bay projects, with a running cornice, three window openings each with architrave surrounds and single-pane timber sash windows, all set on a continuous stone sill course.

Rear East Elevation and Southeast Return

The rear east elevation of the main body of the house is abutted by the connecting corridor and the southeast return. This face is finished in an earlier rough-cast render, with brickwork visible beneath, and a round-headed stair-hall timber sash window is visible here. To the northeast wing and southeast return at the rear, there are several square-headed window openings: the northeast wing has later single-pane timber sash windows, while the southeast return retains earlier 6/3 timber sash windows. A square-headed door opening with a glazed timber door leads into an enclosed rear yard containing some lean-to sheds and a pair of tall rendered piers.

South Elevation

The south elevation continues the three-bay arrangement of the main house, matching the north side elevation in window arrangement. A lower, three-bay, two-storey elevation to the southeast return is set slightly back, its windows being 6/3 timber sashes.

Interior

The interior is described as unusually handsome: a complete neoclassical villa with a double-return staircase symmetrically planned on the axis of the hall, fine Grecian plasterwork, and a strongly architectural treatment to the doors and fireplaces of the principal rooms. The hall floor is paved in Italian marble in black, white, and terracotta-red, with scenes of the Seven Ages of Man.

Setting and Associated Structures

The house sits on an elevated landscaped site. The front porch opens onto a gravel area that continues south as a winding avenue before looping back north toward the main road and the gate lodge (listed separately under HB11/15/003C). To the southeast of the house stands a detached three-bay single-storey stone garden structure with a front railed area. This structure has a hipped natural slate roof with raised lead ridges and plastic rainwater goods. The front elevation is in coursed stonework; the other elevations are in rough-cast render over redbrick. The central opening is a square-headed window with a stone ashlar surround and a central carved keystone, flanked on each side by a pair of square-headed door openings with stone ashlar surrounds and vertically-sheeted timber doors. Further to the southeast lies an enclosed farmyard with a two-storey, multi-bay range of outbuildings (listed separately under HB11/15/003B) and an extensive walled garden, all adding to the group interest of the property.