Mayne House, 30 Maine Road, Omagh, Co.Tyrone, BT79 7NS

Mayne House is a detached two-storey farmhouse with attic, built around 1830, standing on the north side of Maine Road in Omagh. It is a three-bay house rectangular on plan, facing south with a gabled breakfront central bay and a single-storey lean-to extension to the rear. The building retains mid-nineteenth century proportions and several features of early interest, though it is of a relatively common type and has been compromised by more recent alterations and detailing, and does not represent the best examples of its kind.

The roof is pitched artificial slate with gable chimneystacks, cement rendered to the left and brick replacement to the right. Rainwater goods are half-round cast-iron. Walling is lime roughcast to the front and rear, with cement rendering to the gables.

The principal southern elevation is symmetrically arranged about a central round-headed entrance opening with a slightly projecting smooth rendered reveal contained in the breakfront. The door is modern hardwood panelled with an original spoked fanlight, flanked by slender timber columns. Windows are 6/6 timber sliding sashes, replacement items but reusing original cylinder glazing. Sills are broach-marked stone. All windows at this elevation are set back within rectangular recesses with smooth rendered reveals. The breakfront apex has a circular spoked window with coloured glazing lighting the attic.

The left gable has two windows at attic level and a single window at ground floor level. The right gable is blank. The rear elevation has two windows to the first floor and is abutted at ground floor by the lean-to extension, which is modern and of no architectural interest. There is a single timber casement window to the ground floor on the right side.

The house is accessed from the road via a long farm lane marked at the entrance by modern walls. The curtilage is planted with mature trees, with farm buildings to the rear, including a two-storey rubble stone outbuilding with pitched natural slate roof and brick-dressed openings.

Historical records show that a house appeared on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, together with an outbuilding to the north-west, a well, and a brick kiln. By the second edition of 1854 the building appears to have been rebuilt, though retaining the original structure as a return, and was then captioned "Maine House". By the third edition of 1906, additional outbuildings had been added to the west and east.

The Townland Valuation of 1828-40 lists the property as the dwelling house of John Fullerton, valued at £4 7 shillings, and notes a lay-too, outbuilding, and cart house. The dwelling house is recorded as single storey at this stage. Griffith's Valuation of 1856-64 raised the value to £5, with Sir Beresford Burton McMahon, Bart., as lessor. A marginal note records a lease date of around 1848. Annual Revisions subsequently put the value at £8. When Joseph Mitchell became occupier in 1893, a complaint about valuation led to a marginal note recording the dimensions of the house and outbuildings. The slated house is now noted as two-storey with dimensions similar to those recorded in the Townland Valuation, with three outbuildings noted, one of which was thatched. In the First Northern Ireland General Revaluation of 1934, Joseph Mitchell had become the owner in fee under early twentieth-century land purchase legislation. The house value was raised to £8 and comprised a kitchen, two rooms, a breakfast room and pantry, four bedrooms, and a servants' bedroom.