Rash House, 49 Beltany Road, Omagh, BT78 5NF

Rash House is a substantial single-storey mid-nineteenth-century villa, built circa 1850 and located in extensive grounds on the east side of Beltany Road, Omagh. The house is a notable example of a low, rambling villa of this period, of which few survive, and retains an unspoiled setting with farmyard and mature parkland.

The main house is rectangular on plan with canted bays and an L-shaped extension to the north. The roof is hipped with a central valley containing a roof lantern, finished in natural slate to the front and artificial slate to the rear, with leaded ridges and hips. Twentieth-century replacement chimneys are brick to the rear and rendered to the front. Rainwater goods are half-round cast-iron on corbelled eaves. The walling is roughcast rendered with tool-marked stone quoins.

Windows throughout are 2/2 timber sashes with horns, set in smooth rendered reveals with stone sills. The principal elevation faces east, featuring a semi-circular-arched door opening with moulded stucco surround set left of centre, accessed by three shallow stone steps with a pair of stone lions on the lower step. This is flanked symmetrically by windows on either side, with full-height projecting canted bays. The canted bays have windows to each cheek; that to the right end has two round-headed windows to the left cheek. A further window and additional projecting bay occupy the right of the principal elevation. The south elevation is three windows wide. The rear elevation features windows, a canted bay, and further canted bays at the extreme right end. The north elevation is abutted by the return.

The return element is detailed as the main house with a higher floor level. It has an artificial slate roof with angled clay ridge tiles, and windows are 2/2 and 6/6 sashes. A double-leaf metal-framed glazed door occupies the left end.

A two-storey annexe, two bays wide with pitched artificial slate roof, timber fascia and aluminium rainwater goods, adjoins the property. The ground floor contains a timber door with two large glazed panels to the right and a round-headed timber casement to the left, all beneath a canopy supported on aluminium posts. The first floor has a pair of glazed timber French doors at either side, that to the right being taller and surmounted by a gablet. A lower outbuilding to the north gable is partially fronted by a large timber greenhouse over a roughcast plinth.

An informal group of outbuildings arranged around a farmyard abuts the house to the north. These are single- and two-storey structures in rubble stone with brick dressings. The house stands in extensively matured, planted grounds, accessed from the south by a long winding drive lined with mature shrubs. The entrance is marked by modern boundary walling and a decorative mild steel gate.

The property first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854, though buildings existed on the site previously that do not form the basis of the current house. By the third edition of 1906 the building had been significantly extended to the north and is captioned 'Rash House'. The area was formerly known as Rash demesne, later called Mountjoy Forest. It has been suggested that the house was built as a hunting lodge for the Earl of Blessington, though this is unsupported by original source evidence. The current owner states the house was built by the Spillers and was never the Earl of Blessington's property, though the land was likely purchased from him. Griffith's Valuation identifies George J Spiller as owner in fee, with dimensions given for the house and three offices valued at £24 10s, raised to £35 in the 1860 revision. By 1881 the owner had become R N Hawkes Ellis. The plot was split into two at an unknown date before 1923. A 1935 valuers' note describes the property as "House, 6 Cottiers Houses, Offices, Land, Plantation and Bog", noting it was "a very old house, originally built and used as two separate cottages or shooting lodges". The 1935 description lists reception hall, drawing room, dining room, library, lounge, one bathroom, WC, six good bedrooms, three servants' bedrooms, one servants' bathroom, kitchen, two service closets, and two pantries. Power was supplied by a private dynamo and water was pumped. The entire property was noted to be in fair repair but at a stage when upkeep might prove heavy. The agricultural buildings were also recorded as in fair repair.