Raveagh, 129 Corkill Road, Eskragh, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT78 1UP

Raveagh is a detached three-bay two-storey country house, rebuilt around 1870, set to the west side of Corkill Road within Corkill Demesne. It is a good example of a substantial minor country residence of a type that is becoming increasingly rare in an original state, and its history is legibly expressed in its fabric.

The main house is rectangular on plan. Attached to its east face is a single-storey flat-roofed porch, and to its west a two-storey stairwell projection. A single-storey sunroom added around 1920 abuts the south elevation, itself further extended by a more recent conservatory added around 1990. To the south-west sits a lower three-bay two-storey return, built around 1830, which on the basis of its internal detailing predates the main house rebuild and is likely a remnant of the earlier structure, though largely remodelled inside.

The roofs are hipped and covered in natural slate, though some slopes have been replaced with asbestos tiles; the ridge tiles are blue-black clay. The overhanging eaves to the east elevation are supported on paired console brackets. The chimneys are corbelled sandstone with clay pots. External walls are finished in ruled-and-lined render with smooth quoins over a smooth plinth. Windows throughout the main house are square-headed timber-framed 1-over-1 sliding sashes with painted masonry sills.

The principal elevation faces east. The entrance porch at its centre contains a large square-headed opening with a replacement six-panelled timber door set within a pilaster surround and flanked by sidelights, all surmounted by a transom light with a segmental-headed fanlight. The porch is finished with a cornice and parapet, and stone lions sit at its corners. The exposed sections of the east elevation carry two windows at ground-floor level to left and right of the porch, and five windows across the first floor.

The south elevation is largely obscured at ground-floor level by the sunroom. The sunroom itself has three uPVC casement windows, and its east elevation features a group of three round-arched-headed uPVC windows with moulded architraves beneath a parapet wall. A canted uPVC conservatory on a rendered plinth abuts the sunroom to the left. The sunroom's west elevation has a square-headed door to the left and two uPVC casement windows to the right.

The west elevation is partly obscured by the stairwell projection at centre and the return to the right. The exposed section to the left contains a single first-floor window. The stairwell carries a round-arched-headed stained glass window at first-floor level. The return, which abuts at ground-floor level, contains timber casement and sliding sash windows at ground floor. The return's north elevation is one-and-a-half storeys at its left end, where a gabled uPVC entrance porch is flanked to the left by a 3-over-3 sliding sash window and to the right by a casement window; the first floor above has three 2-over-2 sliding sash windows. The two-storey right-hand portion of the north elevation of the return contains a small casement window and a replacement timber door at ground floor, with a casement window above. The south elevation of the return has replacement double-leaf uPVC glazed doors at centre and right and a uPVC casement window at left at ground-floor level, with three 1-over-1 sliding sash windows at first floor. The north elevation of the return is blank and is abutted to the right by an attached outbuilding.

The setting is one of mature gardens. Access from Corkill Road to the east is through a pair of square roughcast piers set within an alcoved entrance. To the rear, an enclosed yard is reached through a pair of wrought-iron gates hung on square sandstone piers with sandstone coping set within smooth rendered walling.

The outbuildings are of considerable interest. A two-storey rendered outbuilding has a hipped roof to its east end and a gabled roof to its west, surmounted by a bell-shaped arched bellcote with a chamfered round-arched-headed aperture. Its windows are timber casements, and external sandstone steps give access to the first floor. A lean-to store abuts to the north. To the south-east, a single-storey store is attached to the main house; its west elevation carries a segmental-headed carriage arch containing vertically-sheeted double-leaf doors.

The L-shaped stable block to the west was built around 1880. Its roof is hipped natural slate, its walls are exposed rubble with sandstone dressings, and the windows are timber casements. A single segmental-headed carriage arch at its centre has a carved keyblock, and the stable doors have carved lintels. Internally, the stable block retains a cobbled stone floor and lime-plastered walls. The vertically-sheeted stable doors retain iron name-plates above them, inscribed with details such as "R GORE ESQr RAVEAGH No 3", used to identify individual horses. The former walled garden to the south is enclosed by rubble walling and is now used as a farmyard.

The rainwater goods are cast-iron.

The history of the house is well documented. A building of similar footprint appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, and by the second edition of 1852 it is captioned "Raveagh". The Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840 records a house and offices valued at £15, occupied by Hugh G. Edwards Esquire; deductions were noted for "want of finish, inconvenience of office and other want of neatness". The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that "Raveagh Lodge, the seat of Hugh Gore Edwards Esquire, is situated in Corkhill Demesne. The house is unfinished but it is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, and will be a great improvement to this part of the country when completed. A long but narrow skirting plantation surrounds the house… The whole of the demesne is in the hands of the proprietor." A later surveyor took a less favourable view, writing that "Hugh Gore Edwards erected the present house in Corkhill in 1832-3. It has little either in situation or appearance to recommend it." Hugh Gore Edwards is identified elsewhere in the Memoirs as a local magistrate and proprietor.

Griffith's Valuation records the buildings at £10 and notes them as being "in bad repair", with Colonel Edwards listed as occupier in fee. The Valuation Revisions subsequently record the property at £14, with the valuation rising dramatically to £44 5s in 1875, strongly indicating a rebuild or remodelling at around that date. Field evidence based on the building's style and internal character supports a rebuild of the main house around this time. An additional building to the west of the house appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906. After 1933 the occupier is recorded as Major C. E. W. Carleton, leasing from Hugh E. Gore, and the property is described as a house with separate servants' quarters. By 1954 Samuel Lyons is the owner in fee, and the valuer's note of that time remarks: "This large mansion type house has been well maintained."