47 Tirnony Road, Tirnony, Maghera, Co. Londonderry, BT46 5RE

47 Tirnony Road is a one and a half storey, four bay direct entry thatched house dating from the mid 19th century, located three-quarters of a mile along Tirnony Road north-west from Grillagh Road. The building faces south-east towards the road, with the gable end visible from the road itself.

The house features whitened roughcast walls above a black base at the front, and the thatch is contained within raised parapet gables, each rising to a chimney stack with projecting flaunched capping. A similar feature rises above the position of the main hearth. The stacks are not provided with pots.

Originally constructed as two separate dwellings, the building was subsequently divided at some point after the 1856 valuation, and has now been converted back to a single occupancy. The larger unit to the north-east is entered by a timber sheeted half door flanked to the right by two vertically sliding sash windows and to the left by one. The sashes are divided into two horizontally, with exposed frames, moulded sash stops and sills of intermediate depths. The gable facing the roadside is without fenestration. The smaller left-hand unit has a timber ledged, braced and sheeted entrance door and a window of similar construction to those in the larger unit but of increased width. A small plain sashed window lights the upper bedroom in the left-hand gable. Small sashed windows either side of the kitchen extension at the rear light the shower room off the main bedroom and the bathroom.

The kitchen at the rear has been restored with a pitched natural slate roof in place of the former lean-to construction. The verges and eaves are finished with brickwork, as is the corbelled chimney. The entrance door is timber sheeted and the window matches other types used throughout. Rainwater goods are of metal with gutters on rise and fall brackets. A pair of conservation type rooflights is present, and the space between the two units is roofed with butyl.

The building is recorded on the Ordnance Survey map of 1831-32, though not in the contemporary valuation. The present Tirnony Road had not been established by this date, appearing only on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1856-57. The 1856 valuation records David Kissick as occupant and James Clarke as immediate lessor, with a rateable value of £1.

When surveyed in the early 1990s, the thatch was covered by corrugated iron, but the layout remained intact and the roof timbers were undisturbed. In 1998-99 the roof was re-thatched using flax over a bed of straw, and the kitchen annex was altered to allow it to blend successfully with the rest of the building. This restoration is an excellent example of a thatch under tin building carefully restored to a high standard, with modern facilities inserted successfully and the original roof construction strengthened as necessary. The addition of appropriate detailing to the kitchen annex ensures it complements the house.