Cottage and Outbuildings at, 74 Alderwood Rd, Fivemiletown, Co. Tyrone, BT75 0JG

Cottage and Outbuildings at 74 Alderwood Road, Fivemiletown

This is an exceptional survival of a complete group of vernacular farm buildings dating from the early 19th century, set in a particularly remote rural landscape on the Tyrone/Fermanagh border. The nearest town is Fivemiletown, and the complex is approached down a long single-tracked lane through a large clearing near forestry land. The entire group remains intact without modern additions, representing a rare and intact example of subsistence-level small farm life that has otherwise largely disappeared.

The buildings are arranged with considerable spatial and visual integrity. The house is screened from the approach by a single-storey stone byre, with a large timber and corrugated iron turf house positioned in front. To the rear are further stone-built byres, one with an attached mud-walled shed, a stone pig crew with a small open stone yard and a restored wrought iron gate, and a timber and corrugated iron hay shed.

The house itself is single-storey, three-bay, of direct-entry plan, stepping down the side of a hill. It has only one small window on the front elevation, positioned to view the approach, and three windows to the rear. An attic storey exists at the lower end. The exterior is finished in lime render. Windows throughout are timber sliding sash, and the roof, like those of all outbuildings, is corrugated iron. All doors to all buildings are vertically sheeted, tongued, grooved and V'd. The house's sole external door is a traditional half-door. A cobbled drain runs along the lower side of the front elevation, a functional feature for carrying slops away from the front door.

The plain and simple architectural style is consistent across all buildings. Of particular rarity is the survival of the mud-floored interior of the house itself, which preserves evidence of traditional domestic arrangement and construction methods.

Historical records show the house, a southern outbuilding, and a smaller northern structure on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834, though these were not recorded in contemporary valuation. By 1857, the same arrangement appeared on revised mapping, with an additional small structure to the immediate west of the outbuilding, though the northern building was no longer extant. The dwelling alone was recorded in the 1858 valuation as a "herd's house" with a rateable value of 10 shillings, held by William Buchanan as immediate lessor on behalf of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners as freehold owner. William Primrose occupied the property from 1864, followed by James Primrose from 1888 and David Primrose from 1901, the latter remaining in residence until at least 1929. The turf house appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1905-07, though it was not considered significant enough to alter the rateable value, which remained at 10 shillings until the 1930s.