39 Liscalgot Road Crossmaglen Co. Armagh BT35 9HX

39 Liscalgot Road is a cluster of vernacular buildings located alongside Liscalgot Road in the townland of Claranagh. Two of the principal structures (buildings 1 and 2) predate the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1835. Building 3 was added around 1850, and building 4 dates from around 1882, though it was raised or rebuilt in the second half of the twentieth century. The remaining structures (buildings 5, 6, and 7) were constructed between 1907 and 1956.

Building 1, the former principal dwelling, is a detached, asymmetrical, single-storey building of five bays fronting the roadside. It features an attached outhouse to the right-hand side and a flat concrete roof entrance porch to the southeast. The roof is covered with painted corrugated tin sheeting with raised cast concrete verges and a ridge-mounted chimney to the right-hand side. There is no evidence of rainwater goods. The walls are painted roughcast render over rubblestone. Original square window openings have been reduced in width to form rectangular openings with top-hung painted metal frame windows with stone heads and sills. A square-headed door to the front of the entrance porch has a timber door frame, vertical sheeting, and painted metal hinge brackets. The end right-hand-side bay has a separate single door opening. The rear, northwest elevation contains one square-headed door opening to the left-hand side. Both east and west elevations are blank with exposed painted rubble wall finish.

Building 2, located directly behind building 1, is a single-storey detached structure of three bays with an asymmetric plan. The roof has painted corrugated tin sheeting with raised cast concrete verges separating two left-hand-side bays from an attached third bay, which has a low wall enclosure in front and is connected to the rear of building 1. There are no rainwater goods evident. The walls are exposed painted rubblestone with vertically sheeted painted timber doors. A low-set mono-pitch corrugated tin roof is attached to the left-hand side. The rear elevation is blank, featuring a painted rubble stone wall with high-level open vertical ventilation slots.

To the rear, accessed via a gated entrance into a field, stands a structure with a low-set corrugated tin pitched roof with raised verges, painted rubblestone walls, and two vertically sheeted painted timber doors. Attached to the northwest gable is the current, contemporary-styled occupied dwelling (building 4).

The remaining outbuildings (1, 3, and 6) have low-set pitched and mono-pitched painted corrugated tin roofs with raised in-situ concrete verges, painted rubblestone walls, and rustic painted sheeted doors.

According to the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1835, buildings 1 and 2 stood parallel to Liscalgot Road, along with a structure no longer extant. By the second edition map (1862), building 3 had been added. The dwelling and outbuildings appear in Griffith's Valuation of 1864, leased from landlord Reverend Patrick McKeown by Bryan Hughes at a valuation of £1 5 shillings. Building 4 was added to the site in 1882 and was leased by Peter Hughes at a valuation of £1. This dwelling house first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906-7. Both sets of occupants became fee owners of their dwellings under the Land Acts in 1907.

According to the 1911 census, building 1 was occupied by Thomas Hughes, a farmer born in County Louth, and his sister Mary Anne. Building 4 was occupied by widow Mary Hughes and her three adult children. The census building return indicates that building 1 was thatched and building 4 was slated or roofed in another type of permanent material, with both having two rooms internally. Building 1 had two outbuildings; building 4 had seven.

The 1933 revaluation describes building 1 as the residence of Thomas Hughes, constructed of rubble masonry with a thatched roof. Its dimensions were recorded as 34 feet by 17½ feet, not including an attached outbuilding, with accommodation comprising a kitchen and bedroom. Building 4 at this time was a similar vernacular dwelling measuring 29 by 16½ feet with a height of 10 feet and a slated roof. It was subsequently raised or rebuilt to form a two-storey dwelling, most likely in the late 1950s or later. Buildings 5, 6, and 7 were constructed after 1907 and first appear on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1956.

The two dwelling houses were taken over by Brian and Ellen Hearty in 1955. A flat roof extension was added to the side of building 4 after 1982.

The complex is situated on the roadside of Liscalgot Road, spreading northwest to terminate at the current dwelling house. The collection of buildings, in good decorative order and randomly located with red roofs and white painted walls, defines a distinct rustic setting within an agricultural environment.