24 Ballintate Road, Ballintate, Co.Armagh, BT60 2LB

This two-storey, three-bay former dwelling with attached single-storey scullery and outbuilding dates from 1933–34 and stands in a rural setting approximately seven miles north-west of Camlough, County Armagh. It is an exceptionally rare example of corrugated iron house construction in Northern Ireland and Ireland more broadly.

The house was built by local farmer Owen Cunningham, as recorded in valuation documentation from February 1934 which notes he was already living there, though the work remained unfinished at that time. Valuation records indicate the two-storey structure measured 30 feet by 14½ feet, with the attached single-storey scullery of equal width. A further bay to the outbuilding, measuring approximately 10½ feet, appears on the Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1955. The house passed to Charles Cunningham in 1945.

The structure employs an unusual system: gable walls of red brick with sand and cement render support painted corrugated iron sheeting fixed to a timber frame on both front and rear elevations. The roof was originally tin but has been replaced with fibre-cement tiles, each tile having chamfered corners, with red clay ridge tiles and two red brick chimneys with yellow clay pots at each gable end. The attached single-storey outbuilding is clad in painted corrugated iron with a barrel-vaulted corrugated iron roof supported on timber purlins with curved sarking boards.

The front elevation (north-east) presents three bays with a central decorative timber door featuring an oval top light with opaque patterned glazing and T&G timber panelling beneath, flanked by single windows on the ground floor and three windows above on the first floor. The outbuilding to the left has a timber sheeted door with metal letterbox and perspex overlight. The rear elevation (south-west) has two window openings aligned vertically on both ground and first floor levels, plus a half-landing window, with the first floor windows having double-paned top-lights. All windows are 1/1 timber sliding sash with timber cills, many retaining scrolled horns, though not all retain their glazing.

The north-west gable elevation, which faces towards the rear of adjacent No. 22 Ballintate Road, shows ruled and lined sand and cement render with significant areas of red brick exposed where the render has failed, constructed in a variation of English garden wall bond. The south-east gable is obscured above the single-storey outbuilding. The house is set back from and raised above the laneway, with the front garden bounded by a cement-rendered retaining wall with two rows of exposed concrete blockwork above on the north-east and south-east sides. A pair of square-plan, cement-rendered piers with pyramidal copings form a pedestrian entrance with steps to the front door. Post and wire fencing bounds the north-west side.

Internally, the house retains its original plan-form and much historic fabric and detailing, including original joinery. The ground floor was intended to comprise reception, kitchen, and scullery, with two bedrooms upstairs. Evidence of mid-century internal redecoration survives, visible in period wallpaper applied by Charles Cunningham in subsequent years. A cement-rendered plinth features decorative metal ventilation grilles.

Corrugated iron houses are now exceptionally rare in Northern Ireland, with fewer than approximately twelve structures remaining in the province and fewer than approximately ninety-five across the entire island of Ireland. As a two-storey example, this house is of remarkable rarity, appearing to be one of only two standing on the island of Ireland, the other being Cashelard Post Office, Cavangarden, County Donegal. The building adds considerable interest to its rural setting and is of local significance.