30 Cregganduff Road, Cregganduff, Newry, BT35 9BT

30 Cregganduff Road is a single-storey, four-bay, lobby-entry vernacular dwelling house with an attached byre, pre-dating the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1835 and likely constructed in the period 1800 to 1819. It sits at the end of a 150-metre gated laneway to the west of Cregganduff Road, on low-lying land in the valley of the Creggan River. The listing covers the dwelling house, its associated outbuildings, and boundary walling. Although there has been some fabric replacement — most notably to the roof and windows on the main elevation — the group has retained its vernacular character and much of its historic fabric, making a significant contribution to the local rural landscape and built heritage.

The principal elevation of the dwelling faces west, away from the entrance laneway. The roof is natural slate with black terracotta ridge tiles. There are two chimneys: a two-stage cement-rendered example over brick to the south, and a two-stage red brick chimney with a modern chimney pot to the north. Rainwater goods are replacement metal and uPVC. The walls are limewashed render over rubblestone. Openings are square-headed with narrow smooth render margins and painted concrete sills. The left and right bays each have a fixed-pane timber-framed window; the central bay has a timber-framed top-hung casement window. A projecting entrance porch to the west has a pitched natural slate roof with a profiled timber bargeboard, limewashed rubblestone walls, and a replacement timber-sheeted glazed door. The north elevation has a single three-over-three timber sliding sash window. The east elevation has a pair of one-over-one timber sliding sash windows and a single six-over-three timber sliding sash window.

Attached to the south of the dwelling is a two-storey, two-bay byre (Outbuilding 2), also pre-dating 1835. Its roof is natural slate with no rainwater goods. The west elevation has a timber-sheeted three-quarter door to the ground floor opening and a timber-sheeted door to the upper floor. The east elevation has timber-sheeted doors to both the ground and first floors, with a projecting double flight of stone and concrete steps with a quarter turn leading to the first floor. The walls are rubblestone, limewashed to first-floor level.

Three further outbuildings of historic interest are associated with the complex. Outbuilding 1, dating to around 1885, is a single-storey, single-bay barn to the east of the dwelling, with a pitched corrugated metal roof and no rainwater goods. Its walls are limewashed rubblestone. The principal elevation faces east and has a double-width opening with a corrugated metal pediment; all other elevations are blank. Outbuilding 3, also dating to around 1885, is a single-storey, two-bay byre to the west of the dwelling. It has a replacement pitched natural slate roof with black terracotta ridge tiles and concrete skews, replacement metal rainwater goods, and limewashed rubblestone walls. The principal east elevation has two timber-sheeted doors with strap hinges. Outbuilding 4, to the north of the dwelling, has a complex history: its left and centre bays pre-date the 1835 map, while the right-hand bay was added around 1885. It is a single-storey, three-bay byre with a pitched corrugated metal roof, timber bargeboards, and no rainwater goods. Three elevations are limewashed rubblestone; the rear elevation is exposed rubblestone. The main elevation faces south-east and has a timber-sheeted door to the left bay, a timber frame with a missing door to the centre bay, and a timber-framed fixed-pane window to the right-hand bay. The north-east elevation has a timber-sheeted door with strap hinges; remaining elevations are blank. A fifth outbuilding on the site is a more recent addition and of no heritage interest.

The farmyard is partly surfaced by a natural rocky outcrop, with the dwelling house and Outbuildings 3 and 4 arranged around it. The site is enclosed to the south and west by concrete block and concrete-rendered walling abutting Outbuildings 1, 2, 3, and 4. The entrance laneway terminates at the road in a wrought iron gate with rubblestone and concrete block piers. A second pedestrian entrance to the west of the dwelling has concrete block piers and a metal gate.

The dwelling is first shown on the 1835 first-edition Ordnance Survey map. Its length and position at that date suggest the attached byre was already in place. The house did not reach the threshold for inclusion in the Townland Valuation of the 1830s. By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1864, Owen McKenna leased the house and land from the representatives of John J. Bigger, with the house valued at £1 10s. The McKenna family have remained associated with the property to the present day. In the 1901 census, Thomas McKenna — a farmer and Irish speaker — was recorded living there with his wife, six children, and an agricultural labourer. By 1911, Thomas McKenna was still resident, now with a seventh child. The 1911 building return confirms the house was roofed with non-perishable materials, most likely slates, and had three rooms and three windows to the front elevation, a layout it retains today. Outbuildings at that time included a stable, cow house, calf house, piggery, fowl house, boiling house, and barn. The third-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906–07 shows that Outbuildings 1 and 3 had been added during the second half of the 19th century, and that a further bay was added to Outbuilding 4 at around the same time. A revaluation in 1934 described the house as comprising a sitting room, kitchen, and bedroom, with dimensions recorded as a single-storey slated dwelling measuring 47 by 17 by 12 feet. A Thomas McKenna is recorded as occupant continuously through the valuation records up to 1972.

The present owner believes that Outbuilding 4 was the original dwelling on the site, predating the current house, and may have begun as an early two-room dwelling possibly of 18th-century origin before changing use. If correct, this would explain the unusual orientation of the current dwelling house, which faces away from the entrance laneway rather than towards it. This orientation may reflect a deliberate intercommunicating arrangement between the old and new houses, and may also have been determined by the former position of the haggard — the area where grain sheaves were stacked — which the dwelling was positioned to accommodate at its rear.