A blog of sketches of historic buildings - Marks of Time

464.

21/3/2017

20. Georgian house - Holyhill House
Holyhill House is a large house in the Georgian Style (this relates to the four Kings of the name who ruled from the death of Queen Anne in 1714 until 1830) located near Leckpatrick. The building is symmetrical and deliberately designed to command its surroundings. Influenced by classical ideals of beauty and proportion, great care has been taken in regard to the size and layout of windows and decoration is confined to the entrance door. The house was built on land granted to the Earl of Abercorn in the Plantation. It was sold to Rev George Sinclair in 1668. However this building was expanded and significantly altered in the prosperous 1760’s to the elegant building of today.

March 15th, 2017

15/3/2017

18. Rural Industry
During the Seventeenth Century the dominant economy of the Strabane area was agricultural with two fairs per week being held in the town and merchants exporting via the port of Derry. In the early Eighteenth Century this was supplemented by the Linen Industry. Taking advantage of climate, ready power supply for watermills and demand, the industry thrived. By 1824 the area’s linen business, focused on Strabane, was ranked as the third most important in all Ireland. Most of the rivers in the area have remnants of mills. Siverbrook Mills c.1830 near Donemanagh gives a good impression of the type. Miller’s Mill in Artigarvan had one of the largest water wheels on the island.

March 12th, 2017

12/3/2017

17. Timeless churches – Leckpatrick Church of Ireland

St Patrick’s Church at Leckpatrick was completed in 1815 but it has the simple form of the rural Presbyterian and Catholic Churches of the previous century and highlights common influences across the community. Such buildings enclosed a simple meeting space with an altar or pulpit at the centre of long side wall. This building is a common development of the type with a T shaped plan focused on the central space. A double decker pulpit reputedly graces its interior. It replaced the medieval church nearby (another church founded by Patrick) and reflects a society settling into an established order.

299

26/1/2016

Rotary Pump Ballymagorry Village. This cast iron pump on the main street of the village is an important remnant of its history. Once, it would have been a focus of village life as the main source of water. Of a standard type, its circular arms act as a fly wheels with built in counter weights to aid pumping up water by hand. Once a common site, eleven examples are known to remain in Northern Ireland. It dates from after 1905.

296.

23/1/2016

Further along the road is a small over grown graveyard. Leckpatrick means stone of Patrick and the site is associated with the saint. A church has reputedly been located here from the 5Ih century but the first written reference to it is in the 14th. The building was transferred to the Church of Ireland in the Ulster Plantation of the early Seventeenth Century and remained in use until it was replaced in the early Nineteenth century, It was subsequently demolished. However ,the line of the side walls of the building can still be made out. Today the graveyard is full of atmosphere.

295.

21/1/2016

Inside St Mary’s is a fantastic cast iron spiral staircase which is the only access to a large balcony. This unusual stair, for a public place, probably dates to the remodelling of the church in the 1890’s.

294

17/1/2016

St Mary’s Church, Cloghcor, sits on the side of a small hill on the road to Strabane. Beautifully sited. it commands its surroundings yet retains an elegant simplicity. The church dates from 1823 and is a simple barn like structure with four lancet windows to each side and a small porch. In the churchyard is a free standing bell supported by a cast iron structure. This dates from a renovation of the church in the 1890’s

293

16/1/2016

Further south is Grange Graveyard. This has an elegant entrance arch, with a date stone, marking the rebuilding of the boundary wall in 1866. The site, however, is much older. A grange or monastic farm associated with the Augustinian Abbey in Derry (The Dubh Regles) was located here in the middle ages. Extensive remains were noted in the 1830’s but none can be seen today

292

15/1/2016

The two angled stones at the base of this door are, according to archaeologists, fragments of the tower house which once existed at Dunnalong.

This was constructed around 1568 by Turlough Luineach O’Neill who had been appointed chieftain the year before. Dunnalong was the O'Neill’s main connection to the sea (and Scotland) via Lough Foyle. Further North was O'Cahan country, while to the west, across the river, were O'Donnell lands. The site was fortified by the English during the Nine Year’s War but declined very quickly afterwards.

291.

14/1/2016

Further south along the river is Dunnalong. This has been translated as the ‘fort of the ships’ and was the location of a tower house in late medieval times. This drawing is a copy, with colour added, of the first map of the area from 1601. This shows the fortifications erected at the site by the English during the Nine Year’s War. It can be seen that the settlement was nearly as big as Lifford further up stream at the time and much bigger than Strabane. After the war its importance declined and at present there is very little to see at the site. Only the faint outline of the ditches and a few fragments of the tower house remain. There was a detailed archaeological investigation in 2012.