Ballyveaghmore Farm
Map Location: Rural 'Hill' Area, 49. PLEASE NOTE: This building is currently closed for conservation and repair work. As we're using traditional materials and skills to complete the work, visitors won't be able to go inside but you will still be able to see into the building. We're sorry for any disappointment but hope you understand it's important to carefully conserve these buildings.
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The farm was built in the 1840s and was originally situated in the foothills of the Mourne Mountains a few miles from the coastal village of Annalong. It was dismantled and moved to the Folk Museum in 1994.
The farm holding was about 10 acres. The small farmhouse is built from local granite. It has a roped down thatched roof. The two room layout is typical, the kitchen and hearth being on one side of the chimney with a bedroom on the other.
The floors are of beaten earth and there are granite flagstones at the entrance threshold around the hearth. Although lived in up to 1991, mains water and electricity were never installed in the house. The hearth fire heated the house, water was fetched from a nearby field well and lighting was by candles or a paraffin oil lamp.
The slated and granite built byre beside the farmhouse is a replica of a byre from the Bloody Bridge area in the Mournes. The building is significant because it was part of farm buildings rented during the summer months by Professor Estyn Evans. Professor Evans was one of Ulster’s foremost scholars and a founder of both The Ulster Folklife Society and the Folk Museum. The replica byre now contains an exhibition celebrating his life and work.
The farmhouse was built in the 1840s by Joe Baird, a farmer, as a home for his family. It remained home to three more generations of the Baird family until the death of Tommy Baird in 1991. Tommy was born in 1912. He remained a bachelor and made few changes to the house during his lifetime.
The Baird family donated the farmhouse to the museum. With assistance from the Heritage Lottery Fund and The Ulster Folklife Society, the buildings were re-erected at the museum in 1996.
Look at how the farmyard is laid out as a 'street' - a line of buildings, as opposed to a courtyard layout - and there is dry stone walling near the house which replicates a feature of the Mournes.