Phillips house

It has the byre and barn above attached to the main dwelling, as was the traditional design of houses in Sixtowns. The cottage is easily recognised in this set of buildings and has survived because it was used as a farm building with few adjustments. This farmstead has been beautifully preserved.

It is believed that Martha`s grandfather, Robert, was a brother of Thomas Phillips, Willie`s grandfather, in Cavanreagh.

The above fine old two storey family house has been demolished to make way for a new house. This would actually have been a replacement house for the original building shown above. It would have had an upgrade from the original traditional two storey house of the previous century.

In 1832 there are two men by the name of William Phillips living on this site. They could have been father and son living in separate houses. One of these men had a son Thomas who took over the entire farm and had a family. The 1901 census has Thomas 85 and his wife Maria 73, living there with their son, William 38 and daughter Grizella 37.

Ten years later William is there on his own and his father and mother seem to have died and Grizella can be assumed to be married at that stage. He must have got married a short time later because he had four sons, Willie, Archie, Tom and Charlie.