Barntick House, set on the eastern slope of a north-south ridge above the flat floodplain of the River Fergus, carries a reputation as the oldest occupied building in the county, a claim that the fabric of the structure does little to contradict.

The house was built in 1665 and renovated around 1740, and those two dates together explain much of what visitors see today. The original seventeenth-century bones were given a mid-Georgian refinement during the later works, producing the composed, three-bay two-storey front that survives. The hipped slate roof sits above roughcast rendered walls divided by a string course, a horizontal band of moulding used to mark the transition between floors, with a moulded eaves course beneath the roofline. The windows are timber sliding sash, typical of the period following the renovation. The most considered detail is the entrance: a carved limestone door surround with a shouldered frame and a small entablature above, approached by a flight of limestone steps, and fitted with timber panelled double-leaf doors. Wrought-iron railings hang between rendered gate piers. What makes the building particularly valuable is that it is said to retain its interior features, meaning the renovation of the 1740s was not the last time someone cared enough to preserve rather than strip. One small curiosity: the original date plaque, which would once have announced the 1665 construction from the main facade, has at some point been moved to the attached single-storey outbuilding to the right of the house, quietly marking an older history from a less prominent position.