Straidarran House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A one and a half storey Georgian house with basement. Hipped slate roof. Two chimneys on apex. Central door with fan and side lights reached via sweeping double staircase or decorative perron reminiscent of Chiswick House in England. Two twelve pane sliding sash windows to each side, horns to those on the right of the door. Harling on walls. Decorative timber balcony at top of steps. Main elevation faces north west.

To south west four windows on the gable of the main house. Two high up under the eaves two lower down to the basement - (one of these french doors). A crenellated 2 storey narrow stone wing extends to the south east along this elevation. It sits out in front of the main house which is connected to it. The wing is almost symmetrical about an arched entrance to the small courtyard of the house. Two square stone towers (1 metre wide) flank the arch and ascend above the battlements to a crenellated top. Two similar towers flank the whole range. At first floor level there are two double sash windows to either side of the central feature. At ground floor there are arrow slits and musket holes. At the south east end of the wing a semicircular tower ascends to the height of the battlements and is crenellated. Two double sash windows face south east from the tower.

The south east wing abutting this is ruinous, a central opening at first floor aligns with a window in the centre of the house beyond. In the yard are two timber clad ‘barns’ from the former mill each with an interesting cast iron structure. The timber work is finely detailed. The south east elevation of the house has a central arched sashed window at high level flanked by a single sash window to each side. There are three windows below and two doors.

The slated stone return is not battlemented to the courtyard. Its north east elevation has two three pointed arches, one the entrance, the other, the former coach house. There is a door to each side of the arches flanked by a window. At first floor two double sashed windows align with the arches two others are equally spaced to the end of the wing.

A single wall completes the courtyard to the north east. There is a bell mounted on the top. The north east elevation of the main house matches the south west there is an extra window on the middle of the elevation and no french doors.

The house sits in a wooded location at the edge of an ornamental lake which doubled as a mill pond for the former mill on Claggan road. There is an interesting pump house close to the lake similar in detail to sheds with an unusual iron truss structure behind the house. The ruins of Straid Church (HB01/01/004) are on the horizon.. The whole Arcadian effect is ruined by the nearby sand quarry.

Historical information

Mid 18th century house with castellated wing added around 1830. Referred to in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs as : ‘the residence of the Reverend James Hunter, situated in a retired spot near Learmount, in the eastern extremity of the parish. The house is small but good. It belongs to Henry Hunter Esquire of Castledawson who has lately planted with taste, the slopes of the hills surrounding the house.’ The 1831 map shows a wing of buildings to the north east side of the courtyard now gone.The present occupants have lived in the house eleven years. It was formerly owned by one of the Millar family of nearby Millbrook from the early years of this century.

References:
Primary sources:
1. OS Maps 1st Edition 1831, Co Londonderry sheet 29.
2. 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol. 30. Parishes of County Londonderry X', ed Angelique Day & Patrick McWilliams (QUB, 1995) p 39.

Secondary Sources:
3. Straidarran House - Parks and Gardens Record

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

W. Northern Ireland/International Interest
X. Local Interest
Z. Rarity

Evaluation

A fine well proportioned small Georgian country house in a landscape carefully altered to compliment the house (lake and planting) in a good state of repair. An early Victorian castellated stable block to one side covered in ivy which does not detract from the Georgian composition but rather is hidden from the main views and appears as a surprise at the end of the approach road. It is charmingly decorated as a castle and enhances the scale and importance of the building as a whole. From Altinure Road above, the buildings appear as a Georgian house set within the ruins of a bawn such as at Walworth in Ballykelly (HB02/10/002) perhaps this was deliberate. The views of the building are marred by the unsightly sand quarry surrounding on two sides.