116 Highlands Road

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two storey three bay Victorian house with decorative barge trusses and slender two pane sash windows. Render finish, natural slate roof. Tall two stage yellow brick chimneys. Main elevation faces north west onto a gravel drive. Central porch with double door to south west side. Pitched roof to porch with parapet surmounted by decorative metal work on each side. Above porch a single double sash window breaks into roof as a dormer, similar window on bay to south west with pair of windows aligning below. The north east bay projects one metre from the facade as a gable with decorative barge. Its windows match the south west bay - single window to first floor, pair below.

The north east elevation presents a gable surmounted by a chimney to the well tended garden. The barge truss supported on sprockets has been enclosed and decorative finials have been removed from the ends.

To the rear, a modern single storey kitchen extension sits out with patio doors to the back garden. The main building consists of a projecting gable in the bay to the north east; a window off centre and under the eaves lighting the staircase and a single dormer window on the south west bay as the front. There are three chimneys on the ridge.

The south west gable is similar to the north east. A decorative gable now enclosed is surmounted by a brick chimney. Windows are less regimented. A flat roofed rectangular bay window projects from the ground floor near the front. Two windows at first floor do not align.

To the rear of the building is the farmyard containing a modern steel hay shed and two stone barns. One of these is the former farmhouse, though all historic fittings have been removed.

Historical information

House built in 1894 for James Morrison, architect possibly Given of Limavady. (Occupants told us of similar houses in Broighter and on Polly’s Brae Road by same architect). Former house in farmyard claimed to date from 1630s. Robert Morrison an ancestor was one of two of the Apprentice Boys of the Siege of Derry from Clagan townland. The other was Daniel Sherrard. Griffiths Valuation of 1858 lists James Morrison as renting from J Ogilby (from Pelipar House, Dungiven) value of buildings: £4.15s.0d. The present occupants descend from the Morrisons - the last of the name was grandmother of the present owner (1998). The bay window was an addition of the 1920s. The barge boards have been enclosed by the present occupants, and the finials removed as they had become dangerous.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

An unremarkable high Victorian house similar in plan to Bella Vista House in Altnagelvin (HB01/08/010) but less competently resolved. Proportion well considered and interior faithfully preserved. Owners complain of too high a ceiling in the ground floor and cramped bedroom spaces above.

The farm is of historic interest for including the homestead of one of the original Apprentice Boys of the Siege of Derry. It is a good example of a Victorian replacement dwelling and converting the old house to a barn. Another example is Nedd House (HB02/03/019). In geographical terms this area of Clagan and neighbouring Upper Culmore townlands are interesting for preserving the ‘rundale’ system of farm arrangement where clusters of farms are at the centre of a mixed ownership field system. It is significant that these buildings are on the former Ogilby Estate rather than on the holdings of the reformist Fishmongers Estate where all traces of similar groupings are gone. The claim therefore that the old farmhouse dates from the seventeenth century may be true.