The Umbra

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two storey five bay mid Victorian house with one bay extension and greenhouse at opposite gables. Shallow plan, located on rising ground at the base of Binevenagh looking north west to the sea across sandhills. Coursed basalt construction, slate roof, three chimneys at apex, one centrally placed, others at former gables. Panelled entrance door centrally placed with pitched roof and decorated barge. Four steps to ground. Porch reminiscent of those on Bellarena Estate (HB02/09/030, HB02/09/010, HB02/09/004) but different in detail. Window directly above: Centrally broken casement with round head to frames size 1100 x 1500 approximately. Similar windows on ground and first floor without round head to either side of entrance. The end bays each have a bay window surmounted at first floor by a tripartite window with stepped granite lintel and with brick quoins, a gable with decorative barge is above. The joinery work on the bay windows is finely executed and of note. The bay to the north east (to the left on elevation) is rectangular, the other is canted. To the north east is a two storey extension. It has a window matching the others at first floor level. To the south west a victorian greenhouse lean-to abuts the building. It is in need of restoration, fine cast iron mullions sweep down from the wall and curve into an iron trough.

The gables are windowless, the south west is rendered in sand/cement with a door at base to greenhouse. The north east has a blocked up window at high level and a door near the front at ground. Both have decorated barges.

The rear is coursed basalt. Georgian sash windows of irregular sizes and intervals have brick lintels. Two bays jut out: one from a bedroom at first floor at the south west end; one with a clear glass roof and frosted glass panes from the living room at the north eastern end. A jumbled collection of brick and stone out houses sit hard into the slope behind the house and align.

Historical information

‘At the Umbra, a townland at the foot of the precipice of Binevenagh, there are three small cottages built by the late Dr Tyler and the Messrs Moody and Cather of Newtown Limavady, whose families reside in summer for the benefit of sea bathing’ (Ordnance Survey Memoirs 1835). Around 1844 Henry Tyler enlarged the two cottages to the west and produced the present house. The extension noted on the description was added at the turn of the century. A noted wild garden climbed the cliffs behind the house and ornamental species can still be made out. The Heritage Gardens Inventory divides the house and surroundings (now largely the property of the neighbouring 'Ferns' HB02/09/032) into ten zones: 1. house; 2. conservatory; 3. fruit and vegetable garden; 4. Summer house (gone); 5. Mountain garden; 6. Orchard (to south west); 7. Planted trees on mountain; 8. Low level forest; 9. Sand dunes (now Umbra wildlife sanctuary) and 10. gardener’s cottage (730 Seacoast Road).

The house has remained in the Tyler family, notably Lady MacDonald Tyler who died aged 90 in the mid 1980s. She was the last to permanently reside in the house and who refused to let the building be modernised. Her daughter Mrs Reilly returns from England with her family regularly.

References:
The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol 11
The Heritage Gardens Inventory (Hill Street)
Historic Buildings Records
Mrs Kane - housekeeper.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

A mid-Victorian seaside residence of a titled family, remarkably unaltered inside, though now in need of maintenance. Its facade raises the black stone vernacular of the region to a more urbane composition. With its neighbour (HB02/09/021) it forms an imposing group overlooking Seacoast Road. Its dramatic cliffside garden if restored could be of international interest as the Ordnance Survey Memoirs note the unique flora found in the region. This well preserved sea shore house adds to the nature of the Magilligan region. Such houses are rare.