Outbuildings

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An L-shaped block of two-storey blackstone outbuildings formerly belonging to Cooldaragh House (now demolished); built c. 1860 and located to the west side of Loughan Road south of Coleraine. L-shaped block aligned west-east having perpendicular wing projecting to south; south gable abutted by single-storey extension housing modern garages.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles and large red brick chimneystack. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on cut brick eaves course with cast-iron downpipes and hoppers. Walling is coursed squared blackstone with red-brick dressings. Windows are replacement timber casements in red-brick stepped surrounds with projecting stone sills; diminished at first floor.

South elevation has, to first floor, three windows and pointed segmental-headed timber-sheeted loading door with gablet over. Ground floor has two modern timber casement windows and two sets of pointed-headed double-leaf timber-sheeted doors.
The west gable has a pointed-headed window to centre at first floor.

The north elevation has a window and timber-sheeted loading door with gablet over at first floor right; window to ground floor right. Gabled bay at left has blank oculus to apex of gable with decorative red-brick surround; two pointed-headed windows at first floor.

The east elevation is partially concealed by overgrowth; right bay has a window to first floor left over two ground floor windows; left bay has a window at first floor right.

The south gable is abutted by the single-storey extension; converted at west elevation to accommodate two modern up-and-over garage doors.
The west elevation of the projecting wing to south is detailed as south elevation with two windows to ground and first floor. To re-entrant angle at left is a gabletted bay, having oculus over large pointed-headed opening at ground floor.

Setting:
Yard is laid with concrete and enclosed to west by a blackstone wall with red-brick saddleback coping, and to south by a single-storey former outbuilding, open at north with natural slate roof supported on steel columns. Decorative pointed-headed cast-iron latch-gate to west wall. Yard accessed at north via replacement wrought-iron gates on large square blackstone piers with chamfered corners, red-brick dressings and pointed caps. Accessed from Loughan Road to east via a tarmacadamed drive with modern timber fence and cattle grid at entrance. Modern one-and-a-half-storey detached dwelling to west.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Coursed squared blackstone with red brick dressings
Windows: Replacement timber casements
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

‘Cooldaragh’ was built in 1862-3 and first appears, captioned, on the third edition OS map of 1904 as a dwelling house with outbuildings arranged around a stable courtyard to the rear. The main outbuildings remain although the house itself was replaced c1970. The original house was built by Butler Mildmay Giveen and was in progress in 1862, entering valuation records in 1864 as a ‘very fine house’ valued at £70 and situated on a plot of over 69 acres. Butler M Giveen was a Captain in the 10th Hussars, JP and Deputy Lieutenant of the County and he expended £8,000 on building the house. (Belfast Newsletter)

The house passed to Robert Hugh Giveen in 1891, after his father’s death, and the census of 1901 records him resident in the 27-room, first class house with his wife and two young children, his mother-in-law and two domestic servants, a cook and a nurse. The house appears to have been empty at the time of the 1911 census, Robert H Giveen residing for a time in Buncrana, the home of his wife, and attempting to let Cooldaragh which he was unable to do. (Belfast Newsletter; Valuation records) The First General Revaluation of the 1930s records Robert Giveen still resident in the ‘well built, substantial country mansion’.

A distressing memoir written by the daughter of a former housekeeper at Cooldaragh, talks of the happy times she spent there and the kind treatment she received from the Giveen family, giving a considerable amount of detail about life at the house in the post-war years and the furnishings and fittings. The book describes the gardens, which included a ‘Christmas tree plantation’ from which the Giveens chose their own tree every Christmas and the ponies kept on the estate, retirees from carting peat from the bogs. In the main hall of the house there were displays of muskets and ‘crude-handled knives’ hung on the walls by Mrs Giveen’s grandfather who had ‘fought the Indians in America’. Mrs Giveen’s private lounge was furnished with Louis Quinze chairs and settees. The service wing of the house was connected by a long, red-tiled corridor to the main body of the house but by the 1950s the servants’ bedrooms were largely unoccupied. There was no running water or electricity at this period and the house was lit by oil lamps and candles with water collected from the pump and rain butts, buckets being filled every morning and placed beside the peat-fuelled range. (Maguire) The outbuildings were listed in 1977. (HB file)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/12/1 First Edition OS Map 1832
2. PRONI OS/6/5/12/2 Second Edition OS map 1849-53
3. PRONI OS/6/5/12/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/12/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/14A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/P/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
8. 1901/11 census
9. HB file – 03/06/002
10. Belfast Newsletter 18th January 1884

Secondary Sources

1. Maguire, T “Don’t Tell Mummy” Haer Element, 2006

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An L-shaped block of two-storey blackstone outbuildings arranged around a concrete courtyard, formerly belonging to Cooldaragh House (now demolished); built c. 1860 and located to the west side of Loughan Road south of Coleraine. Displaying high quality stonework and detailing, what remains is an important indication of the quality of the nineteenth-century Cooldaragh House, and is worhty of protection in its own right.

General comments

Listing criteria R - Age and S - Authenticity also apply to this building