Bayview, 54 Shore Road, Toomebridge, Co. Antrim, BT41 3NW

Bayview is a detached three-bay one-and-a-half storey house erected circa 1905, prominently located on the east side of Shore Road overlooking Lough Neagh. Built in the Scottish manner, it is an unusually well-preserved Edwardian house and a good representative of the Scottish architectural connection in this area.

The house is rectangular on plan with a projecting gabled right bay, a single-storey lean-to porch in the internal angle, and a lean-to return to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with gable chimneystacks of brick and half-round cast-iron rainwater goods. The walls are painted roughcast.

The principal elevation faces west. The left bay features a canted bay window with stepped cornice to ground floor and a large canted dormer with glazed cheeks and slate hung sides to the attic storey. The central bay is blank with the lean-to porch. The right bay has a pair of 1/1 sashes to ground floor and a window to attic storey. The left and right gables are blank. The porch has a bolection moulded four-panelled timber entrance door with bronze knocker and knob, and a wall-mounted push button bell to the left side. The rear elevation and return have 6/6 sliding sash windows with horns to ground floor. The return is accessed by a replacement timber sheeted door to the left cheek. The attic storey is lit by Velux rooflights.

The windows throughout are 2/2 timber sashes with horns, painted reveals and painted masonry cills, unless otherwise stated.

The house is set overlooking Lough Neagh in mature tree-fringed cottage gardens with an orchard to the rear. In the rear yard stands a cast-iron water pump with cowtail handle, marked H. McManus & Sons Randlestown. A single-span rubble stone bridge with round-headed arch and rubble stone voussoirs spans the stream to the north, which flows under the road. The bridge has a projecting stone coping to parapet. A garden path on axis with the main entrance leads to the road and is accessed by a decorative metal gate on pyramidal-capped piers framed by curved entrance walls. The gardens are bounded by a stream to the north.

According to information from the owner, the building was erected as a summer residence by Francis McVeigh from Scotland. The house does not appear on the 1904 Ordnance Survey map but first appears on the 1933 edition. Valuations records show a house and land leased to Francis McVeigh from Lord O'Neill valued at less than £1 in revisions up to 1896. By 1912, the present house had been constructed by Mr McVeigh and was valued at £5 10 shillings. The 1926 revision shows unchanged valuation, though ownership had transferred to John Hamill. The current owner indicates that a mass path crosses the property, leading to the church at Cargin.