Rock Cottage, 40 Roguery Road, Brecart, Toomebridge, Co. Antrim, BT41 3TJ

Rock Cottage is a one and a half storey house facing east, occupying an elevated site alongside the road from Toome to Ballymena, approximately three-quarters of a mile north of Toome in County Antrim. It dates to the period 1820–1839, though the exact date of construction is uncertain. The building is notable for its hipped thatch roof constructed with a straw bedding below the thatch covering, an unusual feature. The formal layout of the original building and the reasonably well-integrated extensions are of architectural interest.

The walls are roughcast and whitened. Access from the road is gained by a flight of steps, with a new vehicle entrance formed at the south side of the property. Two corbelled chimneystacks with Victorian-style pots mark the positions of the original hearths.

The entrance, centrally placed on the front elevation, comprises a four-panelled bolection-moulded door with side and quarter lights and a rectangular fanlight. The lower sections are timber panelled to match the door, with glazing in reeded glass. The raised entrance step is made of medium-sized tiles. Modern coach lamp interpretations appear on the wall surface on either side of the door. A vertically sliding window stands on either side of the entrance, each containing margined paned sashes with exposed framing and moulded sash stops. The sills, of average depth, are painted black to match the colour of the reveals.

The left-hand (south) gable has a timber-framed casement window with top opener at low level and a small plain square casement window above. The right-hand (north) gable has a rhomboid-shaped timber window at lower level containing an intricately patterned arrangement of astragals.

The building extends at the rear in single and two-storey form. The two-storey section is roofed with natural slate and has cast iron rainwater goods. Fenestration comprises three timber-framed casements with top openers, and the rear entrance door on the north elevation is of flush type with a glazed panel. The exposed rear wall of the main house has a window similar to those at the front at low level and a small square casement above. The single-storey kitchen extension to the right of the two-storey section is roofed with fibre cement slates and has cast metal rainwater goods, with two modern timber-framed windows. The windows to the front of the house suggest work was carried out to the property in the 1860s.

Historical Context

A house matching the present building is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832 but is not included in the near contemporary valuation. The building is marked as "Rock Cottage" on the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1857 (on account of the nearby rock outcrop) and is recorded in the second valuation of 1859, when it was leased by Daniel McKeown from the O'Neill Estate and rated at £4.

Though the age of the cottage is uncertain, the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1837 refer to a cottage at Brecart erected about fifty years prior (around 1787) by John O'Neill Esq. Some scholars have suggested this might refer to Rock Cottage, though the description actually refers to Brecart Cottage, which was situated close to the site of the present Brecart House, a short distance east of this property and recorded in the 1836 valuation as the home of Edward and Samuel Finiston. However, evidence from the second valuation confirms that Daniel McKeown was occupying Rock Cottage, with the property valued at £2–10–0 in 1839.

The rear extension was added some time before 1932, when the present owner acquired the house, by a family named Devlin.