3 Magilligan Halt, 459 Seacoast Road, Magilligan, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 0LL

3 Magilligan Halt, Seacoast Road

A long linear station building constructed in 1873–1875 by architect John Lanyon as the first halt on the new Midland Railway Company Line. The building rises in a series of three overlapping roofs from single to double storey, terminating in a signal box at one end. It is built in polychrome brickwork in the Ruskinian style and faces south-east across the track towards Binevenagh mountain.

The platform elevation is the principal façade. The lowest part presents a gable to Duncrun Road, formerly timber but now with a blank brick surface surmounted by a decorated barge board. The platform front features banded brickwork punctuated by a double door with glazing before the roof steps up approximately 600mm to reach the ticket office. At this point sits a single terracotta pot with Egyptian markings at the apex. The barge board with acroteria at the eaves is supported by three moulded purlins—one at the ridge and two at the eaves, a motif repeated on other gables. A round-headed sash window with sandstone cill and brick hood moulding sits above a lower coloured band approximately 1000mm above platform level. Large double doors set in a glazed screen mark the full height of the ticket office wall before the building steps up again, approximately 800mm, to the two-storey Station Master's house. Here a tall brick chimney with four terracotta pots is centred between two round-headed sash windows with sandstone cills and brick hood mouldings. The decorated roof with barges steps over them, though their heads sit below eaves level. Below is a single similar window and a timber sign reading "Magilligan". The two-storey wall then continues blank for three metres before meeting a round-headed door detailed as the windows. Beyond this the first floor changes into the signal box, while at platform level is a paired round-headed sash window and a further door at the end.

The Seacoast Road façade is considerably more monolithic. The lowest part features a single glazed door at platform level served by an enclosed flight of steps. A single round-headed window lights the ticket office, with a similar window aligned further along at the step up to the Station Master's house. A pair of similar windows occurs at a lower level, their mid-point aligning with the cills of those described above. At high level is a circular window, below which sits a round-headed sash and a door under the signal box. The south-west gable has the signal box at first floor surmounted by decorated barge, purlins and acroteria as described. The entrance to the present house at platform level is reached via a flight of steps and protected by a simple pitched canopy.

The building was in use as a station until the early 1970s, with the platform periodically used since. The signal box is not original; it was taken by the subsequent owner from Cullybackey, renovated, and placed on top of the former toilet block. The blank wall between the Station Master's House and the doors and windows at the end of the platform formerly enclosed a small courtyard, with the toilet doors and windows originally surmounted by a hipped slate roof with a tall ventilator at the apex.

The building was purchased and partially renovated by R Price Stephens from 1985 onwards and converted into three apartments. The current owners (as of 1997) acquired the house in 1990 and further renovated it, converting it into the present dwelling house and apartment. Formerly a spiral stair in the corner of the main living room linked the first and second floors of the Station Master's house.

The building is horizontally emphasised and celebrates the speed of the train, an effect made all the more dramatic by contrast with the flat landscape around it. The composition is delicately balanced, particularly on the highest block, where the signal box sits at one end and the chimneys and dormers of the Station Master's house are at the other. The building is finely detailed and well maintained. Though renovated, the interior retains much of the original fittings. It is a very good example of its type because of its consistency, preservation and dramatic location, and is of industrial archaeological interest.