Mount Prospect House (Apartments.), 59 Magheramore Road, Dungiven, Co Londonderry, BT47 45W

Mount Prospect House

59 Magheramore Road, Dungiven, County Londonderry

A successful conversion of 19th-century farm outbuildings into self-catering chalets, demonstrating a sympathetic and sensitive approach to change of use. The scheme retains the former character and spatial relationships of the working farm complex.

The former outbuildings comprise single and two-storey structures arranged in an L-plan around a farmyard, alongside the main house and other farm buildings. The walls are rendered and painted, with slated gabled roofs. The conversion created three chalets while preserving the original built form as far as possible.

The south-east façade of the upper two-storey section is four bays wide, though one bay contains no windows and forms a separate chalet. A door with a bracketed and slated lean-to canopy is flanked by sliding sash windows with four panes, presumably reconstructed within former openings. A slightly larger single sliding sash four-pane window sits between door and window at first-floor level. The rendered and whitewashed walls have half-round metal guttering with round downpipes at each end. The roof is finished in natural slates with a gabled end and a single asymmetrically placed chimney stack roughly aligned with the door below. Four rooflights are arranged across the roof. A hipped lean-to roof covers the inner corner of the L-plan, forming part of the former barn. The opposite gable features a small projecting balcony with simple metal balusters and a pair of glazed panel doors. The gable wall is roughcast rendered with good texture, the barge finished as a thin smooth plaster fillet stiffening the slate overhang.

The rear elevation contains three haphazardly placed openings, presumably occupying former positions. A pair of two-panel glazed doors opens at ground-floor level onto a terrace. Two sliding sash four-pane windows occupy the other openings. At first-floor level, five slit vents have been retained and sealed. Half-round guttering is supported on metal brackets over a slightly projecting corbel course. The roof is finished in natural slates with a series of rooflights and roof vents across the upper section. The lean-to roof extends to provide cover over a neatly finished heating chamber. A pair of two-panel doors and a door to the heating chamber sit at ground level. This façade overlooks a grassed elongated courtyard enclosed on the sides by other farm buildings.

The long arm of the L-plan transitions from single storey at the knuckle to a storey-and-a-half section with a higher ridge line. Door and window openings, again haphazardly arranged, occupy original positions with modern infill. Four windows are sliding sash with four panes in painted wood. Two doors are present, one with a canopy and one without. The roof is finished in natural slates with two solid chimney stacks on the ridge of the single-storey section. Half-round guttering is supported on projecting corbel courses. Walls are rendered and painted, relieved by a series of projecting plant containers. A datestone on the wall of the one-and-a-half storey end reads "built 1721–2000", referring to the original house. The gable end retains the original high-level door opening with neatly rounded corners. The rear elevation is treated similarly, with seven openings fitted with sliding sash four-pane windows. A high battered plinth responds to the level change down to the laneway behind.

The barns date from the second half of the 19th century and may originally have contained worker accommodation. The conversion was designed by architect Alastair Coey of Belfast, with plans prepared in 1996 and work completed in early 2000. The chalets form an intimate relationship with the dwelling house and other outbuildings. The sequence of spaces, laneways and passageways has been well organised and arranged, accommodating the complex's continuing function as a working and progressive farm.