Courtyard Buildings, Bellarena House, 248 Seacoast Road, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 0HZ

An interesting group of mid-19th century outbuildings consisting of coach houses, stables, stores and staff accommodation, architecturally composed with a striking clock tower and steeple forming an imposing centrepiece viewed across the courtyard from Bellarena House.

The courtyard buildings comprise three blocks or ranges of stone buildings grouped around a cobbled courtyard to the north-northwest and rear of the main house. They are detached from the main house but the courtyard is wholly enclosed with boundary walls filling the gaps between the buildings. Entrance to the courtyard is through a gateway in the north range beneath the steepled clock tower.

The west range, six bays long and almost symmetrically composed, is built of random rubble basalt. It has two centrally placed segmental arched coach doors, with a single pedestrian flat-headed door on one side followed by another segmental arched coach door. Above the single door is a semi-circular blank opening. On the opposite side are two single pedestrian flat-headed doors with semi-circular blank openings above. The range is gabled with a recently slated roof. At the south end it is linked to the main house by a high basalt wall with a side doorway and an even higher segmental arched gateway with piers on either side crowned with sandstone spheres. All openings in the range are trimmed with red brick. Guttering and downpipes are metal painted black, matching those in the house. Decorative metal gates fill the gateway and side gate.

The north range is symmetrically composed and built of random rubble basalt. It consists of a centrally placed two-storey block, five bays wide, with a pedimented breakfront through which passes the segmental arched access to the courtyard from the rear avenue. On either side of the breakfront are pairs of segmental double doorways, narrower than the central access, each fitted with wooden doors. The central access has no doors or gates. At first-floor level are three sliding windows of nine panes each, positioned centrally over the openings below. Above the central pediment and rising out of the roof ridge is a squat clock tower painted white with simple capping edge. Each face has a rounded recess with the north and south faces containing clock dials. Above the clock tower is an eight-sided steeple faced with copper and terminating in a weathervane. On either side of the two-storey block are single-storey wings with two single doorways. Each doorway has a single sashed 12-pane window on either side. All openings are trimmed with brick arches; roofs are slated and hipped. On the north elevation is only the main access opening to the courtyard and another single double doorway to its east. Guttering and downpipes match the house.

The east range is linked to the north range by a long single-storey stone-built and slated building with lower eaves. The east range complements the west range in length, is two storeys high, stone-built and slated but half-hipped at one end, with a varied array of windows including single sliding sashes, tripartite sashes and several doors, one with sidelights. There are two chimneys.

The ranges are not at right angles to one another, but the courtyard being expansive, this irregularity is not readily apparent. The east range is connected to the main house by a high boundary wall against which are some lean-to structures. Placed off-centre in the courtyard is a planted pond.

The Bellarena Estate land was leased from the Bishop of Derry in 1603 by William Gage and remained in this family, the name changing to Heygates through marriage in 1851. The 4th Baronet died in 1976, and shortly after the property and contents were sold. The present owners acquired the place around 1990. The amount of land has been greatly reduced; apart from the major outbuildings, the main gate lodge and the dispensary, other parts of the estate and tenants' buildings including Bellarena School have been acquired by others.

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record in 1835: "Bellarena, the residence of Conolly Gage—the present dwelling house has been erected at two different periods: one part being built in 1797 and the other in 1822. The demesne is kept in the most exact order and with great taste. The garden and orchard consist of two acres and are in the highest state of cultivation and abound with all kinds of fruits and flowers with extensive hothouses for grapes." The work of 1797 was carried out by Marcus McCausland, son of the heiress of Bellarena, who changed his name to Gage. Conolly Gage created the library and manipulated the third floor at the rear of the house in 1822. In the late 1830s Charles Lanyon remodelled the hall, created the billiard room bay and remodelled the main reception rooms, adding the projecting porch at the request of Conolly Gage's wife Henrietta, whose sister Marianne, married to Marcus McCausland, had engaged the same Lanyon to rebuild Drenagh. The daughter of Conolly Gage, another Marianne, married Sir Frederick Heygate in 1851.

The clock tower, steeple and associated buildings are not indicated on the Ordnance Survey sheet of 1831, nor are the outlying barn and byres nor cart shed. The rear entrance gate lodge was built around 1860, while the main gate lodge at Seacoast Road dates to around 1920 and replaced a pair of gate lodges of 1797. The gates and railings were probably updated at that time. The land steward's house, walled garden and viewing gazebo, now outside the present estate, are all pre-1831.

Sir John Heygate, 4th Baronet, was a novelist and journalist who married first the Hon. Evelyn, daughter of the Lord Burghclere, who was first wife of Evelyn Waugh, the writer.