21 School Lane, Castlerock, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4RJ

Downhill National School, Castlerock

This detached asymmetrical one-and-a-half-storey stone building, dated 1872, stands on an elevated site on a narrow lane to the north of Freehall Road. Built as a school for the local community, it retains significant architectural and historical interest as part of the nineteenth-century heritage of the Downhill Estate and the social history of Castlerock.

The building is constructed of random coursed rock-faced basalt ashlar with tooled and squared sandstone quoins and cement pointing. The steeply pitched natural slate roof features black clay roll-moulded ridge tiles, timber bargeboards, and exposed timber rafter feet to timber sheeted overhanging eaves. Cast-iron guttering and downpipes are replacements.

The symmetrical front elevation is three windows wide with a central full-height gabled entrance porch. A circular sandstone datestone at the apex of the entrance porch bears the inscription 'DOWNHILL NATIONAL SCHOOL 1872'. The front elevation is abutted to the southwest by a lean-to sunroom added around 2000. A trefoil circular sandstone panel with a voussoired basalt surround is positioned at the apex of the principal block. Window openings are pointed-arched with stop-chamfered tooled sandstone surrounds, sandstone sills, and basalt relieving arches. The windows themselves are replacement timber casements.

To the west, the principal block is abutted by a lower single-bay gabled wing with a pointed-arched window opening detailed to match the front elevation. The rear elevation features an off-centre projection with a single square-headed window in chamfered tooled sandstone. Two dormer windows have been inserted to the rear pitch, with a catslide roof extending across the rear projection and two skylights to the front pitch. The east gable is abutted by a gable-ended single-bay entrance porch added around 2000, constructed in rubble basalt with salvaged sandstone quoins. This porch has a vertically-sheeted timber door and a square-headed window with a concrete lintel and bipartite timber casement. A circular plaque matching that on the west elevation crowns the apex of the principal east gable.

The building is set to the south of School Lane at a road bend, with its rear elevation fronting onto the road. The grounds include lawns to the south and cobblelock to the remainder, enclosed by rubble basalt walls with stack coping and replacement stone piers to the west.

Built in 1872 by Sir Henry Hervey Bruce, third Baronet Downhill, this school replaced an earlier building located to the north of the Bishop's Gate on the Downhill demesne, which had been constructed by Sir James Robertson Bruce, the second baronet. The original school for boys and girls was established in 1824 by the Kildare Society at a cost of £119 as a non-denominational institution dedicated to educating the poor, with Sir James donating the land and subsidising teachers' salaries. The 1872 building could accommodate 90 children, though average attendance in the 1930s was 52. It appears first on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904 as 'Downhill School'. Valuation records show it entered at an exempted valuation of £8 and 5 shillings for the playground, significantly higher than the earlier school's valuation of £3, reflecting its greater spaciousness. The Bruce estate maintained the building until its closure in the mid-1930s when a new school was built elsewhere. By the mid-1970s it was being used as a farm building before being listed in 1977. The building was gutted by fire around 1990, leaving only the walls standing. It was extensively renovated around 2000 for use as a domestic dwelling, with the lean-to sunroom extension subsequently added to the front elevation.