299 Ballyquin Road, former Drumneechy School, Dungiven, Co Londonderry, BT47 4RE

This is a small, late Georgian rural school building, initially established by the Kildare Street Society around the early 19th century and later enlarged under the National School System, with further renovations carried out by the County Londonderry Education Committee in 1939. The school closed in 1966 and has since been converted into a dwelling house.

The building is a single-story structure with a hipped, slated roof. The original window arrangements have been altered, and a stone chimney stack has been added to the north gable. A new entrance door has been created on the east side, along with a new rear entrance featuring a glazed porch. A metal plaque indicates the 1939 reconstruction by the County Londonderry Education Committee, identifying it as Drumneechy Public Elementary School.

Historical records from the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1833 describe the schoolhouse as a slated building measuring 26.5 feet long and 20 feet 10 inches wide, with an interior measuring 24 feet 3 inches by 18 feet 6 inches. The original cost of construction was £73, with contributions from the Kildare Street Society (£15) and the late Reverend William Robinson (£8). Initially a Presbyterian pay school linked to Bovevagh Presbyterian Church, the school was extended, as evidenced by an Ordnance Survey map from 1856-68, suggesting it became a two-teacher school. The 1939 renovations, carried out by the County Londonderry Education Committee, created a partition dividing the building into two classrooms, each with its own teacher. The school’s location is close to and parallel with Ballyquin Road, with the former playground situated behind the house. Early accounts note the site was originally planted with forest trees, although these are no longer present.