11 Cliff Terrace, Castlerock, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4RQ

11 Cliff Terrace is a terraced single-bay one-and-a-half-storey stone former labourer's cottage built around 1875 as one of twelve identical houses constructed by Sir William Harvey Bruce to the designs of architect Frederick Henry Godwin. The terrace, known locally as the 'Twelve Apostles', was first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906, though it appears in the valuation fieldbook between 1873 and 1878 when already inhabited and valued at £2.5s. The Irish Builder described it as 'recently erected' in February 1882. The architect Frederick Henry Godwin, a nephew of the better-known Edward William Godwin, is little documented, with only three local structures attributed to him before he moved to England around 1890, where he is thought to have designed additions to Westburton House, Gloucestershire.

The house is rectangular on plan, facing north, with a gable-fronted two-storey rendered extension to the rear added around 2010. It retains its distinctive steeply pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles and a tall rendered chimneystack to the east shared with the adjoining house. A pair of dormer windows to the front pitch, with that to the west shared with the adjoining house, have hipped slate roofs, timber pinnacles and replacement timber casement windows. Moulded cast-iron guttering is supported on a timber fascia. The deep overhanging eaves feature timber sheeting and exposed timber beams supported by two stop-chamfered timber brackets on sandstone corbels.

The exterior walls are of random coursed rock-faced basalt with tooled sandstone ashlar dressings, the stone being local basalt with freestone—fine-grained stone easily worked with a chisel—used for the dressings to doors and windows. Cement pointing has been applied. The front elevation features a single window opening with a square-headed surround of stop-chamfered dressed sandstone and sandstone sill, containing a four-light timber window that possibly incorporates the original frame. A segmental-headed recessed entrance porch with stop-chamfered dressed sandstone surround and keystone is shared with No. 12. The porch contains a square-headed door opening set at a right angle to the facade with an original sheeted timber door having brass door furniture. The porch has a clay tiled floor and a large worn sandstone step opening onto a slightly raised area laid in cobbles that runs the entire length of the terrace. The east elevation is abutted by adjoining house No. 10, and the west elevation by adjoining house No. 12. The rear elevation is abutted by the two-storey rendered extension added around 2010.

Although the house has lost its original fenestration, it retains its overall external appearance as part of a relatively consistent terrace. The distinctive steeply pitched roof, deep overhanging eaves, tall chimney stacks, and original basalt stone walling with freestone dressings greatly contribute to the late nineteenth-century character of Castlerock. The terrace is described by Girvan as 'an English design in an Irish setting'.

The original plan consisted of a single room on the ground floor and a washhouse or scullery to the rear, with a staircase leading to the upper floor where the space was partitioned to form two bedrooms. These tiny cottages, often accommodating very large families, were built for estate workers, though not all inhabitants were employed by the Hervey Bruce family. The valuation of the houses was dropped to £1.10s in 1887, with rent recorded as 10d per week. At the time of the 1901 census, the three-room houses were all designated second class, with tenants leasing from the Hervey Bruce estate. The first tenant listed at number eleven was Sarah McCandless, with several occupiers following. At the 1901 census, the occupier was Eliza McMullan, a 45-year-old widowed seamstress living alone. In 1911, the occupier was Thomas McClary, a 27-year-old general labourer, who lived with his Donegal wife and their young daughter. At the time of the first general revaluation in the early 1930s, the buildings remained much as originally constructed with a kitchen on the ground floor and two small bedrooms upstairs. A separate single-storey washhouse stood in the rear yard and water had to be carried from a pump, with rents varying from 6s to 8s8d per month. Since the 1960s and 1970s, the majority of the houses have been extended to the rear and refurbished internally.

The house is set as part of a terrace of twelve similar houses on an elevated site overlooking the sea to the west of Castlerock. It is street-fronted with a paved rear yard enclosed by a rendered wall and timber gates on rubblestone piers.