Knocktarna, 195 Mountsandel Road, Co. Londonderry, BT52 1JB

Knocktarna House is a detached, symmetrical country house built around 1830, situated on large mature grounds on the north bank of the River Bann on the southern outskirts of Coleraine. It is a well-preserved example of an early Victorian country house, displaying the restrained and plain proportions typical of the period. The listing extends to the house itself, its outbuildings, and the gate screen at the entrance on Mountsandel Road.

The house is three bays wide, two storeys over a partial basement, and rectangular in plan. The roof is hipped, covered in natural slate with leaded ridges and hips, and is topped by rendered chimneystacks with moulded caps. The eaves are finished in ovolo-moulded sandstone, with aluminium rainwater goods. The external walls are finished in ruled-and-lined render on a sandstone plinth.

The principal, southwest-facing front elevation is symmetrically arranged, with two-storey canted bay windows flanking the central entrance bay. The entrance is sheltered by a projecting flat-roofed porch of ashlar sandstone, which is reached by a single sandstone step. The porch features a replacement panelled-and-glazed entrance door flanked by four-pane sidelights, surmounted by four decorative scrolled console brackets and a central carved festoon. The porch cheeks to left and right are each lit by a six-pane timber window insertion with scrolled console brackets above. Above the porch, a window sits at first-floor level in the central bay. The windows throughout the front are 6/6 timber sash without horns, set in simple reveals with projecting sandstone sills, which are diminished at first-floor level. The basement windows are 8/8 timber sash.

The northwest elevation has three evenly spaced windows at ground and first floor, with an additional window to the basement. The southeast elevation has two evenly spaced windows at each floor.

The northeast rear elevation is more complex. Three two-storey gabled returns project from it, each lit by windows at multiple levels. To the left and right of the central return, windows appear at each floor. The left gable is further abutted by a rendered lean-to extension with a slate roof, containing a bipartite 4/4 timber window and a panelled-and-glazed timber door to the northeast. The left and right gables are lit to their respective outer faces by 2/2 timber sash windows at each floor, with a half-panelled timber door at basement level on the northwest side. The central gable has two windows at each floor on its left cheek; the right cheek has two 2/2 windows and a panelled-and-glazed timber door. Basement access on the rear is via concrete steps to the left side of the central gable, enclosed by a rendered wall with saddleback stone coping.

The house stands within large mature grounds planted with a variety of mature trees, approached from Mountsandel Road via a tree-lined avenue leading to a tarmacadamed concourse at the front and an enclosed tarmacadamed rear yard. The grounds face southwest over the River Bann, and the natural, unspoiled quality of this setting significantly enhances the rather austere character of the building.

The rear yard is enclosed to the northwest by a tall rubblestone wall, painted on its southwest face, and entered through a pair of tall rubblestone square piers with sandstone caps supporting cast-iron gates. Original cobbles survive in the basement channel. The yard contains a group of rubblestone and red-brick outbuildings with slate roofs. The two-storey coach house to the northeast has four evenly spaced eight-paned metal casement windows at first-floor level over eight large replacement timber-sheeted garage doors at ground floor. The single-storey block to the southeast has two sets of replacement timber-sheeted garage doors, one set within an elliptical-headed arch. The right section of this block is taller and contains a six-pane timber window and a replacement timber-sheeted door; its southwest gable has been rendered and contains a modern half-panelled timber door with sidelight. Abutting one of the gabled rear returns is a two-storey outbuilding in Flemish-bonded red brick with a slate roof. This building has two evenly spaced 4/4 timber windows with margin panes at first-floor level, with projecting stone sills and red-brick voussoirs, above a central elliptical-headed arched opening that now contains a modern oil tank.

At the entrance on Mountsandel Road there is a gate screen comprising a low curved sandstone wall with coping, cast-iron railings, and cast-iron gates.

The house takes its name from the townland of Knockantern, and is shown under that name on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830, already accompanied by outbuildings to the rear arranged to form two sides of a stable courtyard — outbuildings that survive to this day. By the second edition of 1849–50 the house had acquired a rear return, and by the third edition of 1904 further additions and remodelling had taken place.

Knocktarna was the seat of Hugh Lyle, a linen merchant and Mayor of Coleraine, who built the house in the early 19th century. The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 records the dwelling house and offices at a rateable value of £34, with Hugh Lyle listed as occupier. The house passed down through the Lyle family for several generations. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that a school was established in one of the outbuildings in 1835, catering for 18 pupils; the Lyle family contributed towards its running costs, the mistress resided in the house, books were supplied by the London Hibernian Society, and the Authorised Version of scripture was taught.

At the time of the 1901 census, the house was occupied by the elderly Reverend John Lyle and his wife, along with their two daughters, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter. The household employed six staff, including a nurse and a groom, and the 25-room house was designated first class. In 1911, Reverend Lyle — by then aged 95 — completed the census form in his own hand; his slightly reduced staff at that time comprised a cook, housemaid, kitchen maid, and butler.

By the time of the First General Revaluation in the 1930s, the accommodation was recorded in considerable detail. The ground floor contained four reception rooms, two servants' bedrooms, a servants' bathroom, a servants' WC, and a pantry. The basement housed the servants' hall, a box room, a dairy, wine cellars, a store, a kitchen, a scullery, and a pantry. The first floor contained six bedrooms, a dressing room, two servants' bedrooms, a bathroom, and two WCs. The house was heated by radiators and lit by an acetylene gas plant on the premises. The grounds at this time included a rough lawn, one and a half acres of vegetable and fruit garden, half an acre of rough garden, two acres of orchard, and a grass tennis court.

In 1948 a single-storey addition was made to the rear and the house was redecorated internally. The house passed to Fred W. Young in 1952 and subsequently became the Vice-Chancellor's Lodge for the University of Ulster.