Pumphill House, 30 Mill Road, Maine North, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 0BL

Pumphill House is a large vernacular farmhouse dating from the mid-18th century (built between 1760 and 1779), situated on Mill Road in Maine North near Limavady. It is sited on a small road branching from Mill Road beside a ring fort, with its southeast facade facing this approach.

The house exemplifies the typical plan of large pre-1830 farmhouses, featuring a corridor and spy window, though it has the unusual distinction of a stair running parallel to the corridor rather than perpendicular to it. The building demonstrates how such properties were extended over time, with a three-bay original section to which a two-bay extension was added approximately a metre behind, making the compositional development clear from the rear elevation.

The main facade is presented as a two-storey five-bay elevation with smooth rendered and painted plaster, featuring painted plaster quoin stones and a natural slate roof. The door is centrally positioned with windows equally spaced across the original three-bay section. Most windows are 14-pane sliding sashes, with a two-pane sash (probably a later replacement) in the northeast corner. A plain segmental fanlight sits above the door. Three chimneys mark the ridge, two indicating the former gable positions of the original section, with a third on the southwest gable. A modern flat-roofed timber and glass porch now sits at the entrance, a typical 20th-century addition that detracts from the original composition.

To the southwest, a harled, painted and slated two-storey barn abuts the house gable, extending for approximately two bays with a single small two-pane sash window to the road. Beyond this, a harled and painted wall extends further southwest, ending in a rectangular gate post marking the farmyard entrance. The southwest gable is blank.

The rear elevations reveal the building's development more clearly. The original three-bay section has four small irregularly distributed windows at first floor and a central single-storey lean-to projection with a modern window. A wide modern window lights the northeast elevation. A fine tripartite sash window with a twelve-pane central portion and four-pane sides is positioned to the southwest. The extension contains two small four-pane windows at high level (one of which is barred with iron bars, an unusual feature) and two 16-pane sashes at ground level. The rear of the house is harled and whitewashed. The northeast elevation is rendered in sand cement but unpainted and features a 12-pane sash lighting a first-floor room near the front.

An unusual pump connected to the house pipework is set against the back porch, a notable feature of architectural interest.

The interior retains much original fabric despite the removal of the kitchen fireplace. Original features include panelled window reveals, timber ceilings, and some original sash windows. Bars on the servants window represent another distinctive element.

Behind the house is a perpendicular range of whitewashed and slated barns.

Historically, the property is associated with the O'Cahan chieftain family, with descendants of this pre-plantation line resident in the townland in 1723. Cumoighe O'Cathain's two sons, John O'Kane and Michael Kane (both Catholic), married two Protestant sisters, Jane and Rose Haslett. John O'Kane was born in 1780 and had a daughter who married Dr Bryson of Limavady, who subsequently lived in the house. The Griffiths Valuation of 1858 records the occupant as John Kane, representative of Marcus McCausland, with the property valued at £5 for buildings. The same valuation notes Kane as lessor of the nearby Maine North corn mill to Edward Boyle (buildings valued at £10 10s). Little remains of the mills, though they are indicated on the 1970 map. The present owners' family acquired the house and farm from Mr McConnellogue, a descendant of the Bryson family, in the 1950s.