Outbuildings at Bovagh House, 79 Mullaghinch Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4AU

Outbuildings at Bovagh House, Bovagh townland, south of Aghadowey, County Londonderry

These are a group of rubble stone outbuildings associated with Bovagh House, constructed in several phases from around 1840 onwards and set within a secluded, mature landscaped parkland to the north and west of the main house, with open fields to the rear. Together they enclose the rear yard of Bovagh House and reflect the range of uses and functions associated with life in a middle-sized 19th-century country house. Although the group is generally plainly detailed, the privy and hothouse display some architectural pretension. The buildings are fairly intact, and their survival enhances both the historic interest and the setting quality of Bovagh House.

The group comprises four principal elements: a rectangular two-storey coach house and stable block (A) to the north-west; a single-storey L-plan range (B) to the south-west, built in two distinct phases; a pair of small single-storey privies (C) offset at the south-east end; and a hothouse (D) facing the main forecourt to the south-east, with an attached potting shed to the rear providing access to the yard. All roofs are natural slate and pitched, with the exception of the privies which share a hipped roof. Walling throughout is random coursed rubble stone.

Coach House and Stable Block [A]: Two storeys, with a brick chimney stack and metal rainwater goods. The walling is coursed random rubble with some galleting and red brick dressings to the openings. Windows are replacement four-pane timber units. Door openings are timber-sheeted, including double coach doors set within an elliptical opening with brick infill to the tympanum. A single-storey abutment is attached to the east end, and a lean-to open wood store is to the rear.

Single-Storey Range [B]: The pitched natural slate roof has a brick chimney to the party wall between the two construction phases and a timber finial to the gable of the stable projection, with a brick eaves course and cast-iron rainwater goods. A visible masonry seam runs mid-way along the wall, reflecting the two-phase construction: the northern end is coursed rubble basalt and the southern end is random rubble, partly coursed. Openings have brick dressings — segmental-headed to the southern end and square-headed to the northern end — and are generally fitted with four-light fixed windows without cills. Doors are timber-sheeted and ledged; the door to the left end, serving the hen house, has fine ventilation slits.

Privy [C]: A square rubble masonry block with a hipped slate roof with leaded ridges and hips, a brick eaves course and no rainwater goods. The south-west elevation is lit by two Gothic windows: the right-hand one retains its original interlocking timber glazing bars, while the left-hand one has replacement glazing bars and broken glass. A projecting rubble stone screen wall shields the timber-sheeted entrance door to the northern bay; the southern bay is accessed from the avenue at the south-west side but is now inaccessible.

Hothouse [D]: A mono-pitched structure with decorative cast-iron crestings, the roof covering now replaced with corrugated perspex sheeting on a timber frame over brick plinth walls. The rear elevation, facing the yard, is in red brick and is abutted by a potting shed also of brick, which has a Gothic window and timber door.

Development of the Group

Outbuildings are shown to the north-west of the house on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1831–32, though field inspection suggests these were rebuilt in the mid-Victorian period. The range to the west of the house was built in two phases: the first phase dates from around 1840 and is shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849–53, possibly including the privy; a mid-Victorian extension followed, probably at the same time as the stable block and wood store to the north-west were constructed. The hothouse appears to be a later Victorian addition, first shown on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1904–05.

Historical Background

According to the Reverend T. H. Mullin, Bovagh House was the principal dwelling on the Waterford estates in Aghadowey. At the Plantation of Ulster, this land was a freehold granted to Manus McCowy Ballagh O'Cahan, a descendant of the Gaelic chieftains of the area, and it was this family who are said to have built a castle or fortified house on the site. The last of the O'Cahans sold the castle to Sir Tristram Beresford (died 1673), who represented Londonderry in the Irish House of Commons three times between 1634 and 1666. Beresford is said to have purchased the castle for "a horse, a fine suit of clothes and a trifling sum of money," and the Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that in the 1830s the memory of the O'Cahan who sold it to him "was still cursed for the transaction."

Sir Tristram's only son, Sir Marcus Beresford, first Earl of Tyrone (1694–1763), was Member of Parliament for Coleraine from 1715 to 1720 and is known to have kept several members of Coleraine Corporation imprisoned in the house for days before the election of 1727, bringing them into Coleraine under armed guard on polling day to ensure they voted for him.

The Beresfords subsequently resided elsewhere and the house was let to a succession of tenants, including a Mr Hodges and a Mr Olphert. From around 1750 the tenant was Donald Osal O'Cahan, a descendant of the original O'Cahan family, who lived there rent-free on condition that he kept it in repair. Donald and his son John acquired a reputation as attorneys, and Donald made a road through the grounds of the castle by allowing poorer clients to defray their fees through their labour — a process that nonetheless took twenty years to complete. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record that all the old oak was removed from the house after the O'Cahans left by two tradesmen employed to alter it, named Priestly and Wadd, and it may have been at this period that the Georgian brick elevation was added to the house.

The next occupier was the Reverend Mr Barnard, Prebendary of Aghadowey parish (1763–1787), who lived at the castle prior to the construction of the glebe house. He was followed by Langford Heyland Esquire, who made some improvements in the late 18th century. During the rebellion of 1798, the house was used as a military post "to overawe the surrounding country." Edward Macnaghten Esquire lived at Bovagh in 1802, followed by John Smith and Robert Brown, caretakers for the Beresfords, who occupied the house for fifteen years during which time it became dilapidated. Robert Hezlet Esquire found the house nearly a ruin when he took it over but made extensive alterations and repairs without demolishing any part.

By the 1830s the stone walls of the castle had been covered with plaster, though early vaults were still visible within — these are no longer present. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs noted that the trees around the house were "not very old, being probably planted by Mr [Barnard], but there are some very fine ones near the greater Agivey River." The house and offices are listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40 at £8 16 shillings, with Robert Hezlet recorded as occupier. By Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, the valuation had risen to £23 and a gate lodge is noted on the holding. The house stood in a plot of over 67 acres. At the time of the 1901 and 1911 censuses the house was vacant.

The house passed through the Hezlet family for several generations, and it is they who were responsible for the construction of the outbuildings to the rear. The Hezlets were a distinguished military family: Richard J. Hezlet, occupier from 1888, reached the rank of Lieutenant Colonel; Major General Robert Knox Hezlet, noted as occupier from 1941, became Director of Artillery at the War Office (1930–34) and subsequently in India (1934–38). By the time of the First General Revaluation in the 1930s, the house accommodation comprised, on the ground floor, three reception rooms, a kitchen, two pantries and a scullery, and on the first floor, four bedrooms, two dressing rooms, a bathroom, a WC and four servants' bedrooms. The house had no electric light or gas and was lit by oil lamps, with heating by grate fires, water supplied by a roof tank and a hand pump.

Major General Hezlet's son, Sir Arthur Richard Hezlet, born in 1914 while his father was serving in South Africa, became the Royal Navy's youngest captain and youngest rear admiral, and was dedicated to the promotion of the submarine as an instrument of naval strategy. In later life he became a military historian, his publications including a history of the B Specials. After inheriting Bovagh House, Sir Arthur became a prominent local figure, serving on the General Synod of the Church of Ireland and as President of the Royal British Legion for twenty-five years. He died at Bovagh House in 2007.