Drumcovit House, 704 Feeny Road, Feeny, Co Londonderry, BT47 4SU

Drumcovit House is a fine Georgian-style house of the mid and late 18th century, interestingly extended with interior detail of both periods retained. The house enjoys a commanding site with grand panoramic views across rolling meadow to Benbradagh mountain, with the spire of Banagher parish church visible in the middle distance. It is well maintained with good gardens and a handsome curved avenue approach.

The building is a double pile, five bays wide, two-storey structure, partly stone-built with semi-circular gable bays and small two-storey back returns. A much larger, longer back return originally forming stables has been converted into apartments.

The entrance on the east elevation features a central ten-panelled door with fixed six-pane sidelights. The door and sidelights are framed by sandstone panelled pilasters with jambs and square head, similarly panelled. Above the door and sidelights is a half-elliptical radial glazed fanlight. Beneath the sidelight cills are smooth rendered panels. The pilasters rise from blocking pieces that align with the chamfered sandstone main plinth course. On each side of the entrance are two twelve-pane sliding sash windows, with nine-pane sliding sash windows at first floor level. A sandstone corbel course supports a cast-iron half-round gutter with round downpipes. The walls are built of random rubble sandstone with handmade redbrick trim to window openings blockbonded to stonework, flat brick arches, and sandstone cills. The chamfered sandstone plinth course slightly overhangs the stonework below. Four sandstone steps lead to the front door, the top step being the width of the entrance. Well-formed chamfered rusticated quoins terminate the front wall on each side. The roof is finished in natural slates with a clay ridge and two brick chimney stacks on the ridge, separated by the width of the hallway. The stacks have simple projecting caps with red clay pots. The straight slating merges neatly into the slating of the curved end bays.

The south elevation illustrates the double pile aspect of the house, each pile being of similar width. The east pile has a semi-circular end, two storeys high, with two twelve-pane sliding sash windows on the ground floor and two nine-pane sliding sashes directly above. The semi-circular bay is the full width of the pile gable, less the rusticated quoins returned from the east front. Walls are built of random rubble stonework with marked iron staining, brick trim to windows, and plinth and corbel courses carried around as on the front. The north elevation of the front pile is similarly treated. The half-cone of the bay roofs are neatly slated in trimmed small slates. The south elevation of the rear pile has a pair of twelve-pane sliding sash windows on the ground floor and similar at first floor, while a pair of six-pane casement windows are tucked under the gable roofline. A large red brick chimney stack sits on the apex of the gable. The wall is finished in grey cement plaster with daywork joints quite marked. The north elevation of the rear pile is similar except that at first floor there is only one window. The rear elevation has a small storey back return in line with the hall and of the same width. The part to the south is obscured by the long one-and-a-half storey barns which project at right angles and, with the exception of the part immediately adjacent to the house, have been converted into three chalets. The exposed rear wall has a single twelve-pane sliding sash window at ground floor and a twelve-pane bottom-hinged window at first floor. The first floor of the small back return has a large sixteen-pane bottom-hinged window. Below is the back door and on the flank wall a four-pane sliding sash. The roof of the rear pile is neatly finished in natural slates and has a clay ridge and two redbrick chimney stacks on each gable. A single Velux rooflight is positioned about the centre of the roof. The other back return, built of stone with slated roof, contains a boiler room and games room store. Two Velux rooflights are positioned on the north side of the roof. The south side wall is smooth rendered with a single door and two nine-pane windows that do not match.

The house is situated on the north side of the Feeny/Dungiven Road in a setting of mature trees and good gardens, with a fine rolling meadow to the east. Unfortunately, the entrance gates and boundary wall are built of reconstructed blocks, constructed when the road was realigned in the 1960s.

The townland of Drumcovit is an isolated part of the former Fishmongers proportion. Historical records indicate that the rear part of the house is very old, originally built by Harry Boyle Esquire. In 1796, the present front was built by his son-in-law, Nathaniel Hunter Esquire, who occupied the house until the expiration of the lease in 1824. The front part was subsequently occupied by Mrs Maxwell of Jackson Hall near Coleraine, who improved the house and demesne but possessed no lease. John McCloskey's 1821 account notes that the building had "a very fine front of modern construction, the other parts do not harmonize well with it, and are about to be replaced." The back pile does not appear to have been much altered despite McCloskey's remarks, as much of the 18th-century architectural detail remains, such as lugged architraves and the staircase. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs provide further detail, noting that the house was later occupied by Hugh Swan, a farmer, who confined his attention to farm improvement, and as a result the ornamental grounds and house fell greatly out of order. Lewis in 1837 describes it as a farmhouse. The house was reroofed in the 1870s. Architectural historian J.S. Curl speculates that the front part of the house was designed by David McBlain. A Mr Craig purchased the property in the late 19th century, and the present occupants (as of 2000) are relations of the Craig family. In 1993, an inspection revealed dry rot, and work followed to cure the affected areas including floors and roofs. In 1997, some of the outbuildings were converted to chalets.