70 Ballyrashane Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 2LL

This asymmetrical detached single-storey-with-attic building stands on the north side of Ballyrashane Road, near Coleraine, at the junction with Creamery Road. Built around 1897 in a style influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, it was originally constructed as Ballyrashane School by Ballyrashane Presbyterian Church and first appears on the 1904 Ordnance Survey map. The school operated until 1955, when a new school building was constructed. The former schoolhouse subsequently served as a church hall during the late 20th century before being converted into a private dwelling in recent decades. Extensive modifications have substantially altered its form, layout and internal fabric.

The building is rectangular on plan with a steeply pitched slate roof punctuated by breakfront gabled bays and wall-head attic dormers to the long axes. The roof is finished with angled terracotta ridge-tiles and features three brick chimneys: two with multiple terracotta pots at the far-west and west-of-centre positions, and a third large chimney on the north wall east-of-centre, which breaks through the eaves. A metal-clad square-base pointed lantern with curved and slated lower proportions merges with the main roof. Modern skylights are present on the north elevation. Ogee uPVC rainwater goods with overhanging eaves are mounted on exposed rafter-tails, with plain timber fascia to the gables.

The walls are unpainted roughcast with red-brick quoins. Windows have plain architraves with red-brick camber-arches above and projecting concrete or reconstituted-stone sills. Most windows are replacement timber casements of modern date, with 6/6 glazing to the attic and 8/2 to the ground floor.

The principal southern elevation is eight openings wide at ground floor and three at attic level (west-of-centre). Right-of-centre contains a single attic window with three windows below. Left-of-centre features an advancing gabled bay with an attic window and a large ground-floor window, with blank cheeks. The far-right has a single-storey gabled advancing bay with an 8/1 window to the centre and blank cheeks; the remaining elevation to the right has an 8/2 window. The far-left side shows an attic dormer window above a large 12/2 window, with a four-panelled replacement timber door having a four-light transom above. The west gable is blank.

The north elevation is dominated by two replacement windows to the centre with a projecting slated timber-framed mono-pitched canopy supported on squared timber posts. To the right is a timber sheeted half-door with a four-pane glazing insert to the upper half, flanked by vertical pairs of 6-pane casements. The far-right bay is recessed with two multi-pane casements to the left. An advancing full-height gabled bay sits left-of-centre, featuring a 12/3 casement above a replacement double-leaf six-panelled door, with a narrow plain glass timber casement to the right and a similar casement to the right cheek; an 8/1 casement is positioned to the left-cheek. The remainder of the north elevation to the far left is blank.

The east gable contains a large timber-panelled and glazed patio door (late 20th century insertion) and a central double-leaf door with glazed upper halves and margin lights, accompanied by corresponding transoms above and matching leafs to the outer sides.

Historical records show the school was valued in 1897 at £10 and 15 shillings. Valuation notes indicate a teacher's house to the left and the schoolhouse to the right, with an adjoining sexton's house (now demolished) and a schoolyard covered with corrugated iron. The first teacher was John McDowell from County Down, who lived there with his wife Agnes and three sons, employing a nursemaid. The teacher's house contained three bedrooms, two reception rooms, a kitchen and two pantries, supplied by a pump in the schoolyard and lit by oil lamps with a dry privy. The occupier had access to a grass tennis court. The sexton's house was a one-and-a-half-storey dwelling with a reception, kitchen and two first-floor bedrooms, charged at one shilling per week. The school building itself comprised main and small classrooms, a cloakroom, pump, dry privy and coal store, also lit by oil lamps. The school register showed 77 pupils with capacity for 97. The second teacher, Miss E.J. McIvor, took up the post in 1926.

The site is prominently located at a corner position on the north-east edge of Coleraine. The south and east perimeter is bounded by a squared, rock-faced black-stone wall with a coped top, pierced on the south by a modern metal pedestrian gate. Mature trees bound the north side. Primary access is via a pair of circular stone-capped piers supporting cast-iron gates. A bitumen drive leads to a yard on the north side containing a mono-pitched roughcast outbuilding used as a garage, with double-leaf timber sheeted doors and multi-pane metal frame windows. A concrete and paved path encircles the house perimeter, with planted lawns to the east and west; ivy growth is present on the majority of elevations. A modern house stands to the west, and Ballyrashane Presbyterian Church is located to the south-east.

Due to substantial alterations carried out in recent decades to its form, layout and internal fabric, the building is not considered of special architectural or historical interest.