29 Roe Mill Road, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 9BB

29 Roe Mill Road is a Grade B2 listed house of late Georgian style, built circa 1835 and located in Newtown Limavady, overlooking the flood plain of the River Roe. The building demonstrates consciously arranged architectural elements designed to create an impression of grandeur, with scale abstracted on the main facade to make a two-storey house over basement appear as a single-storey structure.

The house is a large storey-and-a-half brick building facing west. The principal facade is dominated by a central entrance portico supported by a timber beam and sandstone Doric columns, flanked by two canted bays projecting from the building to align with the portico. The portico features a semi-circular window with sandstone cill and an overhanging soffit with a crenellated pattern of mutulae. Each bay is topped by a timber dormer with finial. The entrance door, a modern replacement, is set within a timber door-case of Doric pilasters supporting an entablature, with no fanlight. Three steps (the top in sandstone, the lower in concrete paving and brick) rise to the arcade. The original house is built in Garden Wall Bond brick, whilst later extensions on either side are constructed in Flemish Bond, each extending by one bay with the roof dropping approximately 200mm. Natural slates cover the roof. Brick chimneys on the ridge align with each bay; one is diamond-shaped on plan, the other standard. A sandstone string course runs at the base of the bays, below which windows light the basement.

The south gable features two aligning Georgian sash windows to the front and a lower 12-pane sash on the first floor to the rear, with a wide glazed screen to a sun room below. A return projection from the south side has two interesting projecting small timber bays at first floor, reminiscent of those in Lady Tyler's summer house at Umbra. This return includes a wide 20-pane sash, a 12-pane sash, and a modern glazed door, with four sash windows to the rear. A smaller return projects two metres from the central portion, featuring a round-headed window in Georgian glazing pattern on the gable and an adjacent blank recess of similar size. The north side of the house includes a 12-pane sash at first floor and a door and sash window at ground floor. The north gable bears two windows near the front matching those on the south gable; the extension does not extend the full depth, leaving two windows on the original gable to the rear.

Fine original astragals complement the quality of the design. Interior details of note include fireplaces; the plan represents an interesting variation on normal practice, treating the stair hall as another room. The side extensions enhance the original design, particularly in the main internal rooms.

To the rear of the house, a high wall extends from the south gable to a long two-storey brick barn on Roe Mill Road, enclosing a courtyard completed by a single-storey barn to the south. The main barn is substantial in height with a central segmental arch flanked by a lower arch with door to one side; openings at first floor are approximately square. The natural slate roof is sagging badly. Two circular windows of Georgian character exist, and the owner has inserted a similar one in the lower barn. North of the barn on Roe Mill Road are entrance gates comprising 700mm square brick pillars with sandstone coping, the wall curving back from the street. The drive slopes through the garden along the north side of the house, curving to a tight semi-circular gravelled yard in front.

The house does not appear on the Ordnance Survey Map of 1831 or in the Ordnance Survey Memoirs of 1833–5, and is placed by Girvan at circa 1835; it was shown on the 1848 map. It was built and inhabited by the Cather family, who owned and operated a distillery further north along Roe Mill Road and were related to the Cathers of Carrickhue House, Ballykelly. Along with the Tylers and the Moodys of Roe Mill House, the Cathers built a holiday house at Umbra. The Tylers later inherited this house and occupied it until the inter-war period, when it passed to Mr Semple. Subsequently owned by J T Irwin of Glen Mills, Drumsurn Road, it was purchased by the present owner in the mid-1970s. A renovation scheme of 1976 was prepared by Ralph White and supervised by Gerard Loughery architect in 1982; this work included conversion of the return and reduction in length of the timber beam on the porch, which originally extended across the canted bay windows. The side extensions and bays to the return were added during Tyler family ownership. In 1975 planning permission was refused to convert the south barn to a DIY shop.

The house is of local interest for its associations with its inhabitants and as an interesting piece of architecture. The timber work, mostly original, is in urgent need of maintenance.