6 Cliff Terrace, Castlerock, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4RQ

6 Cliff Terrace, Castlerock, is a terraced single-bay one-and-a-half-storey stone former labourer's cottage, built around 1875 as one of twelve identical houses commissioned by Sir William Harvey Bruce to the designs of architect Frederick Henry Godwin. The house retains much of its original external appearance, including most of its original iron latticed windows and original door, and represents one of the better examples within the terrace.

The building is rectangular on plan, facing north, with a flat-roofed extension added to the rear around 1980. Its distinctive character derives from the steeply pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, tall rendered chimneystack to the west (shared with the adjoining house), and deep overhanging eaves. The eaves are supported by two stop-chamfered timber brackets resting on sandstone corbels, with timber sheeting and exposed timber beams. The replacement ogee-moulded metal guttering is supported on a timber fascia.

A pair of dormer windows punctuates the front pitch, both with hipped slate roofs and timber pinnacles. The dormer to the east is shared with the adjoining house and retains its original iron latticed timber casement windows; the remaining dormer has a replacement latticed timber window. A large uPVC-clad box dormer has been added to the rear pitch.

The external walls are constructed of random coursed rock-faced basalt with tooled sandstone ashlar dressings and cement pointing. The front elevation features a single square-headed window opening with a painted stop-chamfered dressed sandstone surround and sandstone sill, containing an original four-light timber window with original iron latticed glazing. The entrance is via a segmental-headed recessed porch, shared with No. 5, with a painted stop-chamfered dressed sandstone surround and keystone. The porch contains a square-headed door opening set at right angles to the facade, with an original sheeted timber door. The porch has a clay tiled floor and a large worn sandstone step that opens onto a slightly raised area laid in cobbles, which runs the entire length of the terrace. The east elevation is abutted by the adjoining house No. 5, and the west elevation is abutted by No. 7.

The terrace of twelve houses, known locally as the 'Twelve Apostles', was constructed around 1882 and first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1906. The houses were built to designs by Frederick Henry Godwin for Sir Henry Hervey Bruce, third baronet of Downhill. The terrace is described as 'recently erected' in the Irish Builder of February 1882, though evidence suggests construction occurred some years earlier. The valuation fieldbook records the terrace between 1873 and 1878, when all houses were inhabited and valued at £2 5s. Frederick Henry Godwin, a nephew of the better-known architect Edward William Godwin, is little documented, with only three local structures attributed to him; he is thought to have moved to England around 1890 and designed additions to Westburton House, Gloucestershire.

The stone used was local basalt with freestone (fine-grained stone easily worked with a chisel) dressings to doors and windows. Each cottage originally comprised a single room on the ground floor and a washhouse or scullery to the rear, with a staircase leading to the upper floor where the space was partitioned to form two small bedrooms. These tiny dwellings were built for estate workers, though not all inhabitants were employed by the Hervey Bruce family. The valuation of all houses was reduced to £1 10s in 1887, with rent recorded at 10d per week that year. At the 1901 census, the three-room houses were designated second class. All tenants leased their houses from the Hervey Bruce estate. The first recorded tenant at number six was Alexander Gillespie; by the 1901 census, the occupier was James Mitchell, a coachman living with his wife and 13-year-old daughter, a seamstress. In 1911, the occupier was Matilda Woodburn, a 35-year-old widow and embroiderer living with her three children. During the early 1930s general revaluation, the buildings remained largely as originally constructed, with a kitchen on the ground floor, two small bedrooms upstairs, and a separate single-storey washhouse in the rear yard. Water had to be carried from a pump. Rents varied from 6s to 8s 8d per month. Since the 1960s and 1970s, the majority of houses have been extended to the rear and refurbished internally.

The terrace is built on an elevated site overlooking the sea to the west of Castlerock, street-fronted with paved rear patio and garden. With its distinctive steeply pitched roofs, deep overhanging eaves, tall chimney stacks, and original basalt stone walling with freestone dressings, the terrace greatly contributes to the late nineteenth-century character of Castlerock and forms an important group value component.