Woodbank Cottage, 20 Mettican Road, Garvagh, Co. Londonderry, BT51 5HS

Woodbank Cottage is a detached, symmetrical, three-bay, one-and-a-half-storey rendered house built around 1830, situated on a large mature site to the south of Woodbank House, within whose grounds it originally stood. It shares group value with Woodbank House. Its proportions and detailing are typical of the early Victorian period, and much of its original character survives intact, making it a fine example of a small early Victorian country house. The setting is largely unspoiled and includes a number of subsidiary structures that add to its quality.

The house has a rectangular plan with a single-storey flat-roof extension to the northeast and a two-storey return to the rear. The roof is a hipped natural slate structure with rounded blue/black tiles to the hips and ridges, and leaded ridges to the rear return. Two roughcast rendered chimneystacks sit at the centre of the ridgeline, each with sandstone caps and two tall clay pots; the rear return has roughcast rendered chimneystacks carrying three tall clay pots. The main facade has plastic rainwater goods on overhanging eaves with timber soffits; the remainder of the building retains cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on boxed eaves, with cast-iron hoppers and downpipes throughout. External walls are finished in painted roughcast render.

The windows are original timber sash with horns, set on projecting painted sills. At first floor they are 3/6 lights, housed in gabled dormers detailed with plain bargeboards that break the eaves line. At ground floor, windows are generally 6/6 lights unless otherwise noted.

The principal elevation faces southeast and is symmetrically arranged around an elliptical-headed doorcase. The doorcase comprises a replacement six-panelled timber door with brass door furniture, flanked by pilaster jambs and ornate half-panelled timber sidelights, and surmounted by a timber spider-web fanlight. Geometric square tiles are laid to the front threshold. Above the door at first floor is a replacement small four-light timber window. The elevation is three openings wide at each floor.

The southwest elevation has a gabled dormer at the centre and two windows at ground floor. The northwest (rear) elevation is abutted to the right by the two-storey return and a higher two-storey addition fitted into the re-entrant angle. The northwest gable of the return is abutted at ground-floor level by a slated lean-to; it also has a small 1/1 window and a timber casement window at first floor. The southwest elevation of the return is three bays wide: the right bay has a wall-head dormer window at first-floor centre, a tripartite 1/1 timber mullioned window at ground-floor right, and a two-panelled glazed timber door at ground-floor left. The remaining two bays each have a replacement four-paned timber casement window at first floor and paired 4/4 windows at ground floor.

The return has a gabled projection — built higher — to the left on the northeast elevation, lit by three 1/1 windows at first floor (the leftmost being diminutive) and a small 1/1 window and a panelled-and-glazed timber door at ground floor. The remainder of the northeast elevation is two bays wide: the left bay has a wall-head dormer window and a large window at ground floor, both with replacement glazing. The right bay has a tripartite 4/4 timber mullioned window and a timber-sheeted door. The northeast elevation also has a gabled dormer at its centre and is abutted by the flat-roof extension, which contains two 6/6 windows; a further 6/6 window appears to the left on the southeast elevation.

The setting is a large mature site accessed from Mettican Road to the southeast via a long tarmacadamed avenue shared with Woodbank House. The entrance to Woodbank Cottage is marked by a pair of painted smooth rendered square piers with square caps, though the gate is missing. The site is bounded to the west by a modern timber fence and barbed wire fence. To the northwest of the house stands an L-shaped single-storey roughcast rendered cottage with an extension to the south gable, a pitched fibre cement tile slate roof, rendered chimneystacks, plastic rainwater goods, multi-paned timber casement windows with projecting masonry sills, and two replacement glazed timber doors. A modern flat-roof garage adjoins the northwest gable of this cottage, itself abutting a two-storey slated rubble-stone outbuilding with an enlarged opening to the southeast; a concrete block lean-to with a tin roof is attached to its south gable.

In the garden to the west is a polygonal red-brick dovecote with a slated roof featuring gablet dormer openings, a timber-sheeted latch door, and four-light windows. The garden contains a variety of mature plantings and species of mature trees; to the front of the house is a rubblestone garden wall with stone steps. A tall rubblestone garden wall runs to the northwest of the house; on its west side is a rubblestone shed with a slate roof and a round-headed timber-sheeted door with red-brick voussoirs opening to the south.

Woodbank Cottage was under construction in 1836 and was built by Robert Ogilby, who also built nearby Woodbank House between 1822 and 1823. According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Ogilby built Woodbank Cottage within the grounds of Woodbank House as a residence for his own use, letting Woodbank House itself to William Orr in the 1830s. The Memoirs describe the site as "remarkably well chosen, being on a commanding bank clothed with a natural growth of oak and birch. The grounds are not extensive but have been planted with much taste by Mr Ogilby." The house and return, together with the outbuilding to the rear, are first shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1849–53, and the plan form has remained virtually unaltered since.

The property subsequently passed to the McCausland family, who appear to have been relatives of the Ogilbys. In Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64, Martha McCausland is listed as resident, with the house and offices — leased from Mary Anne McCausland — valued at £14 and situated in approximately two acres of land. The house descended through the McCausland family to Oliver P. McCausland in 1878 and then to Lieutenant Colonel Redmond Conyngham Samuel McCausland in 1897. Although the valuation books record Lieutenant Colonel McCausland as resident at Woodbank Cottage, Street Directories make clear that his principal residence was Woodbank House, with the cottage occupied by various members of his family — principally his three sisters.

Lieutenant Colonel McCausland lived at Woodbank House until his death in 1935. His obituary records a distinguished military career: he was educated at Haileybury College and Sandhurst, served in the Afghan War of 1879–80, was awarded the Ali Musjid medal, and was mentioned in dispatches. Owing to ill health following the Afghan campaign, he withdrew from active service and served as Cantonment Magistrate at stations in the Punjab until his retirement. He was of Scottish ancestry, and it was said that a piper of the clan McCausland came annually from Scotland to Woodbank to pipe around the grounds and present the Colonel with an eagle's feather in acknowledgement of his claim to headship of the clan.

His son Oliver joined the Royal Irish Rifles during the First World War and was killed in action on 9 May 1915 at the age of 19. His daughter Dorothea became a noted philanthropist and served as a nurse in the Voluntary Aid Detachment during the War. She saw service in Mesopotamia, was torpedoed aboard the RNSP Aragon in the Mediterranean, received the Croix de Guerre with Palm, and was mentioned in dispatches. She founded the first branch of the Women's Institute in Ireland at Garvagh in 1932.

Street Directories show that Woodbank Cottage was inhabited by the "Misses McCausland" from at least 1901. The three sisters of Lieutenant Colonel McCausland were Mary Hannah, who died in 1913; Edith Jane, who helped to found Coleraine Cottage Hospital and was the first woman member of Coleraine Rural Council; and Florence Letitia, who died in 1932. The sisters lived at the house with a small staff comprising a housemaid and a cook. The eight-room house was designated first class and is listed as thatched in the 1901 census — possibly in error — as it is recorded as slated in 1911.

Valuation records from the 1930s provide a plan of the house and outbuildings showing that the range to the rear comprised a yardman's house (still present) held on a service tenancy, which had been rebuilt and was described as being in "A1 repair", together with an adjoining garage; a further house (also still present) on a service tenancy stood at the far end of this range. The accommodation of the main house at that time comprised, at ground floor: three reception rooms, a kitchen, scullery, pantry, store, servants' hall, workshop, and coal store; and at first floor: four bedrooms, two maids' bedrooms, a bathroom, and a WC.

Woodbank Cottage was listed in 1977. Repairs and renovations were carried out in the 1990s and again in 2008–9.