Ballygallin House, 75 Portstewart Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT52 1SD

Ballygallin House is a symmetrical, three-bay, two-storey-with-attic detached Georgian farmhouse, built before 1830 and situated on the east side of Portstewart Road to the north of Coleraine, in the townland of Ballygallin. It retains its original proportions and much of its Georgian character, despite later alterations including the replacement of all windows with uPVC units. The house was first listed in 1977.

The building has a rectangular plan with a two-storey rear return and a single-storey flat-roof annexe to the rear. The roof is pitched natural slate with angled ridge tiles, and there are rendered chimneystacks to the gables fitted with clay pots. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are carried on projecting eaves. The external walls are cement-rendered throughout.

The principal, south-facing elevation is symmetrically arranged around a central elliptical-headed doorcase, with five evenly-spaced window openings at each floor level. The doorcase features a four-panelled timber door with bronze door furniture, surmounted by a radial timber fanlight and flanked by sidelights with decorative metal insets; the entrance is accessed via a single concrete step. Windows throughout are uPVC replacements set on projecting stone sills. The west gable has a single window at attic level. The north (rear) elevation has a window to each floor on either side of the central return. The return itself has two windows at both ground and first floor, with a modern entrance door at ground-floor left. A modern single-storey annexe of no architectural interest abuts the left cheek of the return; the right cheek is blank. The east gable has a window at attic level.

The house stands within a large, mature site to the northeast of Coleraine, surrounded by farmland. It is accessed from Portstewart Road to the southwest via a long tarmacadamed lane leading to the rear yard. The yard contains a variety of large modern agricultural sheds to the north and a modern double garage to the west. To the northwest of the yard stands a cement-rendered two-storey former barn roofed in natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles, plastic rainwater goods, and replacement timber-battened doors. This barn has a set of external steps running centrally to the east, fitted with a modern metal handrail; the openings to the left have cement architraves with a keyblock. The rear elevation of the barn is abutted by a modern single-storey garage.

The house is enclosed on three sides, with the rear opening onto the yard. There is a lawned garden to the front and sides, with a gravelled front entrance. The garden is enclosed to the west by a rendered wall — with rubble stone partially exposed on its inner face — that curves to the north. At the southwest entrance stand two circular rendered gate piers with flat caps supporting modern metal gates; a further modern metal gate is positioned at the southwest corner. The garden is enclosed to the south by plantings and a low rubble-stone wall. The approach lane to the southwest is flanked by hedgerow, and on the approach to the house, original rendered walls with saddle-back coping turn to the south, with square piers having flat caps supporting an original cast-iron gate. Opposite, on the other side of the south lane, is a pair of round gate piers with pointed caps supporting an original wrought-iron farm gate.

The house first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1830, at which time it lacked its two-storey rear return and was depicted as an oblong structure situated to the south of an Irish ring fort (ráth). At that date an outbuilding was shown both to the west and east of the dwelling; the outbuilding to the west may represent the current two-storey barn, though this is uncertain as the building shown on the map appears smaller than the existing structure, which may date from around 1860. The Townland Valuation of around 1830 did not include the house, as it fell below the £5 threshold required for inclusion.

No discernible alteration to the layout had occurred by the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of around 1860, which was the first to name the site as "Ballygallin" and recorded that a number of additional outbuildings had been constructed since 1830, all of which have since been demolished. The contemporary Griffith's Valuation of 1856 recorded the site as occupied by John O'Neill, a local farmer, who leased it from the Coleraine Town Commissioners. The house and its outbuildings were valued at £9 10s. John O'Neill continued to reside at Ballygallin until his death in 1891, during which time the only recorded change was a slight reduction in the property's valuation to £9 in 1886, with no reason given.

On O'Neill's death, the property passed to his son, also John O'Neill, who lived there until his own death forty years later. The 1901 Census records John O'Neill (aged 34, Presbyterian) living at Ballygallin with his wife Mary (aged 24), their three infant children, and a small number of farm servants. The associated building return described Ballygallin as a first-class dwelling of nine rooms, served by a substantial range of farm buildings including two stables, five cow houses, a dairy, two piggeries, and a barn. By 1911, the household had grown: John and Mary O'Neill were recorded with six children and three domestic and farm servants. In 1908, John O'Neill purchased the farm outright from the Coleraine Town Commissioners. No further notable change was recorded before the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929, and O'Neill continued to reside there until his death in 1935, when administration of the property passed to his son Robert Marcus O'Neill.

The two-storey rear return was added in the mid-20th century, first appearing on the Ordnance Survey map of 1965. That same map shows that the majority of the original mid-Victorian outbuildings were still standing in the 1960s, though all have since been demolished with the exception of the western two-storey barn, and replaced with modern equivalents. The single-storey flat-roof annexe to the rear was also added after 1965. Despite the loss of most of the site's early outbuildings and the replacement of the windows, the original character of the Georgian farmhouse has been substantially maintained. The house remains in residential use and is enhanced by its mature setting, retaining original features including the round gate piers and examples of early 19th-century metalwork.