Barn, 44 Crevolea Road, Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, BT51 4ES

A roughcast-rendered two-storey barn with natural slate roof, located to the north side of Crevolea Road in Aghadowey, south of Coleraine, pre-dating 1830. The building forms part of the yard group at St Margaret's Rectory (HB03/03/008A).

The barn is rectangular on plan with a pitched natural slate roof fitted with blue and black angled ridge tiles and plain bargeboards to the gables. Plastic rainwater goods are attached to a red-brick eaves course. The walling is replacement roughcast render with applied modern sandstone quoins; the rear elevation retains random rubblestone with remnants of lime render.

The principal southwest elevation features timber-sheeted loading doors to the left and right at first-floor level. The ground floor contains three centralised openings: two with replacement timber-sheeted stable doors and one square-headed carriage-arch entrance with replacement timber-sheeted doors and exposed pattress plates. The northeast elevation has windows of timber casements in plain reveals with concrete lintels and cement sills, positioned at first-floor level only and at irregular heights. One opening is covered in plastic and has a red-brick relieving arch. At ground floor are three window openings of varying sizes, including a six-paned window to the centre with red-brick relieving arch, and a timber-sheeted door in a concrete block surround with red-brick relieving arch. The northwest gable contains an original timber-sheeted door in a segmental-headed recess at first-floor level, accessed via dressed stone steps supported on a red-brick arch resting on a rubblestone wall. The southeast gable has a replacement timber-sheeted door in a segmental-headed recess at ground-floor level.

The barn appears contemporary with St Margaret's Rectory, which was originally a Regency house later extended around 1840 and subsequently used as a linen mansion before becoming a rectory. First shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1831–2, the barn stands to the rear of the main house, set within a gravelled yard enclosed to the north by a rubblestone garden wall with a pointed-headed arch entrance of red brick leading to the main garden. The northwest gable is marked by an original wrought-iron gate. To the northwest lies a kitchen garden, still in use. The yard is bounded to the south by the road with a roughcast-rendered wall with cement coping, featuring square piers with pointed cement caps supporting replacement cast-iron gates, and a wall-mounted post box.

The property was owned by Henry Hunter at the time of the Townland Valuation (1828–40), when the house and offices were valued at £15.2s. Hunter operated an adjoining bleaching concern in partnership with Messrs McFarland and Hemphill. The house was subsequently taken over by the Orr family, who had come to Aghadowey in the mid-eighteenth century. William Orr, a captain in the 75th Regiment (died 1873), married Susan, daughter of Averil Lecky of Castle Lecky. The house was named St Margaret's after their elder daughter Margaret, who died in 1836 aged 13. At Griffith's Valuation (1856–64), William Orr was listed as occupier, with the house and outbuildings valued at £27 on a plot of over 89 acres. Following William Orr's death in 1873 and Susan Lecky Orr's death in 1883, the house was converted for use as the rectory for Aghadowey parish, with Rev William Colquhoun listed as occupier from 1885. At the 1911 census, the rector was Englishman Robert W W Alexander, aged 39, who retained a cook as a domestic servant.

The barn retains its original proportions and the red-brick arch bridge to the entrance at the gable. It represents an important example of a Georgian agricultural building associated with a middle-sized country house. Major renovation schemes took place in the 1980s and 1990s, during which the roof and upper floor were renewed. The barn has group value with St Margaret's Rectory and is of local interest.