Killeen House, 52 Killane Road, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 ODN

Killeen House is a suburban Victorian villa built around 1860, originally known as Killeen Cottage. The house is a storey-and-a-half rendered and painted structure with a natural slate roof, featuring an asymmetrical front elevation that runs parallel to Killane Road facing south-east.

The building displays characteristic Victorian detailing. The front elevation is dominated by a projecting gable to the south-west with a flat-roofed canted bay at ground floor and a single round-headed two-pane window above. The gable features an open bed pediment detail formed by the projecting barge returned at the eaves. An entrance porch with flat roof and cornice detail sits to the north-west side of this gable projection. Paired narrow round-headed windows occupy the front, with a panelled entrance door featuring a segmental fanlight to the north-west side. A single window on the remaining portion of the front facade is surmounted by a tall cornice aligning with the porch and bay.

The north-west elevation repeats the gable-end detailing with an open bed, canted bay and round-headed window, though more compressed in width. A windowed return with tall cornice projects from this side. The rear elevation contains two gables with chimneys, each with two undecorated windows at first floor. A central staircase bay has two aligning windows, with the upper projecting into the roof as a dormer. The south-west elevation features a rectangular bay to the north-west with three narrow round-headed windows and pitched roof, whilst to the south-east is a single two-pane window with tall cornice. The roof is detailed with corniced eaves throughout and contains centrally placed yellow brick chimneys. Below the eaves, a slot extends to a basement with windows.

Early photographic evidence dating to 1860 shows the original building was constructed in un-rendered brick with sandstone details around windows and bold projecting quoins. The kitchen extension projecting to the rear was constructed during the 1970s, replacing an earlier two-storey return with canted bay shown in historical photographs. Some interior Victorian detailing survives, though the late Victorian character has been degraded by replacement of sash windows with PVC copies and the addition of the flat-roofed kitchen extension.

The associated two-storey former stable block, also rendered and painted, stands to the north-west at an angle to the main house. It has a hipped slate roof with dormer on the south gable facing the entrance road, five square windows at first-floor level on the east side, and various openings below.

The setting includes a well-tended garden between the house and boundary wall along the road. A Victorian cast-iron three-tiered fountain, originally positioned in the centre of the front lawn aligned with the projecting bay, has been relocated to the rear garden. The boundary wall was added in 1990 by the Dickson McDonald Partnership in a style sympathetic to the house, with original gate posts retained. Prior to this, the boundary was marked by a hedge.

Historical records show the property was occupied by Miss Boyle circa 1900. John Thompson later owned the house and rented it to Mr Garrison during construction of the Du Pont facility near Derry in the late 1950s. Dr J C Calvert was owner from the early 1970s, with the current occupant Mr Roy Deans residing in the house since 1981.