Former Station, 8 Drumagarner Rd, Kilrea, Coleraine, Co Londonderry, BT51 5TB

A one- and two-storey former railway station building, constructed 1879–80 and designed by James Barton for the Derry Central Railway. The station has been successfully refurbished as a private dwelling with extensively altered interiors. Though it retains much external railway character and is of local historical interest, it does not meet the threshold for listing.

The building comprises two integrated structures: a station master's house (a double-pile, two-storey building aligned east-west, with the north pile advanced beyond the south pile at their west gables) and a single-storey public waiting room abutting the north end of the station master's house.

Station Master's House

The pitched roof is finished in artificial slate with serrated terracotta ridge tiles and replacement brick chimneys (one to the north slope of the north pile, one to the south slope of the south pile). Ogee cast-iron rainwater goods and rectangular cast-iron and round steel downpipes serve the roof.

The exterior walls are of red brick with slightly advanced chamfered base courses. Purple-brick platbands run at cill level and at window drip mould level on both floors. The wallheads to the sides and gables comprise a line of serrated red brick, over which are moulded yellow-brick specials, surmounted by a course of plain red brick, with cut stone shoulder stones at the angles.

Windows throughout are modern painted timber-framed replacements with 1x4-pane configuration and horizontal glazing bars. The window openings have shallow segmental heads with purple and red brick embellishment and yellow-brick hood mould over, rounded red-brick jambs, and flush-mounted dressed sandstone cills.

The north elevation of the north pile is blank at ground floor, abutted by the waiting room; the west gable of the north pile has a window to each floor. The exposed portion of the north pile's south elevation has a window to the ground floor left and a shallow porched doorway at right. The porch itself features a monopitched natural slate roof with ogee cast-iron gutters and walls matching the main house; it is entered through a replacement painted timber door with herringbone pattern and segmental overlight.

The west gable of the south pile mirrors that of the north pile. The south elevation of the south pile is abutted by a single-storey annex but is otherwise blank. This annex has a flat felted roof, boxed eaves, and ogee plastic gutters; its side walls continue those of the south pile, whilst its end wall is cement rendered. A small cantilevered canted window to its west elevation and small modern window to its south side are included; the east side is blank. Beyond this annex is an original pedestrian archway connecting the front and rear of the building.

The rear gables of both piles form a symmetrical façade. A downpipe from their shared roof valley runs into an ogee cast-iron gutter running horizontally between the floors, supported on pairs of yellow-brick brackets. Each pile has a window to each floor, and a pair of small staircase lights sit directly below the roof valley at first-floor level.

Waiting Room

The single-storey waiting room abuts the north end of the north pile. Its roof and gutter detailing match the station master's house, with two replacement brick chimneys. Walls and windows are similarly detailed. The west elevation has a reconfigured doorway to its middle, comprising a double-leaf varnished timber doorway with side- and overlights set into a flat-headed opening with purple-brick trim. The north gable has a window with both vertical and horizontal glazing bars (2x4 configuration).

The east elevation is abutted by a single-storey modern extension of similar size to the original platform canopy. This extension features a flat felted timber roof, red brick walls, and French doors with a multi-bay glazed window to its east elevation. The exposed part of the original building at its right has a window and brick-infilled doorway.

Setting and History

The station is accessed via a short private driveway off the main road. The road-facing ground has been paved, beyond which is a planted garden, embellished with ornamental gaslamp standards salvaged from elsewhere. To the north stands a large mid- to late 20th-century shed with an original water tank to one side. At the rear, where the original platform once stood, there is now a planted garden demarcated along its south-east side by a painted concrete block wall. To the south of the station is an early 2000s two-storey dwelling in the style of the original. Behind the garden wall, on the opposite side of the former track, were the second platform, goods shed, and signal box—no traces of which survive. The metal girder bridge that once carried the main road across the line to the north has long been removed and the road made level.

The Derry Central Railway ran between Magherafelt and Macfin Junction. Kilrea Station was one of six stations (including those at Maghera, Upperlands, Garvagh, Aghadowey, and Macfin) contracted to Messrs Dixon & Co in April 1879 under the design of James Barton, the railway's architect-engineer. The station and line opened in February 1880. The line was worked by the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway, which operated it as a connection between its Belfast–Londonderry main line near Coleraine and its Antrim–Cookstown branch at Magherafelt. The station complex is depicted on the 1905 Ordnance Survey 25-inch map and appears also on the 1853 six-inch map, though the railway line was engraved on the original plate in the 1880s.

The Belfast & Northern Counties Railway acquired outright possession of the Derry Central Railway's assets in 1901 and was itself taken over by the Midland Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1903. This company was reconstituted as the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (Northern Counties Committee) in 1923. At nationalisation in 1949, the line passed to the Ulster Transport Authority. All services were withdrawn in 1950 save for goods traffic on the Magherafelt–Kilrea section, which continued until 1959. The station building eventually fell into disuse and was restored as a dwelling by its present owner and her husband in the 1970s. The associated signal box was relocated to Garvagh Museum and restored as an exhibit.