Glengalliagh Hall, 22 Upper Galliagh Road, Londonderry, BT48 8LW

Glengalliagh Hall is a large two-storey stone-built house with red brick trim, five bays wide by four bays deep. The building features a central projecting porch three storeys high, multiple pitched natural slate roofs with gables and hips.

Principal Elevation

The five-bay-wide, east-facing entrance facade is not quite symmetrical, as the two bays to the north of the entrance are longer than those to the south. The 12-panelled door with Tudor arched head is recessed in a handmade red brick surround with Tudor arches and stepped brick pediment. A large lantern hangs over the centre of the pediment. The clear-finished oak door retains its original brass knob, bell and letterbox. The door threshold is finished in red clay tiles with a narrow band of black. The brick surround has a low plaster plinth. On each side of the entrance there is a slim round-headed two-pane fixed window with half brick surround and painted stone cill.

Above the entrance there is a four-light oriel window with plain smooth rendered parapet; below the cill is an inverted faceted pyramid. The top of the parapet aligns with the top of the frieze which continues on either side under the overhanging eaves. Above the oriel there is the second floor of the entrance tower with gabled double roof receding into the main roof. Half in the gable and half in the wall below there is a three-light window with red brick toothed surround, each light further subdivided with six panes. The walls of the second floor are finished in a whitish roughcast rendering. Originally the tower was not gabled but crenellated and much higher, reaching well above the main ridge line.

On either side of the central entrance there are pairs of 12-pane sliding sash windows on each floor with toothed red brick surrounds and painted stone cills. The vertical reveals have a roll moulding. These bricks are smooth red stocks. The walls are built of random rubble schist with wide clasping and handmade brick quoins matching those of the entrance door surround. The corners of the projecting centred tower have the same brick but toothed. The deep plastered frieze has a roll moulding under, while the roof overhang has exposed rafter feet painted black. The gable tower has a straight bargeboard which returns as fascia. The gabled roof has large natural slates with plain ridge tiles and a single chimney stack on the north side with tall serrated pots. There are half-round metal gutters with downpipes neatly tucked into the return corners of the tower. The first-floor windows are slightly less tall than the ground floor, where the cills are quite low. The base of the wall has a broad plinth projecting some 600 millimetres, finished in stone with an upstand kerb and forming a step to ground level. This detail continues around the south and west facades.

South Elevation

The south facade is four bays wide with one bay projecting forward a metre, forming a black-painted timber and white plaster panelled gable. At ground level is a bold red brick faceted canted bay with 12-pane sliding sash windows in each facet. The canted bay is crowned with white panelled narrow moulded crenellations on top of a relatively slim cornice. At first floor over the canted bay there is a single wide six-pane casement window with vertical brick trim toothed into stonework. The gable is framed in clasping red handmade bricks with the deep whitish plaster frieze carried across horizontally below the timber panelled gable. A pair of little corbels decorate the frieze above the quoins. The roof terminates in a straight moulded barge. The remainder of the facade has tall two-light brick-trimmed windows toothed with random rubble schist walls. Each light is subdivided into four panes and the centred mullion forms a cross with an equally heavy transom. The west corner has a matching clasping brick quoin. The plaster frieze continues along under the eaves with its exposed rafters. Rainwater goods are repeated. The broad plinth returns along this facade with a higher step to lawn level. There is a curious mixture of fenestration here which is further emphasised on the west side.

West Elevation

The west facade is again four bays wide but the wall planes vary. The south gable is repeated except that the windows of the canted bay are tall casements with mullion and transom dividing them into four lights, each with two panes. The next bay recedes and at ground floor is the termination of the long hall with a framed Tudoresque gothic window painted white, creating a marked feature in this elevation. The window consists of eight lights formed by mullions and one transom. The top lights are pointed with quatrefoil and single mouchette. Above this window and centred on it there is a single sliding sash nine-pane brick-trimmed window. The quoin formed by the further receding third bay is curious in that the ground floor is of toothed brickwork while the first-floor quoin is in flat clasping brickwork. The frieze continues under the eaves of the hipped roof. The next bay recedes some two metres and has a single sliding sash brick-trimmed window at ground and first floors. The last bay projects forward as a one-and-a-half-storey gable built in random rubble schist with large tripartite double-hung 20-pane window which is centred above a sliding sash 12-pane window, both brick trimmed. The gable is asymmetrical with straight barges. The wall plane continues to form the enclosing yard to the rear of the house.

North Elevation

The north or rear elevation of the house is a mixture of windows and surface finishes, part stonework, some brick trim and smooth rendered. A small low-pitched gable porch projects from the wall. The window of interest is that of the main staircase which is a six-light casement with margined glazing. Part of the rear has three floors where a bathroom is formed off the half landing. The roof edge presents an untidy arrangement of gable, flat soffit to hip over staircase and a much lower roof over the gable projection on the west elevation. The roof is a complex affair but essentially an L-shaped main roof with various hipped roofs abutting and a narrow double occurring over part of the staircase and first-floor landing, in which the roof lantern is formed. The resultant valleys are causing leak problems. A number of chimneys rise from ridges as already described, all with tall serrated pots.

Outbuildings and Setting

To the north side of the house is a range of farm outbuildings forming three courts. The first forms a yard to the back of the house. The second is an enclosed small farmyard which also contains a coachman's dwelling. The third is a larger court with the fourth side missing. The outbuildings are a collection of two- and one-storey stone-built buildings with brick-trimmed openings, all arranged haphazardly. Roofs are a mixture of slate and corrugated asbestos.

There are two features of interest. At the open end of the third court is a brick bellcote at the gable end of the two-storey barn. It still possesses its small bell which it is said has impressions of the apostles imprinted on it. It is said the bell came from an abbey. There is a gateway to the second court which consists of a rendered wall with a crude Tudor arch. The opening has wooden gates. There is a date (1940) inscribed under a horseshoe symbol. This was done by the father of the present owner. There are the remains of a walled garden and one greenhouse in reasonable order.

The house enjoys a secluded setting in sylvan surroundings of considerable extent. A long winding avenue leads from the entrance gates and lodge in the Upper Galliagh Road. There are lawns and some shrub planting adjacent to the house and from the south facade a straight path leads to a tennis court. There are some good specimen trees in the surrounding wood.