Elagh Hall, 9 Elagh Road, Londonderry, BT48 8LU

Elagh Hall is an early Victorian house built in the mid-1840s, situated on a hillside commanding fine views from the south. The building is rendered in roughcast and colour washed in yellow ochre, displaying a provincial Georgian style.

The house is 1½ storeys with a symmetrical principal facade of 5 bays. A chamfered projecting 2-storey porch forms the centre, with a moulded and lugged plaster surround to the entrance door, featuring a small keystone. Above the door is a round-headed window with similar plaster surround and radiating astragals, though modern inserts have been added below.

On either side of the porch are pairs of 12-pane sliding sash windows with matching moulded and lugged surrounds and small keystones. Above these, centred single 2-pane sliding sash windows form dormers, similarly treated with surrounds. The window cills are notably low to ground, and concrete extensions to the cills have been added to provide stops for the surrounds. The external angles of the porch are chamfered, with a smooth band of rendering beneath the eaves forming a frieze. Narrow clasping quoins of matching smooth rendering appear at the corners and at the dormers. Similar round-headed windows with plaster surrounds and keystones appear on the return walls at first floor level.

The gables are half-hipped with slight projections between tall, wide chimney stacks on each side. The west gable has a pair of 2-pane sliding sash windows at first floor without surrounds, while the east gable pair have surrounds positioned symmetrically below the half-hip. A modern flat-roofed conservatory is attached to the west gable, with a ground floor 2-pane sliding sash window beside it.

The back return on the west side has been marred by modern renovations, including a large ground floor window and a gabled dormer with a 12-pane sliding sash window set almost at the corner. The roofs are finished in natural slates with plain ridge tiles, and the porch has a faceted roof picking up the wall chamfer. There is no eaves overhang. Half-round metal gutters are supported on metal brackets with circular cast iron downpipes.

Internally, the house retains good plaster mouldings, fine door and window detailing, and a reasonable staircase.

The external rendering dates from much later than the original construction. The overall layout has changed little since the house was built.

The house does not appear on the 1830 Ordnance Survey map, though an avenue to the site is shown. The avenue originally led to another house beyond the present building, now demolished, which was the residence of Reverend George Gray, Presbyterian minister of Burt Church in County Donegal. On the 1850 Ordnance Survey map, Elagh Hall is depicted. The 1858 Griffith Valuation records Reverend Gray as the occupant, with William McCorkell as lessor and a valuation of £18.00. McCorkell was founder of the shipping firm William McCorkell & Co, established with his brother Archibald, a ship captain who died in New York in 1829.

The property is set on a hillside accessed by a long, steeply winding avenue from Elagh Road. There are no gates or piers at the entrance. Outbuildings and a yard lie to the rear, with gardens on two sides. The current family have occupied the house since 1946, when purchased from J.R. Montgomerie, who had acquired it from Mrs Gamble.