Belmont House Special School, Racecourse Road, Londonderry, BT48 7RE

Belmont House is an early Victorian country house built between 1840 and 1859 in Neo-Renaissance style, located on Racecourse Road in Londonderry. It now serves as a special school.

The original building is a two-storey structure with smooth rendered, colour-washed walls and slated roofs. The entrance or west elevation is three bays wide and features a narrow break front rising through both floors. A single-storey gabled and slated porch with a more domestic character was added in recent years; the building is entered through a door on the north flank wall of this porch. Either side of the break front are single sliding sash windows with two panes, each with moulded, lugged and plastered surrounds and small keystones. A continuous plain string course forms the cill, continuing along the west and south facades, with a moulded plinth below. At first floor level, centrally over the porch, is a sliding sash window with twelve panes and moulded surround, with matching windows on either side. A plain frieze with bold cornice sits at the level of the top of these first floor moulded surrounds. Short and long quoins are neatly modelled at each corner.

The south facade displays two forceful segmented bays of two storeys' height, each containing four windows per floor. These are the building's boldest elevational features. Similarly decorated sliding sash windows occur at each floor as on the west side. The string courses, frieze and cornice continue unbroken across this facade and cross the bays. Quoins are repeated at the south-east corner. The east gable facade is similarly treated with quoins at the north-east corner, but the string courses are not returned. It has four windows at ground floor and three at first floor level, without mouldings, spaced at regular intervals but grouped asymmetrically towards the south-east corner.

The roofs are double-pile, parallel to the south facade and hipped at the ends with natural slates. Over the segmental bays the slating follows the curves neatly but is truncated with the flat finished in lead. The ridge is plain and unadorned. Two low moulded chimney stacks appear on the south side and two on the west, each with three tall yellow clay moulded pots. The main building has a return to the north with hipped double-pile roofs.

Substantial extensions and alterations were added in the second half of the twentieth century, particularly to the north and rear to provide ancillary accommodation. These additions, especially the use of modern standard casement windows, are not in keeping with the original style and have greatly diminished the building's architectural effect. For this reason, it can no longer be regarded as a suitable candidate for listing.

The original setting comprised fine gardens and woodland with avenue approaches from the Culmore and Racecourse roads. The former approach has been closed off and much of the side encroached upon by other buildings. A margin of lawn remains in front of the south facade, but beyond it lies extensive bitumen car parking. Some original woodland survives, softening the effect of new development. To the north-east of the building are the remains of a walled garden with two walls still standing, built in a mixture of sandstone and brick. This garden is recorded in the Heritage Gardens Inventory (L/062).

The building exhibits character retained in the west and south facades and in the entrance hall and main staircase area.

Historically, the land at Belmont was leased to the Lecky family in the seventeenth century. In 1696 the family built a house here. By 1833 the building was described as a plain lodge. The Ordnance Survey map of 1830 shows Belmont House with a different plan from the later nineteenth century. The valuation of 1831 records it with a value of £1114, occupied by James Mackey. The 1858 valuation shows £58, with James T Mackey as lessee and the Hon. Irish Society and the Marquess of Londonderry as lessors. The house was occupied by the Mackey family from 1837 until the outbreak of the Second World War. During the war it was occupied by American Forces. After the war it was divided into flats and in the late 1950s was secured by the Education Authority. Belmont Special School opened on 9th May 1961. In the early 1970s the Western Education and Library Board assumed responsibility for the area, during which period numerous additions and adaptations were undertaken.

Within the walled garden stands St Columb's Stone, also known as the Inauguration Stone. Local tradition holds that this is one of the "Crowning Stones" of the Irish Kings of Ulster and that Saint Columba blessed the stone. In 1900 one of the Mackey family, Captain Ross Macky, dug around the stone searching for treasure, though none was found, but the excavation revealed that the stone is pear-shaped. The Ordnance Survey Memoir of the Parish of Templemore provides detailed description. Near the stone, a stone effigy of an armoured knight was discovered buried in the ground during the nineteenth century. The effigy is clad in a cloak, armed with brooch and sword, with hands joined and head missing; it appears similar to the figure on the Cooey-na-Gall monument in the former Augustinian Monastery in Dungiven. The effigy is currently on display in the Tower Museum, Union Place, Londonderry.