Ultimo House, 70 Urbal Road, Coagh, Cookstown, BT80 0DP

Ultimo House is a detached two-storey Victorian house with attic, built around 1873 for James Duff, a member of a local mill-owning family. The house is constructed in an Italianate style and sits well back from Urbal Road, facing west towards it. The building is rectangular in plan with dashed rendered walls, a pitched slate roof with deep moulded timber eaves supported on paired ornate console brackets, and two brick chimneytstacks with four clay pots each.

The front west elevation is the most architecturally refined. It features an unpainted rendered finish with painted quoins and plinth. The centrepiece is a relatively wide segmental-headed door opening with a square-headed door, sidelights, and decorative timber moulded pilasters flanked by ornate timber consoles supporting a heavy moulded timber cornice. The fanlight is timber rather than glazed. The door is timber panelled with unusual brass ironmongery featuring a decorative Egyptian motif, and a moulded hood projects over the opening. Flanking the doorway are canted bay windows with cut-stone surrounds, parapet roof detail, and two-over-two timber sash windows of horizontal proportion. The upper floor has three segmental-headed two-over-two sash windows with cut-stone sills and ornate painted hoods; the central window also has sidelights. The eaves feature moulded timber with paired moulded timber console brackets. Much of the front elevation is currently obscured by dense creeping plant growth.

The south and north gable elevations are rendered with two windows to each floor, similar in style to those at the front. Each gable has two small one-over-two timber sash windows to the attic level and a brick chimney at the apex. A two-storey return projects from the left of the rear elevation, rendered with a single square-headed casement window to the upper floor. The west rear elevation is dashed render with a rendered plinth and contains a variety of window openings, both sash and replacement, including a semi-circular headed stained glass window. The two-storey return's gable is blank dashed render. The north elevation of the return is dashed render with replacement door and window openings. A small lean-to projection extends from the rear. External walls are a mixture of dashed and smooth render. Rainwater goods are cast-iron and uPVC.

Internally, much of the original character survives, though the rear of the building has been partially altered and modernised. A solar water heating device was added to the rear return by July 2008.

The associated outbuildings comprise a two-storey workshop to the north side of the yard with coursed rubble walls and brick gables, a pitched natural slate roof, and an east-west axis. Its south elevation features an external flight of cut-stone steps leading to a square-headed door to the upper level, a segmental-headed garage door with timber tongue and groove, and a square-headed door opening, all with red brick surrounds. Windows are square-headed uPVC on the east and south, and square-headed timber casement with brick surrounds on the north. A modern single-storey garage of concrete block construction with pitched profiled metal roof stands to the south, with a carport between it and the main building. The remainder of the yard is enclosed by a mixture of stone and concrete block walls. A cast-iron gate is set into the wall to the north of the yard.

The setting is well preserved and contributes significantly to the building's importance. The house sits within an extensive lawn which formerly contained a tennis court, bounded by mature trees. A high chain-link fence now encloses the lawn. The entrance from Urbal Road features cast-iron cylindrical gateposts with ball finials and some moulding, supporting a six-bar iron gate. A wooden fence forms the boundary to the road, with a pedestrian gate and holding pen to one side. The front and side gardens contain lawns, mature trees, a variety of ornaments, and two gazebos.

The architect's identity is not known. The property remains in the possession of a descendant of the original owner, James Duff. Another dwelling called Ultimo House exists in Ballymoyle townland to the north in County Londonderry, though any connection between the two is unknown. The building is listed for its architectural interest in style, proportion, ornamentation, and plan form; the quality and survival of its interior; alterations that enhance the building; and its setting, as well as for local historical interest relating to the Duff family's mill-owning heritage.