Loy House, 82 Chapel Street, Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, BT80 8QD

Loy House is an attached two-storey late-Georgian town house, built around 1830, possibly to the designs of John Nash. It stands set back from Chapel Street in the northern suburbs of Cookstown, County Tyrone, within the townland of Gortalowry. The house is roughly square in plan, with a hipped two-storey return to the rear.

Loy House was originally built together with its neighbour to the north (No. 80 Chapel Street) as a single dwelling, as shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833–34. The two properties have since been divided, but when viewed together they create a balanced, symmetrical composition and have group value. This southern portion is now in separate ownership from the northern half.

The front west elevation faces Chapel Street. The main timber panelled doorway is square-headed with a fanlight over, set into an elliptical-headed recess, and is positioned to the right of the façade. To its left are two windows. Ground-floor windows are square-headed 6-over-6 timber sash frames set on cut-stone sills; the first floor repeats this arrangement, with classical proportions reducing slightly at the upper level. The adjoining bowed Regency bay — now belonging to the northern property — further enriches the overall composition and is thought to have originally housed the main entrance.

The rear east elevation has a timber and glazed double doorway at ground level with an overlight, four 1-over-1 timber sash windows at first-floor level with painted cut-stone sills, and a further timber door to the right with an overlight. The main roof is hipped and covered with artificial slate. There is a rendered chimney at the centre of the main roof, and a chimneystack with clay pots to the rear elevation. Rainwater goods have been replaced in uPVC.

The hipped two-storey return to the left of the rear elevation contains an assortment of 1-over-1 timber sash frames and casement windows, with a round-headed window to the right of the upper level, painted cut-stone sills throughout, and a square-headed door at ground level. A valuation revision entry of 1875 records an addition being built at this time, and the accompanying valuation map confirms this addition was the return to the south end of the building.

The house is set behind iron railings, with a small front garden and a gated path leading to the entrance door. The rear yard is paved and enclosed by a high wall. The house sits at the northern edge of Cookstown town centre, at the beginning of what is otherwise a mainly Victorian suburban streetscape.

The property's historical importance rests substantially on its connections with the Stewart family of Killymoon. According to the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society's 1971 list of historic buildings in Cookstown, it was built to serve as the dower house for Killymoon, and was designed by John Nash — who had previously designed Killymoon Castle in 1803 and the nearby Derryloran parish church in 1822 (subsequently rebuilt). No documentary evidence has been produced to support either claim, though it is considered plausible as a dower house given the building's scale and the absence of any known Stewart dower house. Nash authorship is considered less certain, though the distinctly Regency bowed bay is consistent with that attribution and suggests the structure may at least be broadly contemporary with Killymoon.

Pigot's Directory of 1824 lists the occupant as the Reverend Hugh Hamilton, indicating the property was not functioning as a dower house at that date. By the time of the first valuation in November 1834, a William Achmuty (possibly Auchtermuchty) was in residence. The valuers recorded the house as a relatively new building, constructed within the preceding thirty years or so. The dimensions recorded at that date were: main portion 76ft × 39ft × 19½ft; 'porch circular' 10ft × 8ft × 19½ft; a return 13ft × 6½ft × 16ft; offices of 110ft × 20ft × 16½ft, 18ft × 17ft × 5ft, 40ft × 17ft × 10½ft, 18ft × 17ft × 6ft, and 45ft × 18½ft × 8½ft; a gatehouse of 21ft × 18½ft × 8½ft; and cellar offices of 11ft × 39ft × 8ft. The house and field were recorded as under lease, with a rateable value of £46-8-6. A circa 1838 modification to the valuation revised this to £30.

William Fountain — possibly the person after whom the nearby Fountain Road is named — was living at Loy House when the first Slater's Directory was compiled in 1846. The building was divided into two properties sometime between 1846 and the second valuation of 1859, most likely in or shortly after 1851 when the Stewart family's Cookstown estate was sold. By 1859, this southern property was recorded as the home of Henry Gunning, with Andrew Mulholland — the mill-owner of Ballywalter Park, County Down, who had purchased part of the Stewart estate in the 1851 sale — as lessor, and a rateable value of £25. Henry Gunning was probably a relation of James Gunning, who along with James Moore also purchased a large section of the Cookstown estate. Henry Gunning remained in residence until 1867, when a William A. Gunning is listed as occupant. In 1878 William Gunning sublet the house to a Margaret Houston, who was sharing it with an Elizabeth Houston by 1899. Margaret Houston is recorded again as sole occupant in 1910; Mary C. Rowan and Isabella Harper are recorded from 1912 until 1916, after which Mary C. Rowan alone is listed. She remained until 1936, when a William McNeill is noted as resident. Joseph Darragh succeeded McNeill in 1961 and acquired the freehold in 1962. From the following year Thomas Darragh is recorded as tenant, remaining there until at least 1972.

A sketch plan of the house included in the valuers' office notebook from 1899 shows the building much as it appears today, with the large L-shaped two-storey return and outbuilding to the rear. However, the plan also shows a square single-storey porch projection covering the main entrance, which is no longer present.