Avon Rath, 4 Rockbrook Road, Magherafelt, BT45 6JN

Avon Rath is a two-storey, three-bay T-shaped house in Tudor-Gothic cottage style, dating to approximately 1840. It stands in a rural setting at Ballyronan More, set back from the public road in farmland, approached by a hedge-bounded driveway that continues past the house to a rear yard.

The building exhibits highly unusual architectural details both externally and internally, making it a comparatively rare example of its type. The main entrance faces approximately south.

The south elevation is constructed of rubble blackstone with red brick dressings to the openings. The roof is covered with fibre cement slates and is surmounted by a central chimney stack comprising a wide lateral podium carrying five chimneys in concrete brickwork. The chimneys are of square plan, sitting diagonally except for the middle one, all with modern stub pots. Rainwater goods are of uPVC.

Windows are arranged asymmetrically and vary considerably in size and form. The left-hand bay is marked by a gable that breaks the eaves line but stops short of the main ridge, with plain timber barge boards. At ground floor in this bay is a rectangular doorway containing a pair of glazed French windows, each door four-paned with narrow margin lights and angled or Tudor arched heads, set in plain plastered reveals with brick block surrounds. Above, at first floor, is a pair of coupled Gothic arched two-pane lancets of plate glass with torus-moulded frames, set within a Tudor arched opening with plain plastered reveals and brick block surrounds.

The right-hand bay contains a narrow slit window with an angled head and torus-moulded frame at ground floor, set in plastered side reveals within an angle-headed opening with brick block surrounds. At first floor is a window of cruciform shape with angled ends, set in a plain plastered reveal within a circular brick surround which has brick block dressings to top, bottom, and each side.

The main entrance is centrally positioned and comprises a rectangular timber six-panelled door with a Tudor arch in each panel, set in brick block surrounds that have been partly obscured by later cement render repairs. The doorway is surmounted by a rectangular fanlight vertically divided into four panes, connected with a four-light window to the first floor room above. The upper part of this window has triangular-shaped tracery lights, with three parts of the fenestration divided by unusual double-torus moulded transoms.

Extending to the left of the two-storey main block is a one-and-two storey wing which curves forward at its left extremity. Walling is similar to the main block, with concrete coping to the parapet-walled single storey parts. The central part rises through two storeys to a gabled roof with timber barge boards. Three rectangular windows at ground level are timber small-paned fixed lights with top hung vents, set in brick block surrounds. In the first floor gablet is a small rectangular window. The end of this wing is rendered. The north rear elevation of the wing is of lean-to form, finished in roughcast and containing rectangular ledged timber doors including one at first floor level, and one small window.

The side walls of the first floor bay are of exposed rubble blackstone. The west elevation of the main building comprises the gable of the front block and the side of its rear return, with asbestos slated roofs and roughcast walls containing rectangular windows of modern fixed light and opening vent type. Behind a low screen wall in front of this elevation, a flight of exterior steps descends to a basement.

The ridge of the rear return carries two sets of multiple chimneys in concrete brickwork of similar design to those on the main entrance front. The north gable of the rear return is roughcast and contains a modern rectangular three-light window at first floor above a lower gabled, shallower pitched outshot porch of similar materials and modern window types. Its east wall is of dark coloured dry dashed finish. The east side of the rear return contains a modern rectangular window and a pair of modern French doors, while above the doorway is an original coupled semi-circular headed window in a Tudor arched opening.

The north rear elevation of the front block has a projecting two-storey flat-roofed stair tower, finished with dark coloured dry dash except for the upper part of the east side which is of exposed blackstone rubble. The north side of the tower has a Tudor arched window opening at ground floor, containing a three-light fixed window with an arched toplight. At first floor is a pair of rectangular timber three-pane windows with triangular toplights. The east side at first floor contains an angled-headed three-pane window set in brick block surrounds, surmounted by a segmental brick relieving arch.

The east gable of the front block is of similar walling to the entrance front, with a brick stringcourse at eaves level and plain timber barge boards. At ground floor is a large rectangular four-light window, each light of four panes with Tudor arched toplights, set in plain rendered reveals with brick block surrounds, a flat-arched head, and deep projecting cill near ground level. Above at first floor is a three-light of triple Gothic lancets set in a Tudor arched opening, though the lower half of the lancets has been replaced by a modern two-light window. In the apex of the gable is a highly unusual small cruciform window, square-ended, with the upper arm longer than the rest.

In front of the house and to the east side are lawns, with a large gravelled turning circle immediately in front. The rear yard contains outbuildings and farm sheds of no special interest.

The precise date of the building is not recorded, but a previous house appears on the Ordnance Survey map of 1833 while the present house appears on the map of 1853, suggesting construction around 1840.