Marks of Time
Historic Buildings as  illustrations of the past.
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Derry to Strabane
    • Derry to Limavady
    • Kilkenny to Derry
    • Dublin Visit
    • Inishowen Tour
    • Co Down Visit
    • Carrickfergus Tour
    • Stirling
    • Belfast to Derry
  • About
    • Links
    • Further Reading
  • Contact
  • Map Viewer
  • Counties

580.

21/3/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
The facade of the Alexander Memorial Hall, half way down the street, dates from the mid nineteenth century, but its classical style perfectly complements the  neighbouring Georgian buildings. The rest of the building has been replaced by a modern arts centre, but the regular spacing of trees ensures that it is hard to see both as a single building. Instead, the facade remains an important remnant that brings its own presence to the street.
0 Comments

579.

20/3/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

Limivady Main Street has a number of tall brick houses in the Georgian Style. These are thought to date from the late eighteenth century.  A number of those to the western side of the street, such as the Alexander Arms, have double pile roofs, that is, is a central gutter joining two pitched roofs. These were probably built earlier in the century.  The two shown here have a single pile roof enclosing a longer span and are probably from later in the century. Brick making was once a major local industry with ‘brick fields’ noted in many locations on the 1830 map. The effect of these buildings was to create an elegant space which was remarked upon by travellers. This effect was complemeted by trees planted at regular intervals
0 Comments

March 14th, 2018

14/3/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

At the other end of Limavady Main Street, also within a garden well back from the building line, is Christ Church. This modest looking building is quite decorative inside and well worth a visit.  A church is recorded here from the late seventeenth century and the present building was constructed in 1750. The tower was added in 1765. It is a haven of calm away from the main street. In recent years a new bypass has revealed a dramatic view of the building from the opposite side. From there it is revealed as located on a high platform comanding the plain beyond.
0 Comments

March 12th, 2018

12/3/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Tucked away at the southern end of Main Street in Limavady is this important building. Indicated on a 1699 map as ‘New Hall’ it was occupied at that time by George Philips grandson of the original lessor of the Limavady Estate at the time of the Ulster Plantation. The building today is Georgian in style suggesting construction in the eighteenth century. Records show that in 1742 New Hall was leased to Thomas Smith of Limavady after he had spent “£300 on building the house and improving the office houses”. It sounds like a substantial rebuild.  Until 1900, however, the entrance gates of the building terminated the view down Main Street helping to emphasise its former importance. In that year part of the garden was sold off to allow construction of the Masonic Hall.
0 Comments

February 21st, 2018

21/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
This is a copy of the first map of Limavady from 1622. It was a new Ulster Plantation settlement replacing the former town a mile away around the old O’Cahan Castle.  Originally known as Newtown Limavady, the settlement had a cruciform layout with a market cross at the centre and was enclosed on two sides, as today, by the River Roe.  The building nearest the river appears to have a projecting sign which has been taken by most comentators to be the representation of an Inn..
0 Comments

February 19th, 2018

19/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
North Watch Tower Roe Valley Country Park. This is one of two towers built to guard the nearby bleach green which was opened in 1766 by Lesley Alexander and closed in 1831. Such greens were an important part of Linen making, with sheets laid out to bleach in the sunlight.  As a valuable commodity they had to be protected from thieves and hence the watch towers. Such buildings, once common are now very rare. The two in the country park are among the best examples surviving. This one, along a public path was, however, rebuilt as a faithful replica from its foundations in the mid 1970′s.
0 Comments

572.

16/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

Slighly downstream from the powerhouse is this ruined mill built into precipitous side rocks of the River Roe. Rubble stone in its lower storey and brick to first floor it appears fairly typical of the ruined mills in the modern country park. However, there have been suggestions that this structure may be on the location of, or may partly date from, the Anglo Norman occupation of the area in the Twelfth Century. Two mills of the ‘Roo' were recorded in an inquisition of 1333 at the time of the death of Richard de Burgo The Red Earl of Ulster. The building is marked on the first Ordnance Survey Map of the area of 1831. By 1848 it is labelled ‘Old beetling mill’ and indicated as roofless by 1907. It is likely that it was used for a number of functions during its history, as a corn mill, and as a beetling mill associated with the Linen Industry. Today it is located in a quiet corner of the park and is a great dramatic ruin

0 Comments

February 12th, 2018

12/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Dog Leap Power House, Roe Valley Country Park.  Further up the river is this modest building with a curved corner. It was constructed in the 1890′s by the owner of Roe Park House:J T Ritter. Installing water turbines, he generated  the first electricty in this area and powered both his house and, from 1904, the nearby town of Limavady.  His company was aquired by the Electricity Board for Northern Ireland in 1946 and finally closed in 1967. Now a listed building it was  sentively restored by the Northern Ireland Environment Agency in 2014 to generate electricty once again - green energy!
0 Comments

February 08th, 2018

8/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture

O’Cahan’s castle today is a circular grassy clearing within the surrounding forest of the Roe Valley Country Park. The strongly defensive nature of the site can still be understood by the height of the platform above the river and the steeply sloping ground down to it. A three storey tower house above this must have looked very impressive. Limited archaeological investigations were carried out in 2009 after Geophysical anomalies had suggested the survival of portions of the associated bawn and fishpond. Modern fill was found covering much of the area investigated, but the corner of the castle was identified with bedrock shored up to take this, and fragments of glass and pottery. You can read more at: www.excavations.ie/report/2009/Derry/0020515/

0 Comments

460.

7/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Further along the Roe was O’Cahan’s Castle. This drawing is a sketch of the castle and its grounds as indicated on a map of 1622.  The O’Cahan’s held  this area from the Twelfth Century until the Seventeenth with a break in the Thirteenth  when the Anglo-Normans were in  control. The castle, like most tower houses, was probably built in the Fifteenth Century. In 1610, as part of the Plantation of Ulster, it and 13,100 acres were granted to Sir Thomas Phillips a ‘soldier of fortune’ in exchange for reliquishing his control of Coleraine. Like contemporaies at Dungiven, Enniskillen and Donegal, he set about renovating and expanding the castle and he comissioned the map of 1622. There are reports of fine plasterwork inside but the drawing shows a heavily defended tower. It also shows formal gardens and what has been interpreted as a fish pond and brewery building.  A slated house with a  large window overlooks the fish pond.  There are also buildings for agricultural workers.The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of the 1830′s record that the old castle was demolished in the 1820′s.
0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Marks of Time

    Sketches of buildings in the North West of Ireland and further afield with a little information about their history.

    Search the Categories below for specific places .

    Go to the archives to follow the exploration from 2015

    Go to the  drop down to follow some of the routes explored.

    Categories

    All
    Co Antrim
    Co Armagh
    Co Carlow
    Co Cavan
    Co Clare
    Co Cork
    Co Derry / Co Londonderry
    Co Donegal
    Co Down
    Co Dublin
    Co Fermanagh
    Co Galway
    Co Kilkenny
    Co Limerick
    Co Longford
    Co Louth
    Co Mayo
    Co Meath
    Co Monaghan
    Co Offaly
    Co Roscommon
    Co Tipperary
    Co Tyrone
    Co Waterford
    Co Westmeath
    Co Wexford
    Co Wicklow
    Derry~Londonderry
    England - Bristol
    England - Carlisle
    England - Cheshire
    England - Chester
    England - Cornwall
    England - Devon
    England - Liverpool
    England - London
    England - Nottingham
    England - Somerset
    England - Swindon
    England - Wiltshire
    England - Wirral
    France - Brittany
    France - Dordogne
    France - Picardy
    Germany - Saxony
    I Belgium - Louven
    I Belgium - Ypres
    I Czechia
    I Netherlands - Amsterdam
    I Scotland - Argyllshire
    I Scotland - Drumfries
    I Scotland - Dunblane
    I Scotland - Glasgow
    I Scotland - Perthshire
    I Scotland - Stirling
    I Scotland - Stranraer
    I Scotland - Trossachs
    I Ukraine
    I US Bethlehem
    I US - New York
    I Us San Francisco
    I Us - San Francisco
    I US - Seattle
    I US Washington DC
    I Wales - Caernarvonshire
    I Wales Denbighshire
    I Wales Flintshire
    Local - Agivey
    Local - Ardstraw
    Local - Armagh City
    Local - Ballycastle
    Local - Ballykelly
    Local - Baronscourt
    Local - Belfast
    Local - Buncrana
    Local - Burt
    Local - Carndonagh
    Local - Carrickfergus
    Local - Castlebar
    Local Castlerock
    Local - Clady
    Local - Clonmacnoise
    Local Clonmany
    Local - Clonmany
    Local Coleraine
    Local - Coleraine
    Local - Culdaff
    Local - Donegal Town
    Local - Donemana
    Local - Drumsurn
    Local - Dublin
    Local Dungiven
    Local - Dungiven
    Local - Eglinton
    Local - Galway City
    Local Garvagh
    Local - Garvagh
    Local - Glenelly Valley
    Local - Gortin
    Local - Greysteel
    Local - Kilkenny
    Local - Kilmore
    Local - Kilrea
    Local - Leckpatrick
    Local - Lifford
    Local - Limavady
    Local - Maghera
    Local - Magilligan
    Local - Moville
    Local - Newtonstewart
    Local Portballintrae
    Local - Portballintrae
    Local Portrush
    Local - Portrush
    Local Portsewart
    Local - Portsewart
    Local - Sion Mills
    Local - Strabane
    Local - Tramore
    Local - Waterford City
    Local - Westport
    World Heritage Sites

    Archives

    April 2026
    March 2026
    February 2026
    January 2026
    December 2025
    November 2025
    March 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.