Hezlett House

Hezlett House is a single-storey thatched cottage at a crossroads outside Castlerock in County Londonderry, dating from around 1691 and counted by the National Trust among the oldest buildings in Northern Ireland. It was probably built as a parsonage for the rector of Dunboe, and its cruck frame, a form of construction seldom seen in Northern Ireland at that date, is left bare in several places so the trusses can be studied up close. In 1761 the house was acquired by Isaac Hezlett, a Presbyterian farmer, and his family were still living here when the Trust took it on in 1976. Inside are mid-Victorian furnishings, a display explaining the cruck construction, and broken relics of the sculpture collection the Earl Bishop once kept at nearby Downhill, damaged in a 19th-century fire. Reviewers praise the guided tour of the rooms, including the attic quarters upstairs, and the well-kept cottage garden. The house is looked after alongside Mussenden Temple and Downhill Demesne, and the Trust currently lists it as closed following conservation investigation work, so check its status before making a journey.