Hezlett House - Summer Visits

Hezlett House is one of the oldest surviving domestic buildings in Ulster - a single-storey thatched cottage that has stood at Macosquin near Coleraine since around 1691. It was built as a parsonage for the rector of Dunboe and served Church of Ireland clergy for the best part of seventy years before a Presbyterian farming family, the Hezletts, took it on in 1761. They stayed until the National Trust acquired the property in 1976. The result is a building that carries more than three centuries of ordinary life in its walls, and the National Trust opens it through the summer months so you can walk through that history at your own pace. It suits families, history enthusiasts, and anyone with an interest in how people actually lived and built in rural Ireland in the seventeenth century.

What to expect

The cottage is small and low, as a house of its era would be, but it rewards close attention. Inside, a museum display focuses on the cruck construction method used to raise the building - a technique where curved timbers form the structural frame of the roof directly from floor level, bypassing the need for load-bearing walls. It was unusual in Northern Ireland even at the time, and the National Trust has left several sections of the interior open so you can see the cruck trusses at work. The building’s six-bay jointed cruck frame is considered a fine and rare example of the form.

The other half of the interior is dressed in mid-Victorian furnishings, a mix of pieces original to the house and others brought in to fill out the picture of domestic life in the 1800s. The effect is modest and believable rather than grand - a parlour and living spaces that would have been familiar to a rural family rather than a wealthy one. Visits are self-guided during the summer season, which runs from July through August.

Getting there

Hezlett House is signposted off the A2 coastal road between Coleraine and Castlerock, sitting close to the village of Castlerock about five miles west of Coleraine town centre. By road from Belfast, take the M2 and A26 north to Coleraine and then follow the A2 west along the coast - allow around ninety minutes. From Derry city, it is a straightforward thirty-minute drive east on the A2.

By rail, Coleraine is on the Belfast to Derry line, and Castlerock has its own station on the same route - a short walk or taxi ride from the house. The car park at the property is free.

While you’re in Coleraine

The stretch of coast nearby takes in the clifftop Mussenden Temple and the ruins of Downhill Demesne - both National Trust properties - as well as the wide strand at Castlerock beach, a ten-minute walk from the house. Coleraine town itself has a good range of cafes and a Saturday market. There is more to see in Coleraine and across Co. Derry.

Good to know

• Open from 1 July to 31 August 2026; first entry from 10:00am
• Admission is free
• National Trust membership accepted
• Check current opening days and hours at nationaltrust.org.uk before visiting
• Located at Macosquin, near Coleraine, Co. Londonderry - use Castlerock as your navigation landmark