'In the past this is where people would have gathered to meet with the minister': Former Northern Ireland rectory to be transformed into tourist accommodation

Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council has received plans for tourist accommodation at a former rectory in Armoy.

Council recently received the planning application, which seeks to convert and reuse existing stables, and add a floor, to provide two two-bed tourist accommodation units near Ballinlea Road in the village.

According to an accompanying Design and Access Statement, the units will be placed in barns built to the rear of a rectory building, is surrounded to the north, south and east by fields, and west by Ballinlea Road, and has a “mature parkland feel with a number of mature trees around the boundary as well as internally”.

“The main house is Drumtullagh house,” the statement added. “It was the rectory for the minister at Drumtullagh Church. In the past this is where people would have gathered to meet with the minister.

“The brief for the site was to provide [the] accommodation units within the existing barns, to secure a use for them, and keep the form of the buildings and refurbish them to maintain the rural character.

“The dwellings will benefit from solar gains naturally from its orientation but also will have high insulation standards, the planting around the site will also allow for local wildlife to continue to grow in this rural setting.

“Our proposal has been designed to look to the future, as we want to retain the quality of the rural setting, but bring it into the modern age with good levels of insulation and laid out to take advantage of the sites orientation and aspects.”